I'm on a pretty tight budget, buying a card for a friend. I'll need to keep it under $100 before tax/shipping. This is her current PC: http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/3724/4367sp3.shtml I'm not terribly sure anything will fit into the PCI-E slot as it's stupidly close to the CPU heatsink. (pic) Her power supply is also rather pitiful, at 300 watts. She'll be getting a slightly better system in a few months (more RAM, dual-core, still an onboard GPU though), so what she has now doesn't have to last long and I'm not worried about burning it out. She'll be using her system primarily to play older games (c. 2005-2008) like TF2, L4D, etc. I was going to pick up an EVGA 9800GT (Tigerdirect had an excellent deal -- $90 and a $40 mail-in rebate) but I was too slow on the draw and by the time I had allocated funds, it was gone. I live in Canada so a Canadian e-retailer would be ideal (to avoid customs fees). Thanks for your help!
thats the north bridge heat sink your seeing and it wont be in the way. the "flat" side of the card will face up, toward that heat sink. the cooler on the graphics card will face down and probably block that PCI slot. a few months ago, i put a 4670 in my fiancées dell dimension e520 and its been working very well for her. she plays mostly older/lower demand games as well (sims 3 maxed, mass effect maxed, L4D maxed). it also hasnt proved too much for the stock dell PSU (along with an added HDD and 2 rear 80mm exhaust fans), its been rock solid. it scores a 5.9 on vistas WEI. and it was only $60 to boot whatever you select, be careful to make sure it doesnt require an additional 6 or 8 pin PCIE power connector, as OEM PSUs dont have them (and probably dont have the juice for such a demanding card).
I looked into ATi's low/mid-range cards; the 5750 in particular caught my eye. ( http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161309&cm_re=5750-_-14-161-309-_-Product ) Benches show it has remarkably low idling power consumption and even at a full load it consumes something like 80 watts. After it was mentioned in another thread, I checked out the Antec wattage calculator, typed in what I knew of her specs, and its recommendation was something like 312w. The PSU is on the way out anyway (the fan cuts out sporadically), so if it dies in a month or so a 400w one won't be hard to get a hold of. Any input/thoughts? It's a bit out of my originally stated range, but the cheap shipping and rebate compensate. It seems like it's probably the best I'll get for my price range. I think there's a 6pin connector open, but even if there isn't there should be two spare four-pins and the card comes with an adapter. Thanks!
personally, that sounds like more card than she needs (and its more than you wanted to spend). however, it would give her a bit better future proofing, but i absolutely wouldnt run that card with an OEM PSU. OEMs have a nasty habit of giving their machines JUST enough power to get by. case in point: my dell dimension 3000 back in the day had a 200 watt PSU, and under heavy loads would pull 160 watts from the wall. of coarse, for less than $10 more (shipping included), you could have an XFX 5770: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150501
Oh, wow. Nice catch! I'll definitely go with that. I'll recommend that she pick up a new PSU too, though she'll probably wait until she runs into issues. Thanks once more for your help!
