Howdy folks,
So I want to upgrade the graphics card in my retail desktop computer (HP m8120n Media Center PC). Here's the specs:
■Motherboard: Asus P5BW-LA
■Core 2 Quad Q6600 (K) 2.4 GHz, 1066 MHz front side bus
■3 GB DDR2 RAM
■2 x 320 GB 7200 rpm SATA HDDs
■Graphics Card: GeForce 7350LE; 128 MB DDR memory; DVI, S-Video, VGA
■TV tuner card
■Realtek ALC 888S chipset (sound card)
A pretty decent setup IMO (for being 2.5 years old), except for the crappy graphics card! I want to stick with nVidia, since my primary OS is Linux and I've always had better luck with nVidia on Linux. I also want to be able to run Mass Effect 2 (minimum requirements).
I was looking at this card on newegg. The price is about what I was looking to pay (~$50) and my understanding of nVidia numbering is that this is a pretty good card. What do y'all think? Does it seem like a good deal for the money? Any other options in this price range that would give better bang for the buck? How about Biostar...are they any good?
The other thing I was worried about was power...my 7350 is fanless (this one has a cooling fan) and much less powerful. Furthermore my system only has a 350 W PSU. Will that be too small to support this card?
Finally, a n00b question...is the fan powered from the PCIe bus or do I need one of the little power plugs from the mobo to connect?
Thanks in advance.
So I want to upgrade the graphics card in my retail desktop computer (HP m8120n Media Center PC). Here's the specs:
■Motherboard: Asus P5BW-LA
■Core 2 Quad Q6600 (K) 2.4 GHz, 1066 MHz front side bus
■3 GB DDR2 RAM
■2 x 320 GB 7200 rpm SATA HDDs
■Graphics Card: GeForce 7350LE; 128 MB DDR memory; DVI, S-Video, VGA
■TV tuner card
■Realtek ALC 888S chipset (sound card)
A pretty decent setup IMO (for being 2.5 years old), except for the crappy graphics card! I want to stick with nVidia, since my primary OS is Linux and I've always had better luck with nVidia on Linux. I also want to be able to run Mass Effect 2 (minimum requirements).
I was looking at this card on newegg. The price is about what I was looking to pay (~$50) and my understanding of nVidia numbering is that this is a pretty good card. What do y'all think? Does it seem like a good deal for the money? Any other options in this price range that would give better bang for the buck? How about Biostar...are they any good?
The other thing I was worried about was power...my 7350 is fanless (this one has a cooling fan) and much less powerful. Furthermore my system only has a 350 W PSU. Will that be too small to support this card?
Finally, a n00b question...is the fan powered from the PCIe bus or do I need one of the little power plugs from the mobo to connect?
Thanks in advance.