About to get a Vostro220, need a GPU for WoW...

[cfol103]

First off before you guys start making suggestions please know that I'm limited to buying from Dell Business and that my budget is around $500...
~What Im thinking of doing is getting a Dell Vostro 220 Mini Tower, mainly because its currently a great deal for those specs (look below for specs)from Dell Small Business. It costing me around $440...The only thing I want to be able to do in this computer is play WoW on high settings, and maybe ultra high if possible. This computer should also do normal Office applications and be good for day-to-day home use...

-I was thinking of going with the Integrated graphics in order to lower the cost, and of course I would buy the graphics card myself. I would have around $120 to spend solely on the the gpu.

Now my questions are:

-Do you guys think that buying a Vostro 220 and placing in a graphics card my self is a good idea?
-What are some good gpu options that I could get for my vostro220 mini tower?

Also here are the specs to work with:
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E7500 w/ VT (2.93GHz, 3M, L2Cache, 1066FSB)
RAM: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz - 2DIMMs ( I could easily add 1 more gig or 2)
HardDrive: 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Windows 7

GPU: ???? I need one for around $120, my budget can vary more or less, but not too much please.

Also my PowerSupply is 300W, and please remember that I have a mini-tower and not a slim case..so this is something to consider when choosing a specif video card.

I also have:
PCI: 2 slots
PCIe: 1 slot
PCIe x 16: 1 slot

I dont believe I would play any other games other than WoW on this, so no need to ask if I plan to play recent and upcoming titles on max settings...

Im really quite new at this, and your help is desperately needed because I want to make an alright purchase.
-Thanks in advanced

 

[shadow187]

The best card is the HD5570 low-profile, and should work with your PSU, provided it has over 20Amps on the 12volt rail. IF not, spend the $40 remaining on a good PSU.

 

[cfol103]

hmmm, how could I find out before buying if it has over 20amps on the 12v rail??

Also, do you guys think I could upgrade my PSU in the future, provided that my case is in fact a mini-tower...

Thanks

 

[shadow187]

Open your case, navigate to PSU, read the sticker. Find the +12v part.

 

[cfol103]

Well, I think the HD5570 is a great choice, but like I said; I haven't bought this PC yet, and I cant check the label on the PSU. I've looked online and unfortunately, it looks like it might only have 18amps on the 12v rail...(could anybody verify it?)

So now I guess I'm going to dish out a bit more money on a good PSU to support a good graphics card.

Any suggestions on a good PSU I could buy? Also, I've never put in a PSU so if anybody could point me in the right direction that would help a lot. Im also worried about if the PSU I pick will be fully compatible, I also have a minitower so any help on that would be great. Im guessing i could put in around ~$45 for a good PSU.

Im also pretty sure I read that the dell vostro 220 only supports a 300w PSU, do you guys think thats true? This makes me a bit confused because I remember somebody putting in a 460W psu into their machine....

Any suggestiong on the new psu and graphics card to go along with it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

 

[frozentundra123456]

No guarantees, but that 5570 should work with a 300 watt PSU. That said, I dont think you will be able to play WOW on high or ultra with it, unless you are using a quite low resolution. Maybe you could with a 5670 or 5750, but those are getting borderline for a 300 watt PSU.

 

[cfol103]

The only thing that worries me is that they suggest 400 watts for that specific card. I understand that Dell might underrate their psu's etc...but I still wouldn't want to be borderline to the cards requirements.

I think I'm better off buying a good PSU seeing as its such a vital part of the system. If I was to buy one, do you guys think I should go with a 400w or spend a bit more to buy something around 600w+? would it be worth it? I would really appreciate it if you guys could give me some suggestions for some good PSU's

Also, with a new psu, what are some good cards around the $100-$150 range that could hopefully play wow at close or at ultra settings?

 

[cfol103]

I would also most likely be buying a good brand name PSU like Corsair....

What do you guys think of the GT 240 for games like WoW???

Will that suffice for high settings?
Thanks again

 

[cfol103]

Anybody care to tell me if they think that the vostro 220 motherboard can actually support more than 300w? I would really like to buy a new psu but Dell has stated that the system only supports up to 300w, this seems a bit bogus to me.....

Also anybody care to shed some light on how the GT240 is?

 

[2ndtimer]

You can run a Radeon HD-4670 in the Vostro 220 mini tower with the Dell 300W power supply. Which by the way, is rated at 18a on the 12V rail. (At least mine was, purchased in Decemeber 2008) I ran my MSI HD-4670 512 mb GDDR3 card for over 13 months on that system with the memory upgraded to 4 gb. No problems at all. 6 weeks ago I installed a Coolermaster Elite Power RS-460 PSU in my system to power my new Radeon HD-5750 card. It ran fine until I downloaded the latest Catalyst drivers and Catalyst Control panel, and ran the provided Autotune software to overclock the card. When I was out of town, one of my son's friends played games for several hours on my system and fried the new video card. I am RMA'ing it on Monday. The system itself is still running fine with an old Nvidia 7900GS card installed.

If I were buying a new Vostro 220 system today, I would probably opt for a new ATI Radeon HD-5670 card. It only draws 2 more watts at max than the HD-4670 and provides double the memory bandwidth with the GDDR5 memory.
The other concern you have with upgrading the video in a vostro 220 is the physical size limitations of the case itself. You can't stick a really large card in there. There just isn't enough room. All my cards fit okay, but I did move the hard drive to the upper bay to create a little more space for the video card power connector for the 5750.

Based on what I have seen, the GT240 is an okay card, but I think both the 5670 and 5750 outperform it, and at lower power demands.

 

[cfol103]

Much thanks for your imput. Im surprised that the card wasnt able to take multiple hours of gaming, as that would definatly be a problem for me...if it couldnt handle it.

Im also glad to heard that you were actually able to fit a PSU into that case.

Now, do you guys think I could run HD 5670 on 350w system??

~Thanks in advanced

 

[2ndtimer]

Absolutely. Check out the reviews here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102870

People are running it on a 300W PSU.

 

[cfol103]

Best answer selected by cfol103.