So i have a system (1st build) that i built up as a bit of a learning curve. Now when i play most games its all fine and dandy but i am having problems playing COD: Black Ops. It plays but can be a bit jumpy at time, i have recently added a GPU and now i have noticed my boot screen mention system has detected power surges. If i upgrade my PSU (will do this anyway) will i find my gaming problem may disappear? System specs AMD Athlon II x2 250 3.0Ghz ASUS M4N68LE-M V2 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz (2x2Gb) SSD OCZ Vertex 30gb (just been RMA'd so on the HDD now) HDD Samsung F3 Spinpoint 1Tb Sapphire Radeon 6750 512mb Cheap Case and PSU (Dabs Best Buy - Before i knew the importance of a decent PSU) So really my question is can anyone explain PSU to me and what to think about when distinguishing between them? Any recommendations, and why? And on the back of this is it likely to solve my gaming problem?
What psu it is and what is the wattage? I will suggest get a good branded psu before PSU does any damage to your system. PSU come in different brands and wattage. There are good brands i.e Corsair, Seasonic, Antec to name a few. I will say a branded 500watts PSU will be enough to run your system.
think its about 400w but its a cheap no name from dabs that came with the case. I dont have any faith in it. Do you think it is stopping my games smoothness? I also want to buy a PSU that will last me a while. as i want to upgrade in the future. Also what is the life span of a PSU?
Get rid of it asap! That message about power spikes is very very worrying. At best, its causing stuttering in your games, at worst, it'll fry your hardware. I've had PSUs last me years, recently I was using one that was probably 7 years old. Any brand name PSU at about 500W would suit you fine. This Silverstone is only £40. The 6750 is also a pretty poor card for gaming to be honest. That could quite easily be causing your stuttering.
Probably best get a decent PSU anyway but if that doesn't help the game then my first instinct would be to get a tri or quad processor. I seem to remember some people with dual processors having issues with that game, even though they shouldn't. Probably a less than optimal port form consoles.
you might want to have a read: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/09/13/what-is-the-best-400-599w-psu/1 Not sure what would be life span of a PSU. It would most certainly vary depending on the usage....
PSU is on the cards ... i did suspect it maybe my processor. Now i need to decide to i want a Phenom X4 or upgrade to Intel 2500k with MOBO. Also the comment on the 6750 not being great for gaming? I have had no real issues from it and quite impressed to be honest. Plus was free.... anyone got anything review wise for this?
With a good PSU you should have a good platform for any future upgrades you may want to make, definitely make sure you get that before anything else. Sounds like a miracle everything's running as is. And as always with PSUs, "good" doesn't just mean high wattage! There's a time and a place for high wattage PSUs but an average gaming system (single GPU, quad core CPU) isn't it. You'd want to look at a good quality 500W or 600W, getting a little headroom isn't a bad thing but don't get upsold to something like an 800W "just in case" or because you want it to last longer. As for your GPU, it's not that it's an inherently bad card, it's just positioned a little low in the market for gaming. Overclockers reviewed it, that should provide some idea of what you've got in your system and what its limitations are. If you got it for free and it works then that's great, but there are certainly other cards out there if you've got the money to spend. When comparing card to card it's easy to say things are "bad" or "good", but figuring out what cards to even compare in the first place is a very subjective question depending on budget and performance desired.
