[euphanian]

Hello. I've owned an HP Pavilion p7-1020 desktop for a while now. I like it a lot, but I'm really wanting to upgrade the GPU to help for some gaming purposes.

I have a budget of between 200-300$. The games I'm mainly looking to play are games like Skyrim and Fallout. My current GPU is an ATI Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics card. I believe the current power supply is 250W, in case I'll need to buy a new one too or something. In case y'all need to know, the computer also has an AMD Phenom II 960T Quad-Core Processor and 8GB DDR3 memory. I don't really care where the parts come from or what brand they are as long as the parts are reliable. If y'all need to know anything else, just let me know. And, thanks for any help.

[waldojim]

The cards I would consider would be the Nvidia 560Ti, 650, AMD 7770 or the AMD 6850. Those are all priced about 120~140. That leaves enough room to pick up a decent power supply. Pick up a 500watt power supply from PC Power and Cooling, Antec, Corsair, OCZ, or Seasonic. Those will run between 40 and 75 for a high quality power supply.

[LiveBrianD]

I'll just add to the power supply part - I've been happy with my Seasonic s12II 520W, though the Corsair CX500 is definitely cheaper.

[snorg]

I just got ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Direct Cu 1058MHZ 1GB 5.0GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI D-Sub HDCP PCI-E DX11 Video Card
Manufactures Part #: GTX650-DC-1GD5

Its "direct contact" heat pipe cooler makes it run 20% cooler.
Comes with very good free overclock and control software.
Mine has a slight overclock and runs very cool under heavy load.
It made a hell of difference for me.
About 120 bucks.

Its pretty long tho, you mite havta move a hard drive out of the way so it can fit in.

This post has been edited by snorg: 27 November 2012 - 07:27 PM

[euphanian]

Thanks for the help, guys. I just want to make a confirmation before I spend money on these parts.

This is the video card I was looking at:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814161402

This is the power supply I was looking at:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817371055

These are the most detailed specs for my computer that I could find:

http://reviews.cnet....7-34846090.html

Would those two parts work in my computer? Again, thanks again for the help.

[LiveBrianD]

Yeah, those will work. That said, I don't think it's worth spending so much to get an 80 plus Platinum PSU. The Corsair CX500 (and probably CX430) will both work just as well for those components, and will be much cheaper.

[waldojim]

You get both added stability and quality with the higher end Antec. Yes, it is worth it.

[LiveBrianD]

And how often do power supplies fail? It's not like he's going to be overclocking a cheap consumer HP machine with a locked BIOS to high hell anyway. And for that matter, how often do we recommend such expensive power supplies to people building machines that they DO intend to overclock?

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 06 December 2012 - 09:49 PM

[SnyperTodd]

Brian, you're kind of talking out of both sides of your mouth here. You are constantly telling people that if they use a cheap power supply, it will die in a spectacular manner and destroy some or all of their other components. Now you're saying they don't fail very often so....what? The truth is that $110 isn't a lot of money for a good power supply, even at 550W, and it's worth spending a little extra to get one that is well built and efficient. That Antec is both, and a perfect choice for a system like this. It'll also serve euphanian well should he decide to make further upgrades to this system or build/buy a new one altogether. To answer your final question, we ALWAYS recommend "such expensive" power supplies to people building machines that they intend to overclock- more expensive actually, generally along the lines of $150-200 for something like a Corsair AX850, Seasonic X750, Antec HCP-750, etc should the build warrant that much power.

[LiveBrianD]

I'm not saying he should buy a $20 Raidmax. What I am saying is that getting a unit that expensive just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to be for a cheap machine like this. (Compared to the Corsair CX models we tend to recommend in budget builds.)

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 07 December 2012 - 07:06 AM

[waldojim]

The power supply the op is getting is fine. In fact, better than fine. There is absolutely no reason to argue about it being "too high quality" or "too efficient". If it is in the budget for the op to pick up the EA 550, then the op is far better off with a known quality power supply. The EA series is a very decent step up from the Corsair CX series, and is well worth the money. Just because the op isn't overclocking, doesn't mean that there isn't still a large power draw. The AMD Phenom cpus are known for being a lot of things, power efficient NOT being one of them. The added stability of a decent PSU will probably be quite welcome.

[euphanian]

Sorry for not really responding to the thread. I appreciate all the help y'all gave me. Anyway, the parts have arrived, and it's time for me to try and put them into the computer.

Do any of y'all know good guides for replacing these things? I've looked up quite a few online already, but I'm wondering if y'all know any particularly good guides or have any specific tips, tricks, or common mistakes to avoid. Thanks again.

[LiveBrianD]

Try to avoid wearing static-ey clothing (is that even a word?), don't touch components on the circuit boards, and don't force things too hard. (RAM modules require quite a bit of force though.) Make sure you don't try to plug anything in backwards.

Also, keep in mind that the PCIe 6-pin or 6+2 pin connectors look similar. Do NOT confuse these with the 4+4 (or 8) pin plug for the motherboard. (when I say 6+2, I mean a connector where you can use only the 6-pin part if that's what your hardware needs, or combine it with the 2-pin if needed. Ditto for 4+4, or the motherboard's 20+4.)

[coastie65]

Actually, the 6 pin connector will probably be labeled as PCIE. It wil probablt also have an additional 2 pin connector, although I don't think that card requires it.