Is this a good card for the money?

[magnesium]

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.

 

[magnesium]

Alright everybody, after all the information and help y'all gave me I have ordered the GTS 250 card from EVGA: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130539 . It should be arriving at the middle-end of next week...I'll update once it is here and installed. $90 after rebate....not a bad price.

Hopefully it is a good performer for the money! The only thing I am a little worried about is the newegg page for it says the clock speed is 675, etc...lower than the speed listed on nVidia's site. So either they are typos, or I should be able to overclock it easily?

Timop, I know you were suggesting ATI, but I really just wanted to stick with nVidia. I've just always had better luck with nVidia than ATI when it comes to Linux support.

Thanks again for the guidance in picking this GPU!

 

[magnesium]

Best answer selected by magnesium.

 

[magnesium]

So my card came in yesterday.....talk about an improvement. It's amazing, I can play ME 2 with top settings and max resolution, and it is perfectly smooth! I guess that's what happens when you actually have a good GPU, lol. :lol:

Thanks for everyone's help....I picked RazberyBandit's answer as best because he had the link to the card I ended up buying, but everyone's help was important. That's why I always come to TH for help!

 

[RazberyBandit]

Hehe. Glad your upgrade worked out well and you're now happily gaming.