Upgrading a old computer

[legendkiller]

I have a eMachines W5243 sitting around pretty long with a Dead/burnt capacity on motherboard and am going to replace with a LGA 775 motherboard w/Q9550 CPU with 4GB RAM BUT IDK if the 300watts PSU can help it... Ganna add a 240GB HDD with a GT 220... I'll be doing this probably in a month or so since my bro haven't move his stuff in his closet for me to get the motherboard and cpu... Just want to know if the PSU of the eMachines W5243 can handle it, might buy a new one if it can't handle it... I used a Intel's power thing to calculate it and it uses just just under 300 watts or almost 290watts...

 

[Marc_W1771ams]

It would be a close call on a brand new decently branded 300w power supply, but the 300w that the power supply emachines stuck in there was probably a generous rating when the power supply was new. Lower quality power supplies also loose watts over the years so I'd say you'd be likely to be pushing the power supply to its limits.

By all means give it a go and see how you get along but I'd personally prefer to fit a new power supply a 350w+ from a reputable brand should do the trick. But aim for 450-500w if you can. That way you'd have more head room and lets face it its better to be running a power supply at 50% usage than 100%.

 

[Chaz21]

The good news is that your eMachine's PSU spec's out to a "normal" sized one and not some "pre-built" proprietary thing.
Go with a good name brand replacement allowing for some "overhead". A good rule to follow is about double what you calculate your needs to be. You'll run more efficiently and have room for future upgrades.

 

[neon neophyte]

strange choice of upgrade parts, are you getting them used?

 

[tha_vice]

Because your computer is so, old and I don't think the GT 220 needs a Pci-e 6-8 pin connector, I'd refrain from purchasing anything above 450 watts as you'll most likely never use all that power.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371034

If you're ok with the color, antec makes a good PSU, and the price is right.

 

[jsc]

A GT220 only needs about 50 watts. Your current PSU should be OK.

One of my systems has an OC'd Q9550, 4 GB RAM, a GTX260 - a card with significantly greater (80 - 100 watts) power requirements than yours, a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P motherboard, 3 hard drives and an optical, and a Soundblaster card all powered by a Corsair 750TX.

Running 3 instances of Prime95 to load the CPU and 3DMark06 to load the GPU, it pulls 375 watts from the wall as measured by my Kill-a-Watt meter. Figuring 80% PSU efficiency, the system pulls 300 watts from the PSU.

I estimate that your system would pull less than 250 watts from your PSU.

 

[popatim]

non- overclocked I'd estimate he's pull just over 220W from the PSU. The 300W, if it still works (components can dry up), would be enough.

 

[legendkiller]

So if it works, what happens if the PSU like fail after awhile? taking all the parts or what? I was planning to OC it to 3.6GHz which would be 310w from PSU lol but I decided to change my mind about it since the PSU is a VisionTec which is a low quality one... If the system draws 250Watts, could it possibly die within months lol because the PSU/eMachine W5243 is 4 years old, the motherboard on it die like a year ago, not sure how but all i know is the capacity on it exploded inside making it worthless, it gets into windows than shut down as if i pull the power cord...

 

[Chaz21]

My advice would be to stick with your original plan and get a new PSU. The size you get would be up to you - just get a good name brand.

 

[legendkiller]

Best answer selected by LegendKiller.

 

[Cutlass76supreme350r]

It would be a close call on a brand new decently branded 300w power supply, but the 300w that the power supply emachines stuck in there was probably a generous rating when the power supply was new. Lower quality power supplies also loose watts over the years so I'd say you'd be likely to be pushing the power supply to its limits.

By all means give it a go and see how you get along but I'd personally prefer to fit a new power supply a 350w+ from a reputable brand should do the trick. But aim for 450-500w if you can. That way you'd have more head room and lets face it its better to be running a power supply at 50% usage than 100%.

I have a Emachines W5243, I have a 460w PSU, 4GB of ram, 160GB HDD, AMD athlon 64 X2 Dual core processer 5200+ runs 2.70 GHz. im trying to figure out if i can run a ddr5 Graphics card an if so what would be the best for me dont want to spend over $250. If not possible to run ddr5 what ddr3 graphics card would be best for me im looking for somthing that will run any game up to date, and if you have any other idea's to help my pc's performance please feel free an through any ideas my way,

 

[legendkiller]

I have a Emachines W5243, I have a 460w PSU, 4GB of ram, 160GB HDD, AMD athlon 64 X2 Dual core processer 5200+ runs 2.70 GHz. im trying to figure out if i can run a ddr5 Graphics card an if so what would be the best for me dont want to spend over $250. If not possible to run ddr5 what ddr3 graphics card would be best for me im looking for somthing that will run any game up to date, and if you have any other idea's to help my pc's performance please feel free an through any ideas my way,

The EVGA GT 220 worked with all the parts on the 300W, the card consume 75w and under, your $250 budget wont run anything up to date because of your CPU bottlenecking and by bottlenecking it's slowing your gaming down which gives you lower FPS that is if you play the up to date games like Crysis 2 or Dota 2 and similar... The GTx 660 should work fine since it consumes about 250w http://www.logicbuy.com/product/asus-gtx660-dc2o-2gd5-geforce-gtx-660-video-card/1054594576.aspx and your other hardware consum about 100w-150w so it should be enough...