Best single slot, self-powered GPU for micro board.

Pete.Dakota · 2 Jan 2010 at 19:34

Hey, my brother's old PC died the other day so we bought him a £350 micro tower:

C2D Q8300 @ 2.5Ghz
3GB DDR2 @ 800Mhz

However, although its interegrated graphics is quite impressive (nForce 630i), it can barely run The Sims 3 - the only game he plays. It's a small case, which might present a problem, and I don't think there's any spare power connectors. I've heard you can get graphics cards that don't require power from the PSU and are powered through the PCI slot. I'm basically looking for the fastest one.

Thanks for any help,
Pete.

Nevram · 2 Jan 2010 at 20:05

You mean the PCI-E slot. Make sure you have a PCI-E(16x) slot avaliable on your motherboard. The best card i can think of thats dosen't need its on power connecter from the PSU and is relitivley small is the 9500gt, someone correct me if im wrong, but after that they all start getting bigger.

Nevram · 2 Jan 2010 at 20:07

Oh, and in terms of ati cards, anything above a HD4650 should be able to run the sims nicely.

Pete.Dakota · 2 Jan 2010 at 21:29

My board has 1 PCI-e 16x slot. Only the chassis that supports the side-mounted PSU may intrude with a larger card.

Raikiri · 2 Jan 2010 at 21:54

Pete.Dakota said:
My board has 1 PCI-e 16x slot. Only the chassis that supports the side-mounted PSU may intrude with a larger card.

If you need a low profile card you can get an Asus or Saphire 4650 for £45 (ish). They're decent enough little cards and should handle Sims 3 ok.

Phatzy · 3 Jan 2010 at 03:55

msi have annouced a low powered nvidia gts 250 it only needs 1 power connector, or you can have a low powered 9800 gt that dont need extra power from the 6-pin connector

Nevram · 3 Jan 2010 at 16:23

Phatzy said:
msi have annouced a low powered nvidia gts 250 it only needs 1 power connector, or you can have a low powered 9800 gt that dont need extra power from the 6-pin connector

both of them cards are huge and certianly wouldn't be suitable for a small form factor.

fizzy · 3 Jan 2010 at 16:49

You're probably looking at something like this :-

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-184-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1274

Anything above that seems to be dual slot coolers or additionally powered cards. There may be the odd exception with special models etc, but its hard to tell from some of the pics on ocuk.

Tute · 3 Jan 2010 at 17:02

When you say "micro" case, do you mean that it can only take half height cards, can only take single slot cards, both, or neither?

fizzy · 3 Jan 2010 at 17:09

Was it a branded system? If so, you could let us know the make and model and then we would have an idea of the case size etc...

kingy666 · 3 Jan 2010 at 17:13

Wish you would have asked us where to get a decent £350 pc that can run games. we could have done better than what you bought. Is there a make/model number for the pc that you got your bro, maybe if we can see it we can be a bit more helpful.

^Fizzy got there before me

wakayoda · 3 Jan 2010 at 17:16

i can play at 1080p with a £220 machine

jigger · 3 Jan 2010 at 17:27

ATI 4670

wakayoda · 3 Jan 2010 at 17:31

why limit yourself to this anyway?

fizzy · 3 Jan 2010 at 17:38

jigger said:
ATI 4670

I agree- (see post no 8

) however there is some confusion as the the available space in the case at the moment.

If its one of those ultra compact pizza like cases, then may be looking at a low profile card, or some sort of 90 degree adapter to allow a bigger card to fit.

This why I (and no doubt the majority of people on this forum) like to build our own so we don't have case issues etc.

bJN · 3 Jan 2010 at 17:38

wakayoda said:
i can play at 1080p with a £220 machine

You can do it a lot cheaper than that - second hand 360 ***

Pete.Dakota · 3 Jan 2010 at 18:45

No competitor links!

The case allows for only a single slot card, as dual slot cards go "down" from the slot and would block the front USB, power button/light, audio and 4-in-1 card reader cables, which line the bottom of the motherboard.

That 4670, if it is definitely self-powered, would appear to be the perfect fit.

The only other spare cable coming out of this rig's 250w PSU is the 4-pin CPU plug. Can that be converted into a PCI cable?

fizzy · 3 Jan 2010 at 19:27

It could be converted - but there is no need if the card does not require additional power. However, a 250W psu is very small and may not be enough to power such a card even if powered by the pcie slot. Depends on how much power it provides on the 12V rail.

Looks like the machine has been built to just about handle its basic spec, and not much else to be honest - one of the pitfalls of prebuilt systems.

Pete.Dakota · 3 Jan 2010 at 19:31

Reading up on the 4670, my concern would be my PSU: it has 14 amps on the 12v rail. According to one review, the card will require 60w at full load; about 5 amps, by my reckoning. What do you guys think?

And what about the GT 220?

fizzy · 3 Jan 2010 at 19:39

Pete.Dakota said:
Reading up on the 4670, my concern would be my PSU: it has 14 amps on the 12v rail. According to one review, the card will require 60w at full load; about 5 amps, by my reckoning. What do you guys think?

And what about the GT 220?

Well, its going to be close if it works at all. It also depends to a great extent on the quality of the PSU. Is it an FSP or Liteon by any chance? Probably a compact/non standard design too..

Sounds like its basically at small form factor spec, similar to the shuttles etc, which always have been rather trickier to expand.

EDIT: Also just a thought - would installing a gfx card invalidate the warranty on it?