Help me buy a graphics card

tthor

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I have been considering getting a new graphics card for ages, but now that I'm getting more and more into PC gaming, I feel i should finally upgrade.

Operating System
- MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
- AMD Athlon II X4 620
- Propus 45nm Technology
RAM
- 8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz (6-6-6-18)
Motherboard
- PEGATRON CORPORATION VIOLET (CPU 1)
Hard Drives
- 977GB Western Digital WDC WD10 EADS-65L5B1 SCSI Disk Device (ATA)
Graphics
- 256MB GeForce 9100 (HP)
- supports PCI Express x16 graphics cards
Power Supply
- 300W power supply


my preferred price range is no more than $200,
 

tthor

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Comeon, somebody help me. ..or atleast point me in the direction of someplace that can help me >_>
 

Hashime

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You ram is your current bottle-neck, 400mhz ram is much too slow for gaming, consider putting in better ram first.
EDIT: Whoops, weird posting issue.
 

Hashime

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You ram is your largest bottle-neck. The graphics card is crap, but the even with a good one that ram is much too slow. You should get rid of the 400mhz ram and put in at least 800, depending on what your board supports. Other than that I need to know what power connectors you have available on you PSU to tell you what card you can use. I also need to know if you have room for a 2 slot card.
 

tthor

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Hashime said:
You ram is your largest bottle-neck. The graphics card is crap, but the even with a good one that ram is much too slow. You should get rid of the 400mhz ram and put in at least 800, depending on what your board supports. Other than that I need to know what power connectors you have available on you PSU to tell you what card you can use. I also need to know if you have room for a 2 slot card.
How much would it cost to upgrade my RAM?
and how do i find out what PSU it has?

(if it helps, here is HP website page for my PC specs= http://whp-java.extweb.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=cn&docname=c01905330#N1144 )
 

Hashime

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tthor said:
Hashime said:
You ram is your largest bottle-neck. The graphics card is crap, but the even with a good one that ram is much too slow. You should get rid of the 400mhz ram and put in at least 800, depending on what your board supports. Other than that I need to know what power connectors you have available on you PSU to tell you what card you can use. I also need to know if you have room for a 2 slot card.
How much would it cost to upgrade my RAM?
and how do i find out what PSU it has?

(if it helps, here is HP website page for my PC specs= http://whp-java.extweb.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=cn&docname=c01905330#N1144 )
You will never be able to use that computer for any hardcore computer gaming. You can however upgrade to a point where you could game to some degree. I would consider how much the price of the components I suggest would go towards building a new unit.

RAM: You board supports a max speed of 800MHz. With 800MHz DDR2 it does not matter where you get it from, just get it cheap. I would ask your local shop, it is not as common anymore resulting in high prices (you can get 1600mhz ddr3 cheaper) Here is a link on a great deal: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4631346&CatId=3412
For 8gb assume about $120

Graphics: AMD 5450. It is the lowest end gaming card, but you have a 300 watt power supply, that is simply not enough power to run a more powerful card.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6078288&CatId=28
They Retail at $60.

All in all I would still suggest considering spending the money as part of a new computer, but if you want to upgrade this is the way I would go.
 

tthor

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Apr 9, 2008
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Hashime said:
tthor said:
Hashime said:
You ram is your largest bottle-neck. The graphics card is crap, but the even with a good one that ram is much too slow. You should get rid of the 400mhz ram and put in at least 800, depending on what your board supports. Other than that I need to know what power connectors you have available on you PSU to tell you what card you can use. I also need to know if you have room for a 2 slot card.
How much would it cost to upgrade my RAM?
and how do i find out what PSU it has?

(if it helps, here is HP website page for my PC specs= http://whp-java.extweb.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=cn&docname=c01905330#N1144 )
You will never be able to use that computer for any hardcore computer gaming. You can however upgrade to a point where you could game to some degree. I would consider how much the price of the components I suggest would go towards building a new unit.

RAM: You board supports a max speed of 800MHz. With 800MHz DDR2 it does not matter where you get it from, just get it cheap. I would ask your local shop, it is not as common anymore resulting in high prices (you can get 1600mhz ddr3 cheaper) Here is a link on a great deal: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4631346&CatId=3412
For 8gb assume about $120

Graphics: AMD 5450. It is the lowest end gaming card, but you have a 300 watt power supply, that is simply not enough power to run a more powerful card.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6078288&CatId=28
They Retail at $60.

All in all I would still suggest considering spending the money as part of a new computer, but if you want to upgrade this is the way I would go.
Ok, thank you.

I have wanted to build my own computer, and I've heard you can make a pretty high-end computer for about $1000. Tho, I really don't know where to start with that.. Would you have any advice for building a computer?
 

Kabutos

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tthor said:
Ok, thank you.

I have wanted to build my own computer, and I've heard you can make a pretty high-end computer for about $1000. Tho, I really don't know where to start with that.. Would you have any advice for building a computer?
Learning how to build one would be a good start. Look around on the internet for some tutorials; there's a lot of videos on youtube.

Then buy the parts from Newegg.
 

Hashime

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Jan 13, 2010
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tthor said:
Hashime said:
tthor said:
Hashime said:
You ram is your largest bottle-neck. The graphics card is crap, but the even with a good one that ram is much too slow. You should get rid of the 400mhz ram and put in at least 800, depending on what your board supports. Other than that I need to know what power connectors you have available on you PSU to tell you what card you can use. I also need to know if you have room for a 2 slot card.
How much would it cost to upgrade my RAM?
and how do i find out what PSU it has?

(if it helps, here is HP website page for my PC specs= http://whp-java.extweb.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=cn&docname=c01905330#N1144 )
You will never be able to use that computer for any hardcore computer gaming. You can however upgrade to a point where you could game to some degree. I would consider how much the price of the components I suggest would go towards building a new unit.

RAM: You board supports a max speed of 800MHz. With 800MHz DDR2 it does not matter where you get it from, just get it cheap. I would ask your local shop, it is not as common anymore resulting in high prices (you can get 1600mhz ddr3 cheaper) Here is a link on a great deal: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4631346&CatId=3412
For 8gb assume about $120

Graphics: AMD 5450. It is the lowest end gaming card, but you have a 300 watt power supply, that is simply not enough power to run a more powerful card.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6078288&CatId=28
They Retail at $60.

All in all, I would still suggest considering spending the money as part of a new computer, but if you want to upgrade this is the way I would go.
Ok, thank you.

I have wanted to build my own computer, and I've heard you can make a pretty high-end computer for about $1000. Tho, I really don't know where to start with that.. Would you have any advice for building a computer?
I would do exactly what the other poster said, but also find a classmate / clubmember / friend who has done it before. I built a few computers with free spare parts as well. The good thing about computer building these days it that the hardest part is getting the thermal paste on the heatsink (I have a guide for that on youtube /shameless self promotion)

With a $1000 budget you could build a pretty sick rig as well. I would look at bit-tech.net's builder's guide. They lay out the best part combinations for the buck in several price ranges. They are a good starting point.
 

tthor

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Apr 9, 2008
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Hashime said:
tthor said:
Hashime said:
tthor said:
Hashime said:
You ram is your largest bottle-neck. The graphics card is crap, but the even with a good one that ram is much too slow. You should get rid of the 400mhz ram and put in at least 800, depending on what your board supports. Other than that I need to know what power connectors you have available on you PSU to tell you what card you can use. I also need to know if you have room for a 2 slot card.
How much would it cost to upgrade my RAM?
and how do i find out what PSU it has?

(if it helps, here is HP website page for my PC specs= http://whp-java.extweb.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=cn&docname=c01905330#N1144 )
You will never be able to use that computer for any hardcore computer gaming. You can however upgrade to a point where you could game to some degree. I would consider how much the price of the components I suggest would go towards building a new unit.

RAM: You board supports a max speed of 800MHz. With 800MHz DDR2 it does not matter where you get it from, just get it cheap. I would ask your local shop, it is not as common anymore resulting in high prices (you can get 1600mhz ddr3 cheaper) Here is a link on a great deal: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4631346&CatId=3412
For 8gb assume about $120

Graphics: AMD 5450. It is the lowest end gaming card, but you have a 300 watt power supply, that is simply not enough power to run a more powerful card.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6078288&CatId=28
They Retail at $60.

All in all, I would still suggest considering spending the money as part of a new computer, but if you want to upgrade this is the way I would go.
Ok, thank you.

I have wanted to build my own computer, and I've heard you can make a pretty high-end computer for about $1000. Tho, I really don't know where to start with that.. Would you have any advice for building a computer?
I would do exactly what the other poster said, but also find a classmate / clubmember / friend who has done it before. I built a few computers with free spare parts as well. The good thing about computer building these days it that the hardest part is getting the thermal paste on the heatsink (I have a guide for that on youtube /shameless self promotion)

With a $1000 budget you could build a pretty sick rig as well. I would look at bit-tech.net's builder's guide. They lay out the best part combinations for the buck in several price ranges. They are a good starting point.
thanks :) I have taken IT Essentials in school, which was supposed to train us in basic troubleshooting and how to build a computer, so i have a bit of knowledge (tho that was a year ago and i kinda dazed through parts of it.) I've been looking over a couple builds on the internet, and I'm kinda considering this http://windows.appstorm.net/how-to/hardware/the-appstorm-pc-builders-guide-summer-2011/
But I was wondering, if i just transplanted my 1TB harddrive from my current computer to the new computer, would I still need to get a new copy of Windows 7?
 

Kabutos

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tthor said:
I'm kinda considering this http://windows.appstorm.net/how-to/hardware/the-appstorm-pc-builders-guide-summer-2011/

But I was wondering, if i just transplanted my 1TB harddrive from my current computer to the new computer, would I still need to get a new copy of Windows 7?
That build is pretty bad.

Also no you won't have to reinstall windows but you might have to revalidate it.
 

tthor

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Kabutos said:
tthor said:
I'm kinda considering this http://windows.appstorm.net/how-to/hardware/the-appstorm-pc-builders-guide-summer-2011/

But I was wondering, if i just transplanted my 1TB harddrive from my current computer to the new computer, would I still need to get a new copy of Windows 7?
That build is pretty bad.

Also no you won't have to reinstall windows but you might have to revalidate it.
ok, do you mean bad in an ironic way, or bad as in i shouldn't use it o_O
 

Hashime

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There is nothing wrong with that build, if you account for updated parts that is almost identical to mine. Of course I have 2x AMD 5770, and a 650W power supply. That build will work well.
Here is another build that would work: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2011/07/11/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-july-2011/3
You definitely need to include a good heatsink (The Frio) in your budget as well as a cd / DVD drive ($30)
 

Kabutos

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Hashime said:
There is nothing wrong with that build, if you account for updated parts that is almost identical to mine. Of course I have 2x AMD 5770, and a 650W power supply. That build will work well.
Here is another build that would work: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2011/07/11/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-july-2011/3
You definitely need to include a good heatsink (The Frio) in your budget as well as a cd / DVD drive ($30)
Uh.

H67 and matx, non-k 2500, Caviar Green as primary drive,obsolete case, a PSU that's going to limit upgradibility, and more RAM than needed.

bit-tech one is better. PSU on the small side though.
 

Hashime

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Jan 13, 2010
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Kabutos said:
Hashime said:
There is nothing wrong with that build, if you account for updated parts that is almost identical to mine. Of course I have 2x AMD 5770, and a 650W power supply. That build will work well.
Here is another build that would work: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2011/07/11/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-july-2011/3
You definitely need to include a good heatsink (The Frio) in your budget as well as a cd / DVD drive ($30)
Uh.

H67 and matx, non-k 2500, Caviar Green as primary drive,obsolete case, a PSU that's going to limit upgradibility, and more RAM than needed.

bit-tech one is better. PSU on the small side though.
True on the caviar green. The k designation means nothing to someone who is not going to overclock, a case cannot be obsolete, A 500W psu will to some degree limit upgrades, but that is mentioned on the site, for the cost of 8gb of ram (an extra $50 maybe) it is a non-issue.
 

Kabutos

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Hashime said:
True on the caviar green. The k designation means nothing to someone who is not going to overclock, a case cannot be obsolete, A 500W psu will to some degree limit upgrades, but that is mentioned on the site, for the cost of 8gb of ram (an extra $50 maybe) it is a non-issue.
The Antec 300 is pretty much being phased out and replaced by the One Hundred, which has a few more features, weighs a bit less, and is a bit cheaper.

Also why wouldn't you want to overclock? The initial cost is like $10 more and will give you better performance in games than just throwing more RAM at it.