Help with getting a graphics card for HP Slimline

[jfrost]

I got an HP Slimline 5340br and, although I'm able to run older games decently, I want to up its performance a little bit.

However, I'm worried about some things.

Firstly, the price. I want to run games on good settings here, but I'm not looking to run Crysis on max. So, I'm probably looking at a mid-range card. Which models should I look for? And what would be a good price for said models?

Secondly, the power supply. The one I have here is quite weak. After searching about it for a little bit I found out that my power supply is 220 watts. Apparently I can go on and install a graphics card here without much trouble, but I want to hear your opinion. This guy here was able to install his nVidia 8400 GS with no problems in his computer (which is similar, albeit less powerful than mine), but I'm still a little uneasy about installing anything else to suck energy from the power supply. By the way, these are my specs.

Finally, I'm also concerned with the breathing room inside the unit. As you see from the pictures, the computer is fairly small. Should I worry about that? Keep in mind that I live in a place that is 100 degrees hot on winter.

Anyway, can anyone help me?

Thanks in advance.

[Niode]

If you have available PCI-E slots (it's a prebuilt, you can't assume anything, have you opened it up?). Then get a Radeon HD5770, they're about £100 in this country. Anything else is either underpowered or a waste of money.

Everybody whom I've recommended this particular card to has been massively impressed with it. It's the second coming of the 9800 or the Geforce 6800LE. Best bang for buck on the market. It will run all the latest games (including Crysis) on high-max settings if you're running a modest monitor (IE 19-22") if you have something bigger than that, you're gonna need something a little beefier like the HD5850 or if you can afford it the 5870. Don't bother with with the new nVidia cards, you're going to be paying around 15-20% more for a mere 5-10% increase in performance, 20% increase in power consumption and 100% increase in noise and that's only if you buy the top end stuff. Not worth it. Unless you're the kind of freak to obsess over the fact that 1 game in 10 has moving fabric or some semi-convincing water effects thanks to PhysX (which might not even be an issue any more since the creators of PhysX have defected to ATi/AMD now) and you can totally tell the difference between 60FPS and 65FPS...

AFAIK nVidia doesn't have any DirectX11 card that is in the same price/performance bracket of the HD5770.

[jfrost]

Yes, there's a PCI-E slot free, I just opened it.

Thanks for the suggestion, Niode, but it seems to be too expensive in this country. While the price in dollars seems to be around $170, the price in real is R$550... which is around $300 dollars (£206, according to Google). Yeah, taxes here are ridiculous.

Now, looking at pictures of HD5770, I'm not even sure it would fit into the unit. Would it?

[hailrazer]

I have one of those Hp Slimlines in my car. I added a Low Profile GeForce 8400.

As you probably know notjust any card will fit in this case. It has to be a low profile card.

This is the one I bought :
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 0&csid=_25



You will have to use a different mounting bracket or trim the top off that one.

It will run most games pretty well.

The newer cards won't work as they are to big for the case and the power supply is not large enough for them.

Here is my Car Pc log if you are interested :
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show-of ... 000-a.html

[jfrost]

I'm thinking about getting this one:



However, it seems that I would have to adapt it to my case. Looking for a kit to that, I stumbled upon this:



http://xfxforce.com/en-us/Products/Acce ... etKit.aspx

Has anyone used this before?

[hailrazer]

That card needs a 300 watt power supply. Probably won't work.

[jfrost]

Oh, that sucks. Thanks, hailrazer.

I'd even think about getting a better power supply, but it would be a pain to find any around here that fit this computer. Well, I guess I can't complain, I got the computer as a gift and wouldn't have anything to play on if it wasn't for it.

[hailrazer]

Of course now that I think about it the 8400gs I have is supposed to "require" a 300 watt power supply and it is running just fine off my 220 watt power supply.

So I guess the HD 4550 might work.

[jfrost]

I'm actually hoping it does work. It's being hard to find the 8400GS. The only low-profile card that shows up every time is the HD4550.

And I know at least from two people (you and the guy on the link I posted at the start) that the 8400GS works just fine. So, I don't know. Dammit.

[Niode]

This is one of the major reasons why pre-builts are just shit.