Video card upgrade recs

[ultbruin]

Since everybody is curious about my PSU, here it is:

Bestec Model: ATX0350D5WA
Input: 100-127V-10A 200-240V-5A 50/60Hz
Output: 350W Max
+5V = 18A
+3.3V = 17A
+12VA = 12A, -12V = 0.8A
+12VB = 18A, +5Vaux = 2A

+3.3V & +5V 160W MAX
+12VA & +12VB 300W MAX

 

[toyota]

Since everybody is curious about my PSU, here it is:

Bestec Model: ATX0350D5WA
Input: 100-127V-10A 200-240V-5A 50/60Hz
Output: 350W Max
+5V = 18A
+3.3V = 17A
+12VA = 12A, -12V = 0.8A
+12VB = 18A, +5Vaux = 2A

+3.3V & +5V 160W MAX
+12VA & +12VB 300W MAX

and once again I am correct. lol :sneaky:

just get a 5770 and you will be set.

 

[Arkaign]

ZOMG Bestec? Please burn that thing in a fire ASAP before it takes your PC with it. When I ran my PC shop I had a bin of burnt PSUs that I kept in the back room, and easily 4/5ths of them were Bestecs, mostly out of HPs and Emachines. In my experience a failed PSU doesn't normally take the mobo with it, but with the Bestecs it was a majority of the time.

Lots of hot deals on decent 500w PSUs come through for under $40, Antec, Corsair, etc.

 

[ultbruin]

and once again I am correct. lol :sneaky:

just get a 5770 and you will be set.

Thanks toyota...like I said before, you're psychic.
I'll probably get the 5770. You wouldn't happen to know if my PSU has a 6 pin for the 5770 as well do you? Not familiar with it

 

[ultbruin]

ZOMG Bestec? Please burn that thing in a fire ASAP before it takes your PC with it. When I ran my PC shop I had a bin of burnt PSUs that I kept in the back room, and easily 4/5ths of them were Bestecs, mostly out of HPs and Emachines. In my experience a failed PSU doesn't normally take the mobo with it, but with the Bestecs it was a majority of the time.

Lots of hot deals on decent 500w PSUs come through for under $40, Antec, Corsair, etc.

Yeah it is a dell machine afterall...you don't expect them to have a Cosair in there do you? I'll probably get a new PSU too if a deal comes by.

 

[toyota]

ZOMG Bestec? Please burn that thing in a fire ASAP before it takes your PC with it. When I ran my PC shop I had a bin of burnt PSUs that I kept in the back room, and easily 4/5ths of them were Bestecs, mostly out of HPs and Emachines. In my experience a failed PSU doesn't normally take the mobo with it, but with the Bestecs it was a majority of the time.

Lots of hot deals on decent 500w PSUs come through for under $40, Antec, Corsair, etc.

they are junk comapred to most power supplies but for a fairly basic pc that wont push it to the limits it will be fine.

 

[toyota]

Thanks toyota...like I said before, you're psychic.
I'll probably get the 5770. You wouldn't happen to know if my PSU has a 6 pin for the 5770 as well do you? Not familiar with it

well you can look and see but the last one I saw did.

 

[ultbruin]

Thanks again everybody for your suggestions. Especially toyota. I usually build my own desktops but I got lazy this last time and bought a Dell. Not going to do that again.

 

[RussianSensation]

and once again I am correct. lol :sneaky:

just get a 5770 and you will be set.

toyota, FTW edition.

ultbruin, enjoy the 5770.

 

[s44]

Yeah it is a dell machine afterall...you don't expect them to have a Cosair in there do you?

This must be recent, because actually Dells used to have quite well-built and seriously under-rated (i.e. much better than spec) PSUs made by Delta. Dunno when they went crappy cheap like HP.

I wouldn't risk a 108W TDP 5770 on that. 5750 (86W) maybe.

 

[toyota]

This must be recent, because actually Dells used to have quite well-built and seriously under-rated (i.e. much better than spec) PSUs made by Delta. Dunno when they went crappy cheap like HP.

about 2-3 years ago they started getting cheap with the power supplies. I believe they are just like HP/Compaq and Gateway in that their power supplies can now be Delta, Bestec or Hi Pro.

 

[RussianSensation]

I wouldn't risk a 108W TDP 5770 on that. 5750 (86W) maybe.

In all fairness, these peak figures are almost always achieved in Furmark - the most unrealistic stress power consumption test known to mankind. I still can't understand why it's used by so many reviewers. No videocard will ever consume this much power in any videogame.

Once you consider peak power consumption in a gaming environment, then the HD5770 is closer to 90W.

Even if we do look at the worst case scenario, Core i7 980X, 6GBs of ram + HD5770 tops out at 225W only. Even when you subject the system to 100% CPU load (Linpack) + 100% GPU load (Furmark), you are still only looking at 298W. But that's never going to happen in a game.

Also, Q8300 is only 95W TDP vs. 130W TDP for the 980X.

 

[s44]

Yeah, but still... Would you have plugged a 8800GT into your parents' junky non-upgraded OEM PSU? Maybe you would, but I get a bad feeling matching a 300W junker with any card that needs more than the 75W from a PCI-E 1.0/1.1 mobo.

 

[RussianSensation]

At the end of the day, we eventually need a new PSU (I went from generic 300W that powered a Radeon 8500 & Athlon XP1600+ to Aspire 350W that powered P4 2.6 @ 3.2ghz + GF6600 to OCZ 420W Powerstream that powered E6400 @ 3.4ghz + 8800GTS 320mb and now the 520W Corsair - and for my next one I'll probably go to 650W+). So the OP could always grab one and reuse it for the next 3-5 years. I can understand the argument for a new one if budget suffices, simply because you can reuse in the next build.

 

[toyota]

This must be recent, because actually Dells used to have quite well-built and seriously under-rated (i.e. much better than spec) PSUs made by Delta. Dunno when they went crappy cheap like HP.

I wouldn't risk a 108W TDP 5770 on that. 5750 (86W) maybe.

I already linked to a review that showed even under full load with an i7, a system with the 5770 only pulled 256 watts at the wall. again factor in efficiency and his Q8300 and you are looking at probably below 200 actual watts. his psu provides 300 watts on the 12v alone. even if that psu is a bit cheap and doesn't quite make that in reality, he should still be fine.

EDIT: of course he could always do like RussianSensation said and just buy a decent psu and transfer it to the next pc too. that would allow him to go ahead and get something like a 6850 now too.