Gaming Updating my graphics card?

[RandomOddness]

I didn't mean size as in form factor, I meant it as the PSU he has could possibly be a 350w psu and the 450 and 5750, which would put more strain on the PSU seeing as at full load use more than 3 times the amount his current card uses.

 

[air2004]

look on tigerdirect .....

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name
System Manufacturer MSI
System Model MS-7681
System Type X86-based PC
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. V1.13, 6/24/2011
SMBIOS Version 2.7
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name
Time Zone Eastern Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 2.98 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.98 GB
Total Virtual Memory 5.95 GB
Available Virtual Memory 4.74 GB
Page File Space 2.98 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

 

[Costello]

not sure what you are trying to tell me air2004.

my PSU is 400W, but I barely have any devices inside:
- 1 slot of RAM
- no DVD drive or anything
- 1 regular 500GB hard drive
- 1 Core i5 760

Last time I calculated the totals I had over 100W-150W left for a graphics card... should be enough?

anyhow, I'm going to look into the GTS450 as raul suggested, otherwise reviews seem to indicate that the ATI Radeon HD 5670 is the best I can get for this form factor at the moment...
if you can prove me wrong please link to reviews & stuff

 

[EJames2100]

Best I've found to fit is HD 5450, 5570 and 5670. Not many decent ones out there.

These might work:
http://www.anandtech.com/Show/Index/4278?c...-radeon-hd-6570

 

[bowlofspiders]

The GTS 450 was amazing while I had it installed in my desktop. Doesn't take up much room at all and it fit on my Micro ATX motherboard. The graphics card does not go over the motherboards length. It should fit but I don't know your cases height. It runs most things fairly well.

 

[FAST6191]

Although I would consider smaller graphics cards you can also come the other way and go for a riser/extension cable (although I completely understand apprehension here- fast bus and longer distances never being the best idea).

http://www.plinkusa.net/webr1pcie16x.htm being one of them although quite expensive there. You can get others a bit cheaper though and if you are still in China you can probably get a nice grey market one (most boards here are a bit of single/doubled sided PCB with maybe a couple of caps- nothing major but custom and rare enough that it can still sting you.

 

[Costello]

looks like my best bet is the GTS 450

performs quite well, it should live up to my low expectations.
I only have a 1366*768 LCD or something like that.

Problem is, I can't seem to find any website that sells the GTS 450 low profile...

 

[EJames2100]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Palit-1GB-GeForce-...I/dp/B0046Y6TME

 

[Costello]

thanks mate, that one's really expensive though

it used to be sold under $100 ... reviews said it could be found for $99

guess i can't afford to be picky since there isnt much choice

 

[RupeeClock]

You said you only have 1 stick of RAM installed, how big is it?
RAM these days is pretty cheap, you might want to think about upgrading your ram if its low, 1 or 2gb is kinda low depending on your needs.

2x2gb will do the trick pretty nicely.

 

[Costello]

just ordered it from Amazon.co.uk since I couldn't find it anywhere else.
Amazon.ca had it too but they didn't ship to China

thanks for the recommendations everyone!

I'll look into upgrading the RAM if it's necessary.
I've never ever needed more than 2GB so far but I know I can easily get an extra 2GB at a low price.

 

[RupeeClock]

Best of luck with that new GPU.

You'd be surprised what an impact another 2GB would make, if you're using a 64bit Windows 7 you're operating at the minimum requirement as a matter of fact.

Also you'd probably have to buy 2x2gb rather than an additional 2gb, like batteries it's a bad idea to mix and match different types of RAM.

Depending on your motherboard you might have to settle for DDR2 ram rather than DDR3, I'm not sure.

 

[Costello]

if I bought more RAM i'd make sure to use the exact same type.
I use DDR3 already though not sure which frequency.

 

[The_Dragons_Mast]

Well easiest way to figure out the frequency is use a program like speccy over here : http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download . The program is very simple & you shouldn't have any trouble figuring it out.

 

[CCNaru]

Why not buy a case? and 400W PSU is going to be borderline...

ram http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...0353218&bc=

psu http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0342504

case http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0315115

and I'd get a new case, small ones heat up and well... electronics heating up is bad news

 

[hatredg0d]

geeze, take off your cpu fan and clean out that dust befor you fry your cpu

 

[trumpet-205]

If you intend to upgrade RAM it would be best to replace existing RAM with newer RAM. Same RAM on each slot meaning latency will be the same.

 

[Costello]

geeze, take off your cpu fan and clean out that dust befor you fry your cpu

how did you notice from the awful pics?

anyhow, did that today when I inserted the new card.
Really cool btw

thanks everyone for the advice!

 

[luckwii]

Why not buy a case? and 400W PSU is going to be borderline...

ram http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...0353218&bc=

psu http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0342504

case http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0315115

and I'd get a new case, small ones heat up and well... electronics heating up is bad news

+1 on that. I agree. A larger case is always better. Heat is a major issue. of course cross flow and design matter, but the bigger case will be a big deal if you are going to be hard core gaming. The lifespan of your components will be greatly reduced with the smaller case.

Keeping a fan clean helps too, but even a brand new PC in a small case is off to a bad start.

 

[Originality]

Keeping a fan clean helps too, but even a brand new PC in a small case is off to a bad start.

I guess then you would be horrified to see an Antec 300 with an ASUS Rampage 3 Gene (or was it Extreme?) and a Core i7-980X over clocked inside it. I forget what graphics card it had inside... Probably a GTX 480. But yeah, the most powerful PC at the time, inside a relatively tiny case. Built by the people at bit-tech.net.

The size of the case means nothing so long as the cooling is good enough (either liquid cooled, as in the above example, or air cooled).