Expand No.2's computer: Motoring Computer Related forum

Computer Related > Expand No.2's computer	Miscellaneous
Thread Author: No FM2R	Replies: 12

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Fri 6 Sep 13 19:01

Expand No.2's computer - No FM2R

No. 2's computer has a 450w power supply.

When supplied, her machine had one disk, one DVD, onboard graphics and an i7 chip. Only one fan and that was on the CPU.

It now has three disks and 1 DVD drive.

I'd like to put a graphics card in which will allow her to play games such as Crysis 3. Although if that's a step too far then Crysis 2, Far Cry 3 and Call of Duty will be needed.

Currently it has onboard Intel HD Graphics 4000. (its not good).

I'm not sure which equipment uses how much power, but it would appear to me that she's quite within the capability of the power supply, even though I've also fitted a chassis fan because the disks were making it hot.

1) How can I check where I stand with available power?
2) What additional graphics card is viable given the performance required, but also the power & space available.

I don't normally mind throwing money at difficult stuff, but she's had quite a lot recently, so if its not just a matter of a graphics card then she's out of luck.

Or should I just forget it and tell her to use the XPS when she wants to play games?

p.s. I've got the full specs for the machine if I'm missing some information here, but I've not done a lot of this so would appreciate advice.

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Fri 6 Sep 13 19:49

Expand No.2's computer - Zero

>> I'm not sure which equipment uses how much power, but it would appear to me
>> that she's quite within the capability of the power supply, even though I've also fitted
>> a chassis fan because the disks were making it hot.
>>
>> 1) How can I check where I stand with available power?

You cant check without having expensive test gear.

Should be ok tho, Disks consume most power on startup, graphics cards consume most power at high frame rates (so thats not start up) and as the I7 is pretty power efficient, I reckon you will be ok with 450 watts.

>> 2) What additional graphics card is viable given the performance required, but also the power
>> & space available.

I'm a Radeon man. I always use Second life as the technical arbiter of how good and stable a card is, and it crashes less with Radeon cards and drivers.

Given that a Radeon HD 7790 is available for about the 100 dollars mark, and will cream crysis and far cry at good frame rates with all the smoothing gizmos working and at good resolution.

Its not power hungry, but its a biggy tho, three slots wide inc the fan.

Last edited by: Zero on Fri 6 Sep 13 at 19:52

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Fri 6 Sep 13 20:54

Expand No.2's computer - MD

Well that's cleared that up then. Back to me curved walls. Chuff chuff..............

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Fri 6 Sep 13 22:23

Expand No.2's computer - No FM2R

OK Z, clearly that's the D's Bs. But it says it needs a 500w Power Supply, or is it just not that critical?

And where does the following fit on the scale of good / bad / indifferent?

www.pcfactory.cl/producto/13362-Video.NVIDIA.GeForce.GT630.4096MB.DDR3

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Fri 6 Sep 13 22:31

Expand No.2's computer - No FM2R

This is what I have to work with...

www.pcfactory.cl/?categoria=334

And half these won't actually be available.

Its frustrating.

($800 peso -> £1)

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Fri 6 Sep 13 22:39

Expand No.2's computer - rtj70

It's not just about the rating on the PSU - it's how efficient it is. In fact the efficiency is why people used to need high wattage PSU's because they were inefficient. 450W might be enough for a fairly decent graphics card. The card won't pull full power until it's in 3D mode - in 2D mode they are fairly low power.

The Geforce 630 GT is a pretty low spec card. Might be enough for the games you mention but I'd be looking at a 650Ti GTX or better still at least a 660 GTX. I'd have to look what PSU rating I have as I don't remember. It used to run 3 x SATA hard drives, DVD reader, DVD writer and a Geforce 250GTS.... and a very inefficient Pentium 4 running at 3.6GHz. In fact it used to run all that with the original PSU (this was a branded PC originally).

It now does 1 x SATA HD, 2 x SSD, 1 x Bluray writer and a Geforce 660GTX. And the power usage dropped a fair bit compared to the PC with the 3 drives and the older graphics card.

You could always get the graphics card and if the PSU needs replacing they are fairly cheap.

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Fri 6 Sep 13 23:19

Expand No.2's computer - No FM2R

When looking at the characteristics of a graphics card, what are the important factors? (I'm sure they're all important in their own way, but the ones that a fool should worry about).

e.g. Zero says I don't need 4Gb of memory, so is 2Gb sufficient?

I think Zero estimated my target product as "indifferent" fairly accurately.

But since this is South America and whatever they say they have in stock they actually don't, I need to know the criteria so that when I go down there I can choose an alternative with a bit more safety than some loon assuring me that whatever he's offering me is perfect.

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Fri 6 Sep 13 23:33

Expand No.2's computer - Zero

>> I think Zero estimated my target product as "indifferent" fairly accurately.

In the indifferent price bracket they are all much of a muchness. being all mostly older technology chip fabrications.

Go for a name you recognise, Asus - MSI - Sparkle - Saphire, Gigabyte. they will all be end of line stock and good quality / value.

Do not buy an overclocked card - It will have OC in the name somewhere.

With graphics cards, its the drivers that matter, and poor driver experiences with Geforce has turned me into a 100% radeon man.

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Fri 6 Sep 13 22:46

Expand No.2's computer - Zero

>> OK Z, clearly that's the D's Bs.

Its not, not by a long way. Mucho grando bueno cards above that 'un It was picked 'cos its good value for money, big bang for not much peso's.

www.pcfactory.cl/producto/14065-Video.AMD.Radeon.HD7790.1024MB.GDDR5.DirectCU.II.OC

(1) But clearly it was a bit more than you fancied paying.

But it says it needs a 500w Power
>> Supply, or is it just not that critical?

Depends on how good your current 450 watts is.

>> And where does the following fit on the scale of good / bad / indifferent?
>>
>> www.pcfactory.cl/producto/13362-Video.NVIDIA.GeForce.GT630.4096MB.DDR3

Ok, I have a feel for your price point, and that is on the indifferent scale, if we are in that ballpark I would go for
www.pcfactory.cl/producto/13355-Video.AMD.Radeon.HD7750.2048MB.GDDR3.

Because a: you dont need 4gb of display memory, and b: its not a geforce.

>>

Last edited by: Zero on Fri 6 Sep 13 at 22:47

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Fri 6 Sep 13 23:14

Expand No.2's computer - No FM2R

>>Ok, I have a feel for your price point,

Well, I don't want to spend money I don't have to on the basis that this is one of the children's computers.

Bit different if it was mine.

Equally, she enjoys the game and doesn't particularly worry about top performing graphics. She's still playing Castle Wolfenstein!

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Fri 6 Sep 13 23:21

Expand No.2's computer - Zero

>> >>Ok, I have a feel for your price point,
>>
>> Well, I don't want to spend money I don't have to on the basis that
>> this is one of the children's computers.
>>
>> Bit different if it was mine.
>>
>> Equally, she enjoys the game and doesn't particularly worry about top performing graphics. She's still
>> playing Castle Wolfenstein!

And so she should, Blazkowicz. RTCW is still one damn fine game. Still play it myself. On my Radeon card.

Last edited by: Zero on Fri 6 Sep 13 at 23:22

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Fri 6 Sep 13 23:52

Expand No.2's computer - rtj70

You'll want decent graphics for Wolfenstein: New Order

www.wolfenstein.com/en-gb/media

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Sat 7 Sep 13 01:45

Expand No.2's computer - No FM2R

Cool. No. 1 wants it as well.

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