New computer now what? help!

[ninjainspandex]

so i was thinking about the geforce GTX 480 http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ce-gtx-480 seems to be a good card for the price at around $200 but how do i find out if i have the power supply to support it? oh supposedly it has drivers for windows 8 according to http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows-8-solutions.html

[Ziggy]

so i was thinking about the geforce GTX 480 http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ce-gtx-480 seems to be a good card for the price at around $200 but how do i find out if i have the power supply to support it? oh supposedly it has drivers for windows 8 according to http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows-8-solutions.html

http://www.newegg.com/

I'll usually shop around, but NewEgg seems to have good prices most of the time. The user review base is strong, so it's great to window shop on NewEgg, even if you buy elsewhere. Also, NewEgg seems to have a lot of good deals with rebates and free stuff. The last video card I bought from NewEgg came with a free copy of World at War (of course, that was a few years ago).

But anyway, they have a neat power supply calculator...

http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/to ... index.html

Don't get me started on power supplies tho. I'd end up recommending you to get a ~$100 power supply, and a narrow selection of 2 or 3 brands that I trust.

[ninjainspandex]

should i be able to swap out all this stuff on a stock pc like i have?

[Frag Mortuus]

so i was thinking about the geforce GTX 480 http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ce-gtx-480 seems to be a good card for the price at around $200 but how do i find out if i have the power supply to support it? oh supposedly it has drivers for windows 8 according to http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows-8-solutions.html

Ok. Open the side panel of your PC and look at the power supply. It should give you a total continuous wattage rating (i.e. 450W). What I would do then is google "Power Supply Calculator" then input everything your PC has. Add in the graphics card you want and see if you have enough power to run the equipment you have and the added GPU. Once you determine if your PSU can handle the added card, you need to know if you have the needed PCIe cable's on the power supply to power the card. The connections you will need look like this:



Most newer cards require two of those.

If you don't have those, check and see if you have any open 4-pin connectors it will look like this:



It is pretty likely that you will have an available 4-pin connector. If you don't have the PCIe connector, but you do have the 4-pin connector you can get adapters to convert the 4-pin to the PCIe connector. They will look like this:



Now that you have the power issued solved, let's pick out a card.

The ones I run are these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121425

Granted, these are $40 more than the GTX 480 you picked out. But, with one of these cards, I can run Skyrim, Dishonored, Borderlands 2, Crysis 1 & 2, and any other game you can think of on max settings at 1920x1080.

With this card, you will be pretty good to go for quite a while.

[ZenErik]

Hope you like Windows 8. I've been tinkering with it on my Mac laptop and actually like it quite a lot. All of my doujin games still work too! The new Start menu is pretty nice once one is adjusted.

Have yet to make a nice gaming desktop so I don't have any GPU recommedations.

[ninjainspandex]

ill have to do this when i get home from work, i very much like windows 8 everything is very streamline and nice and of course i can just go to desktop and use my pc as normal, so i dont want to downgrade to windows 7. btw do i need to worry about cooling or is the cooling fan built into the graphics card enough to keep it cool?

[isiolia]

Has a 300W PSU, not sure about PCIe power connectors. Specs here.

Frankly, with that size PSU, it probably can't handle many cards that would need PCIe power anyway. If you want to drop a good GPU in, it'd probably mean a PSU upgrade as well. Even the higher end of cards that don't need PCIe power connections spec a 400 to 450W PSU (which is probably conservative, and you could probably get away with what you have, but still).

IMO, a GTX 480 is still a solid performer, but you could get the performance level in a cooler running, less power hungry card these days. Offhand, similar to a GTX 660 (non-Ti), or somewhere between a 7850 and 7870 on the Radeon side.

[Ziggy]

Stock PSUs are usually complete junk. Forget the low wattage, they're usually just not built very well.

When picking out a replacement PSU, it's a good idea to cross reference the requirements of the card you wanna get. Look at the voltage and amperage requirements, and make sure the PSU you pick out has them. Wattage isn't everything.

Has a 300W PSU, not sure about PCIe power connectors. Specs here.

Frankly, with that size PSU, it probably can't handle many cards that would need PCIe power anyway. If you want to drop a good GPU in, it'd probably mean a PSU upgrade as well. Even the higher end of cards that don't need PCIe power connections spec a 400 to 450W PSU (which is probably conservative, and you could probably get away with what you have, but still).

I put his PC specs, including the GTX 480, into the NewEegg PSU calculator (that I linked above) and it spit out ~550w. So I'd aim for something around 600w.

[isiolia]

I put his PC specs, including the GTX 480, into the NewEegg PSU calculator (that I linked above) and it spit out ~550w. So I'd aim for something around 600w.

Aye, I usually shoot for something at least in that range (or more).

What I meant was that if he was content dropping in a 7750 or something that doesn't need PCIe power (I believe that's still the best card that doesn't?) the system requirements spec a 450W PSU...but total system draw under load seems like it should still be fine with 300W, though the FX series CPUs are pretty power hungry as well.

I agree though, if he wants to buy a new unit, a quality unity with some headroom would be optimal. Could probably get away with a 500W if going for a more modern card I think. I've seen people build with 380-400W for 6850s and 6870s even.

[Ziggy]

I'd argue to get a new PSU regardless. The stock PSUs in Dells, HP, etc are usually just complete shit. I got in the habit of ignoring watts. After you shop your trusted brands, pick out a few contenders, read through a bunch of reviews for each one, you're gonna be left with something that's 500+ watts anyway. Watts are almost irrelevant. If you spend the time to pick out a PSU that has sufficient voltage and amperage, it's gonna have enough watts.