Heeelp! 350W and new Video Card

[gunnyosu]

Hey Guys,

I have been considering upgrading my current 9600GS for a new card however, I have been finding conficting information on whether my 350W PSU will hold up.

Here are my specs:
HP Pavilion Elite m9400t
-ASUS IPIBL-LB board
-G33 Chipset
-Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700
-3GB DDR-800 RAM
-750GB 7200rpm HD
-GeForce 9600GS 768mb
-350W OEM PSU

I am not sure what the amperage being put out is from this PSU. I was leaning towards either a Radeon 4850 (512/1gb) or Geforce 9800 GT vs GTX. Can you all help me out in deciding which would probably be the best choice, also any new suggestions are welcomed. At this time, I was not planning on a PSU upgrade. Thanks!

 

[AlphaOmegaX]

Toss in a better psu and get a 4870. The prices are so close to the 4850's that it would be silly not to buy one.

You could upgrade to a low power 9600gt...althought im not sure what the performance increase would be.

YOu could also gut your pc and build your own

 

[gunnyosu]

Thanks for the input so far....

Does anyone know how involved replacing the psu on a an hp pavilion elite would be? If it is something a novice could safely do, what psu recommendations for my setup would you recommend?

Without a PSU upgrade, what would be the best card to upgrade to?

Thanks for all the info guys!

 

[AlphaOmegaX]

Imo the safest upgrade would be evga's 9600gt low power.

It's not pretty but it should do better than the 4670. The second safest upgrade.

PSU replacement is a breeze.

But, when it comes down to it, buying a better psu and graphics card...is halfway there pretty much. May as well build a pc from there ha.

You'd be fine with a 4670 or 9600gt Low Power.

 

[gunnyosu]

Do you think a 9800gt would run ok or maybe even at 4850 with my current PSU? I dont know how much improvement I will see going from my 9600GS to at 9600GT.

I dont have a problem upgrading both if they are pretty much drop in components. I just have never installed a PSU before. Would it involve re-installing windows, etc?

 

[jaguarskx]

I would not recommend the HD 4850 since it alone consumes 110w on the 12v rail.

The 9800GT consumes about 85w of power and is probably borderline.

Your best option is an HD 4770 which consumes roughly 55w although I seen some power charts that indicates it sometimes can go as high as 75w. Generally the HD 4770 is only about 8% slower than the HD 4850 on average.

I also do not recommend overclocking the HD 4770 since that makes it draw more power.

 

[gunnyosu]

Just curious if anyone has an info on this low-power version of the 9800gt by BFG?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143187

I wonder if this would perform any better than the 4770?

 

[jaguarskx]

The HD 4770 is faster than a standard 9800GT. Therefore it will be faster than BFG's 9800GT which is probably underclocked a little. Also I doubt BFG can drop the power consumption from 85w down to 55w without a massive underclock.

 

[jaguarskx]

The best HD 4770 in your situation is Sapphire's HD 4770 (recently revised) which uses the same patent pending "Black Diamond" heatsink chokes used on their Vapor-X, Toxic, and Atomic series.

Sapphire's claims it that they help reduce heat and power consumption by up to 10% - 15% on their high end, power hungry cards. Since the HD 4770 does not draw as much power as the HD 4870 and 4890, I would not expect the decrease in power consumption to be that dramatic.

See pics of it here:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=000101&pid=251

 

[gunnyosu]

Hmmm...I may consider that Sapphire 4770 then. I would most likely be able to keep my current psu this way? I guess if I have to, I can always upgrade the psu down the road.

 

[AlphaOmegaX]

Actually, what are the amps on your psu 12v?

It should be on the sticker on the side of the psu.

Thanks