Buying new vid card @ Best Buy in 2 hours

[fourty03]

and I do literally go there on average once - twice a week sometimes. lol

Its good news the OP does not have to go to BestBuy to get the video card.. CompUSA should have a better selection and better prices than BB.

 

[mnewsham]

lol... I live in fairfax, va now .. so I usually go to the one in Fairfax... I use to go to the rockville Microcenter, and you are not lying about the damn traffic either!!

I like the one in fairfax. Sadly getting there for me is either going through DC (not happening) or the beltway (a major headache most days).

 

[Judgement]

I was just looking over my PC specs (best I can with the way display is currently - artifacts all over etc)

Looks like I only have a 1.6ghz core2duo in this thing and 2gb of ram. I know it has pci-e but I'm not sure what x it is at. Not sure what mobo I have in this thing either... it might be documented somewhere on my PC but when Windows loads the display is ganked. I guess I'm leaning towads the GTS450 as I don't think it can utilize the GTX460.

I guess the 460 would be a little more futureproof but I don't like buying things now with the assumption that I will be rebuilding months down the line (I think I will - but who knows what will happen, might wait till Diablo3)

 

[mnewsham]

See if you can over clock that cpu!

 

[Castiel]

9800GTX ie the gts 250 is a waste. Tigerdirext has a Gtx 260 for 99.99

 

[RavenSEAL]

9800GTX ie the gts 250 is a waste. Tigerdirext has a Gtx 260 for 99.99

Looking at his specs, the PSU won't do it. Better off getting a GTS450/GT240 or HD5670.

 

[toyota]

1.6 core 2 duo? I did not know they ever made a desktop core 2 duo with speeds that low. you might want to recheck and see what the EXACT cpu is.

 

[Judgement]

I have a 430w thermaltake psu, hopefully that can handle a gts250 or gtx460....

Leaving for the store in a few mins

 

[Judgement]

1.6 core 2 duo? I did not know they ever made a desktop core 2 duo with speeds that low. you might want to recheck and see what the EXACT cpu is.

You're right, I could have swore I had a 2.1ghz core2duo in this thing now that I think about it....

Maybe I was messing around with the multiplier one day and didnt switch it back, I don't recall. I'm not messing with it now cause at the moment I wont even be able to tell if it loads Windows properly

 

[toyota]

I have a 430w thermaltake psu, hopefully that can handle a gts250 or gtx460....

Leaving for the store in a few mins

you probably have the one that only has 17 amps on the 12v. that was a horrible psu as it could not even make but 14-15 amps when tested. and that was brand new so you can be certain that psu is not even able to make more than 12-13 with some years on it. that psu was for people that did not know any better and simply looked at the 430 watt rating.

you will need a new psu for something like a gts250.

 

[Judgement]

you probably have the one that only has 17 amps on the 12v. that was a horrible psu as it could not even make but 14-15 amps when tested. and that was brand new so you can be certain that psu is not even able to make more than 12-13 with some years on it. that psu was for people that did not know any better and simply looked at the 430 watt rating.

you will need a new psu for something like a gts250.

hmmm this is getting more annoying by the minute

The PSU has voltage output labeled on it... what should I be looking at to be sure?

 

[mnewsham]

I say go for a 5670 (lower power requirements)

 

[toyota]

hmmm this is getting more annoying by the minute

just look at the psu label and see if that is the case. if it says 17 amps for the 12v. actually it might be 18 amps but either way that will not be a good psu at all for a card that uses way over 100 watts alone.

 

[Judgement]

just look at the psu label and see if that is the case. if it says 17 amps for the 12v. actually it might be 18 amps but either way that will not be a good psu at all for a card that uses way over 100 watts alone.

Yeah, it says 18A ....

What should it be rated at for this type of card?

 

[toyota]

Yeah, it says 18A ....

What should it be rated at for this type of card?

like I said that psu could never even makes its 18 amp rating when brand new. realistically with some years on it can only make about 14-15 at best. your system even with a gts450 would be pushing it. you need to be looking at a 5670 to be safe.

 

[Castiel]

1.8ghz processor? Total waste to even spend money on that computer

 

[Vdubchaos]

1.8ghz processor? Total waste to even spend money on that computer

Agreed....save your money for new PC THEN buy a video card.

Whatever you buy local you will overpay for and it will be worthless/outdated anyways.

 

[Arkadrel]

you need to be looking at a 5670 to be safe.

this... so your sure the psu can handle it.

 

[Judgement]

I ended up buying a 1gb PNY GTX460 - will be about $160 after rebate

Up and running OK so far, testing a few games in a bit

 

[RavenSEAL]

I ended up buying a 1gb PNY GTX460 - will be about $160 after rebate

Up and running OK so far, testing a few games in a bit

Because you're running such a low-end CPU, i wouldn't be worried, but, don't push the card. AND, if it's above 675MHz stock, i would pull the clocks down. You SHOULD be fine, don't take my word for it though.

 

[Judgement]

CPU is running at 2.13ghz - I must have dropped the multiplier down last night when I was trying to figure out if there was a heat issue when I first started having problems

I was a little wasted, heheh I just forgot

..not that 2.13 is great --- but a lot better than the 1.6 I said earlier

 

[toyota]

wow you are really pushing your luck on that psu, I guarantee you it will fail eventually and probably pretty soon. a stock gtx460 alone can consume 12-13 amps under load. throw in the rest of your components and you pushing that psu to its limit. if you end up damaging your pc you will have no one to blame but yourself.

 

[RavenSEAL]

CPU is running at 2.13ghz - I must have dropped the multiplier down last night when I was trying to figure out if there was a heat issue when I first started having problems

I was a little wasted, heheh I just forgot

..not that 2.13 is great --- but a lot better than the 1.6 I said earlier

I figured, most PSUs calculators put you at around 340w being used at 90% load. I wouldn't push anything if i were you, specially the clocks on that card.

Again, my suggestion, turn them down to stock if they're not already there.

 

[mnewsham]

wow you are really pushing your luck on that psu, I guarantee you it will fail eventually and probably pretty soon. a stock gtx460 alone will consume 12-13 amps under load. throw in the rest of your components and you pushing that psu to its limit.

The rest of the components dont all go on the +12v rail so if the +12v rail is good for 18A (like most ~400w PSU's) he is fine. The CPU isnt drawing much and he will be CPU bottlenecked long before he will be using full power on the GTX 460. the 460 uses 101w average 119 peak and 155 MAX. the CPU will be using 45w (i assume it is the 45w TDP version at only 2.16Ghz) that is a MAX of 200w with fans HDD's MB and RAM you are looking at 250-300 maybe... so 430 is fine... IMHO

 

[toyota]

I figured, most PSUs calculators put you at around 340w being used at 90% load. I wouldn't push anything if i were you, specially the clocks on that card.

Again, my suggestion, turn them down to stock if they're not already there.

thats not how much power he would use. it would be much lower than that but even the rated amps on the 12v when new is only 216 watts. and like I said earlier reviews said it cannont even make its rated amps in real world conditions. so realistically he does not even have 200 watts available for use on the 12v which his system could easily hit under full load.