Upgrading PSU and Video card for HP a1250n

[Riffers70]

Yeah...probably old hat for ya if you clicked on this thread, but I'm coming to you guys for advice.

We have an HP a1250n and my son got COD MW for Christmas. Well, as you can guess the upgraded ATI card will not handle this game. Well, we're FAR from a gaming family, but my sons like to play once in a while and I'd like the PC to handle this as best as possible. A new PC just isn't in the cards at this point.

So, can anyone recommend a PSU & VC combo for less than $200? I know, I know..but it's what I have to work with at this point. Just want my sons to enjoy their Christmas present.

Thoughts? TIA!

 

[ExcaliburMM]

I guess for around 200$ I'd say this Antec:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371004
And this HD5770:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102864

The bad news: Comes to 231$ after tax and ship.
The good news: Both are good components that you can later transfer into a build that won't be so CPU bottle necked.

 

[tweakboy]

You better watch out because a PSU might not fit on your HP case. I think youll need a new case too possibly. gl

 

[tweakboy]

As for video card, we need to know your current system specs. As for PSU 500w will do with 2 rails. gl with that

 

[cusideabelincoln]

I can't seem to find out what PSU your computer has, so to be safe I will recommend one (even though some of the cards I will recommend may not require a PSU upgrade) and I highly suggest you get one that is 80 Plus Certified. You also don't need to spend all of your $200 budget to be able to play COD well.

For the PSU, I recommend the 380W Antec Earthwatts Green
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-033-_-Product

For the video card, you have a lot of choices. You really don't need to spend much over $100 for the video card to get get performance out of MW, so that will be my cutoff:

HD4670: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-448-_-Product

9800 GT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-169-_-Product

HD 4850: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-103-_-Product

 

[Riffers70]

Thanks for the replies, I am paying attention here.

The PSU died, was a stock 300w unit. That's initially how I got started in getting it back up and running.

Initially I picked up a 400w PSU, along with a 9400gt from Best Buy. Having some issues getting them to play nicely with the PC, but I think that the real issue is between the chair and the keyboard. PC boots up to the blinking cursor with black screen. Power it back down, and then it comes up fine, except slow as hell. My first thought is that I didn't uninstall the ATI card and video adapters correctly. I'm going to uninstall the adapters with device manager, and start again by removing the video card.

This is the power supply I picked up, Dynex® - 400-Watt ATX CPU Power Supply
This is the video card I picked up, PNY - NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT 1GB DDR2 PCI Express Graphics Card

These were both bought last weekend, so can be returned if necessary.

I do appreciate the advice and help here! Thanks!

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Yeh I think you should return both of those items. The 9400GT is not a great performer, certainly not at the price you paid, and the Dynex PSU is some generic Best Buy brand.

 

[v8envy]

That Dynex "400 watt" is a relabeled Huntkey unit most likely nowhere near the capability or reliability of the dead OEM 300 watt it replaced.

The bad news is you will get google hits on "Dynex exploding power supply." Combined with a one year warranty (compared to an industry standard 3 years) the outcome is unlikely to be good.

The good news is it probably hasn't had the opportunity to kill your machine yet.

The bad news is, the old dying PSU may have taken some hardware with it when it died.

A 9400GT has about the same amount of gaming power as modern on-board chips. Which is to say, not very much. The absolute minimum you should consider is a 9600GT or ATI 4670.

Look for an Antec Earthwatts 380 or 500 PSU for a great bang/buck. Simply being 80+ rated isn't enough. Deals on those can be found for as little as $50 AR. Corsair makes an excellent 400 watt unit which was available below $50 after rebate. Always google for "exploding power supply" combined with the model of anything cheap you pick up from a local retail store.

 

[Riffers70]

The PSU dying was an odd thing. We went away on vacation, and I pulled the plug on the the PC before I left. When I returned home, I plugged the PC in and the green light on the back was blinking along with the light around the power button.

I'm taking notes and will likely pull the trigger by the end of the day, so keep the ideas coming. The more info I have, the more knowledgable a decision I can make. Thanks for you help!

Saw that you have a JK in your stable. Nice! Wife has an '07 Sahara Unlimited, I have a '61 CJ5 and miss my '02 TJ terribly.

 

[Magusigne]

Riffers,

I suggest you take the advice on getting the 5770 for 155 and then getting a Earthwatt, BFG 500w @50 bucks shipped from newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817702010&cm_re=BFG_550-_-17-702-010-_-Product

and a 5770..which is your choice which flavor of brand-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102864&cm_re=5770-_-14-102-864-_-Product

is a Saphhire brand..comes with a free 4gb flash drive (added perk) -165 shipped.

This card is "Slightly" futureproof and a fair price considering its capabilities.

So in short. 500w Power Supply and a ATI 5770

 

[Riffers70]

First and foremost, THANK YOU for taking your time to respond to my plight, it was greatly appreciated. Not quite a quest involving enchanters, but my personal quest none-the-less.

I combined some of the suggestions:
Order Summary
MSI R4670-MD512 Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
BFG Tech GS-550 550W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.8 SLI
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Subtotal $121.97 Tax $0.00 UPS Ground $11.68 Order Total $133.65

Thanks!!!

 

[Magusigne]

First and foremost, THANK YOU for taking your time to respond to my plight, it was greatly appreciated. Not quite a quest involving enchanters, but my personal quest none-the-less.

I combined some of the suggestions:
Order Summary
MSI R4670-MD512 Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
BFG Tech GS-550 550W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.8 SLI
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Subtotal $121.97 Tax $0.00 UPS Ground $11.68 Order Total $133.65

Thanks!!!

That should work OK.

4670 is a decent card. There are of course better options now available to you once you upgrade your Power Supply to that 550.

If the 4670 doesn't cut it, you can always upgrade later.

 

[Riffers70]

Ok, so the parts came in, and I set myself in upgrade mode like a school girl. Hey, it's the simple things, right?

Unadapted video, and shut down. Removed the video board and the power supply. Removed the fan/fins/cpu. Cleaned up the crap on the cpu with some rubbing alcohol. Reinstalled the cpu, and applied about a rice grain worth of silver 5 with a coffee filter to move it around a bit. Then installed the fins/fan/video/powersupply, and fired it up. Came up and installed the video card nicely.

Things are slower now. My guess is that the 1gb (2x512mb,DDR400, PC3200,184pin) mem in slots 1 and 3 is not cutting it any longer. Am I correct in this assumption?

From what I've read after using the search button, it seems that I can't really utilize much more than 3gb. So my plan is to pick up one of these packages and run them in slots 1&2 with the 512mbs in slots 3&4.

This was my first choice.
thoughts?

 

[tcsenter]

You might want to update the mobo BIOS while you're at it:

MS-7093/MS-7184 Motherboard BIOS Update

I'm not entirely confident that a new graphics card like the HD 5000 series is going to play nice with that old ATI RS480 motherboard. Some NEWER boards based on P965, P35, and P45 are requiring BIOS updates to address issues with the new ATI 5000 series cards.

 

[Riffers70]

Thanks for the reply. I'm faily certain that I already have that bios update, but appreciate your looking into it for me.

It seems to work well with COD MW for my sons to this point. During normal operations, it just seems slower to me. Anybody have thoughts on the mem upgrade?