Computer Hardware

[Seydaman]

So I'm in the process of upgrading my computer.

I'm going for a better videocard and a new power supply.
This is the videocard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130693

But my power supply is too low to run it, so I need to upgrades it. But I'm not entirely sure of what I should be looking at in a power supply. Obviously Watts, but what about size, and fan direction?

I'm use the case that came with the Studio XPS 8100, http://www.dell.com/us/p/studio-xps-8100/pd

Could anyone make some suggestions for what I should be getting? Or how to determine what would work with my PC?

Bonus question: If I have more watts than necessary for my videocard, does it have any affect?
Ex: I have a 850 watt power supply, and a card only required 700, any affect?

 

[Seydaman]

Anyone?

 

[number2301]

I'll answer what I can, but you might want to give it a little more than 4 hours

Regarding your bonus question, you NEED more wattage from your power supply than your graphics card needs, else there'll be no power for anything else.

Check a PSU calculator out (http://support.asus.com/powersupply.aspx) to figure out what you need. The only other thing I know about PSUs is that modular is better as it allows for a neater install.

Also, $750 for a graphics card? Wow.

 

[Aitur]

As number2301 said, you need more watts than the graphics card uses, so for the latest machines it's probably best to have 300-400 spare for the system and, according to number2301's handy link, the card would pull 500 however Newegg says 700, so you'd really be looking at a 1000 watt PSU minimum (the more wattage the better, until the electricity bill arrives of course).

As for fans, I didn't even know they came with a choice of direction! But blowing the hot air out and away from the heat sensitive components is normally a good choice
Also, looking at the pictures it looks like the case has standard mounting holes for the PSU so any standard aftermarket one will do, but pay for quality rather than cheap and cheerful as the PSU is the only thing keeping your computer from becoming a toxic bonfire.

A note of concern though, and please forgive me if you've already considered this, but you have checked that the rest of your system would be able to keep up with that card haven't you? Just sticking in the fastest card available won't instantly make everything work brilliantly, you just end up with a bottleneck at the slowest component and been able to get a cheaper card for the same result.
An easy example - Imagine your CPU, GPU, memory and MoBo are runners, you give each a piece of a jigsaw and they have to run to the finish and put it together before they can do the next task, it's pointless if the GPU runs there twice as fast as the others as it's then got to stand around waiting for the rest to catch up.
And looking at the dell specs (link [http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/studio8100/en/cs/cs_en.pdf]) it shows the MoBo with a PCIe1 slot while that cards a PCIe2, so the connection would be half the speed that card would be capable of.
However you only mentioned the case is the Dell XPS 8100 so you might be using a different MoBo and that concern could be moot.

And finally, I once again agree with number2301, $750, eek!

 

[Vonnis]

I think your question has been properly answered by others, so I'll turn things around and ask you something: Why a GTX590? If you have no problems paying for that, chances are you can afford 2 GTX580's which in SLI will beat the snot out of a 590. The reason being a 590 is 2 580 chips on one board, but they are severely underclocked (core speed 607 mhz compared to the normal 580's 772mhz). Furthermore if you want some extra (free) performance, the GTX580's will overclock nicely whilst the 590 can barely be overclocked at all without the card shitting itself.