gfx upgrade suggestions for mini tower?

[j03h4gLund]

my buddy has a mini gateway sx2850-20c and wants to upgrade his videocard from integrated to something with a lil more juice to up his framerates.

ive never dealt with upgrading the mini towers and my main concern with offering advice for him is the 220w psu. his main use for the pc is gaming. he also lives in canada and we were wondering what a good website would be to order from to avoid the big shipping fees.

any advice on what to do with around $100 as a budget? ty kind folk at anandtech as always, suggestions are very much appreciated!

the specs for the gateway are:

Processor
Intel® Core™ i3-550 Processor1 (3.2GHz, 4MB Cache) with Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology5

Memory
6GB DDR3 Dual-Channel Memory

Video
Integrated Intel® HD Graphics with Intel® Clear Video HD Technology7

Available Expansion Slots
Available: 1 - PCI-E x16, 0 - PCI-E x1

Dimensions (Box)
14" (H) x 7" (W) x 20" (L) or 355.6mm (H) x 177.8mm (W) x 508mm (L)

Dimensions (System)
10.43" (H) x 3.93" (W) x 12.4" (L) or 266.7mm (H) x 101.6mm (W) x 317.5mm (L)

Motherboard
Systemboard with Intel® H57 Express Chipset

Power Supply
220W Power Supply

 

[Termie]

It looks from pictures on the web that this Gateway requires a low-profile (half-height) card. If so, you then have to figure out if it also requires a single-slot card (i.e., the card cannot extend into the expansion slot below).

Here are a few options:
(1) If the case can take a half-height card but allows for double-wide cards, this HD5670 GDDR5 is a great option: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127523

(2) If the case requires both a half-height and a single-slot card, this HD5570 DDR3 will work: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102874

At about $50 each (after rebate), they'll return a nice improvement in games for the money. I wouldn't worry about power use - with his processor, neither of these cards will go above 150w at full tilt.

 

[j03h4gLund]

Thanks Termie!

Any other suggestions, maybe a 1gb card for slightly more money?

 

[Termie]

Thanks Termie!

Any other suggestions, maybe a 1gb card for slightly more money?

In this category of cards, 512MB versus 1GB doesn't matter at all. Note, for example, that the HD5570 I linked to has 1GB of memory, but because both the GPU and the memory are slower than on the HD5670 I linked to, it's a slower card despite having more memory.

That being said, I'd pick the 5570 for your friend. It uses slightly less power (~20w), and it's almost sure to fit in any case. Here's the same card available from Newegg Canada: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814102874. Sorry the shipping charges are high, but at least the price for the card is reasonable.