Hi, a friend of mine just got a new pc for xmas, but it was a cheapo dell and doesn't have enough graphics power to run any semi-modern games (Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator 3100). He wants to buy a new graphics card for the pc, has a budget of £120 max and asked me to have a look for any decent graphics cards that would be suitable for him. I'd recommended one of the new 256mb Radeon 3850s, as they're probably the best card atm in his price range. However I was looking at the spec of his Dell to see if the 3850 would be compatible and the Dell only has a 300W PSU. A 450W PSU is recommended for the 3850 but would it still work properly? And if not could anyone recommend a card that would suit his system?? Here's the details (I think): Dell Inspiron530/531 Intel C2D (some low spec) 1GB ddr2 PCI-e graphics slot 300W PSU 250gb HDD 1x DVD/RW drive integrated sound running usb keyboard and mouse He is ideally looking for a card that will allow him to play 'World in Conflict' and costs less that £120 inc. p&p Thanks
Yeah, Im trying to convince him to get a bit more money and go for the 512mb version, I think I've seen them for £130 on some sites
Nah, they're looking to be closer to £150-160. Can anyone confirm if either a 256mb or 512mb 3850 will work with a 300w Dell psu?
As far as I am aware, Dell PSUs are deliberately sized to be able to power the system as sold, not with any after market cards added. So, I'd say that he would need to get a bigger PSU. He may need to get it from Dell tho (custom sized PSU). Andy
Yeah, I thought Dell had modified the ATX connectors to be proprietary (so you can't just swap it out) I could be wrong though, anyone care to correct me?
Are you sure it's got a pci-e slot? I know some of the dell's of old didn't have AGP's if they had on-board.
Yer, odds are he could well only have PCI, my dell file slave only has PCI (its from the era of AGP i think, i found it ). But the PSU can be swapped for anyother i know that, atleast on mine, except make sure its a PSU which can clip 4 pins off to be 20 pin ATX, or 24 pin ATX. As alot of low power dells are 20 pin.
yeah I've checked out the insides and it def has a pci-e slot. Didn't notice if it had a pci-e power connector tho. If I can't convince him to get a new psu, since the dell is brand new, then what decent graphics cards will run with his existing 300w psu??
Thas really limiting and renders the budget pointless, as the cards that are definately safe with 300W, are cheap and poor to be honest. Persuade him, you can get a cheap and cheerful one with a bit more wattage for pennies, exageration of course, that will cope with a single high end (well high end-ish) card.
Cheapest 450w+ psu I can find is about £30, I'll try and convince him to get that, or see if I can 'half-inch' one from an old pc lying around somewhere
I wouldn't convince him to get a cheapo psu, most likely thing to kill his whole system after a few months useage (I generalise and exaggerate a bit, but not much). If he's going to do it, he has to do it properly.
Yeah, but the thing is he has at most £130 to spend on a card, card+psu. How about any of the older nVidia 8 series cards will any of them run in his system?
