Help with my video card please

[bogcotton]

If you're willing to spend £100, you might as well buy a decent graphics card.

If you're willing to go £25 up, you can buy a 4870 and a budget 600w power supply.

or,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-133-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1434

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-204-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=939

and

http://www.dabs.com/products/best-value-600w-black-edition-psu-12cm-dual-12v-ce-pfc-model-63KW.html?refs=50010-48870000

 

[bogcotton]

Sorry, forgot to give performance info.

The 4870 will play practically any game at maximum everything at the resolutions people are talking about here.

I know, because I have one.

It plays most of the games I have at 1920x1200 (Dirt 2, GTA 4 etc.) with high to very high settings.

 

[Rustyy117]

Don't buy a budget PSU ^^ FFS

All your components rely on your PSU, so If the PSU fails its likely to take other components with it too.

 

[bogcotton]

A PSU made in modern times is very unlikely to fail.

It's a simple electrical component.

People get way to paranoid about power supplies.
Unless you're actually using the maximum rated power, (which isn't going to happen in this case) then it will last practically forever.

A cheap 600w is a lot better than a cheap 300w (which is what this person has).

I've been running my i7 and 4870 both overclocked on a budget 750W for ages and it's just fine.

What do you think the fundamental difference is inside the cheap and expensive supplies which makes one likely to fail?

 

[Rustyy117]

Personally I wouldnt trust £1000 worth of hardware with a cheap £40 PSU.

Theres a reason why there so cheap, they use cheap/less reliable components to build the PSU's + many cheap/generic PSU's over-rate what they are actually capable of. Or advertise their peak output, rather than their continuous power output.

I would never recommend buying a generic PSU.

 

[hallowed_dragon]

A PSU made in modern times is very unlikely to fail.

It's a simple electrical component.

People get way to paranoid about power supplies.
Unless you're actually using the maximum rated power, (which isn't going to happen in this case) then it will last practically forever.

A cheap 600w is a lot better than a cheap 300w (which is what this person has).

I've been running my i7 and 4870 both overclocked on a budget 750W for ages and it's just fine.

What do you think the fundamental difference is inside the cheap and expensive supplies which makes one likely to fail?

The quality of the capacitors. Read some JohnnyGuru and you will find out the difference.

 

[bogcotton]

I've read the article you're talking about.

Of course I'm not recommending one of those type of PSU.
When I say 'budget' I mean priced slightly below brand named products, but not significantly lower quality.

The one I have linked has dual 12V rails and overvolt protection.

Its got energystar approval aswell.

 

[masterjaw]

^ Stickers and words written at the case of the PSU doesn't necessarily show its quality. Sometimes, its just pure PR. If so then all PSUs in the market are of top quality then.

You could only verify the specs by testing and usually, those "brand named products" are already tested to meet the specs.