Vista Tutorial - Choosing new graphics card

Hi everyone.

I'm looking to invest in a new graphics card i have a max of about £130 i want to spend but there are a few issues first off, my pc comes with a ****ty dell 350w PSU which has one graphics power connector now i did a PSU calculator with the card i want to buy>>Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cardand it says it should come under 350 but i would like your opinions. Also is that the best card i can get for the cash? i would prefer ATI but would be willing to go over to Nvidia.

Oh and i currently have a HD radeon 2600 XT which is a slim one, depth wise anything would fit, but i think a longer card would have a hard time fitting.

Anyone got some good advice?

Cheers

hm... yes size might be a problem but that would be about the best you could get you need to find out just how much space you have

Never mind people turns out that that card needs two power connectors my PSU only has one and dell have said no you cannot upgrade lest you void the warrenty, and i have a 3 year warrenty i dont want voiding. So it looks like im stuck with it:@:@

Thanks the pizza man for your input.

there are adapters/changers to change the molex power from your psu into the connection needed for the graphics card.

is your chassis sealed? if not, install the card and if anything happens to the computer that is warranty related, remove the card before sending it to dell.

I doubt that PSU will be capable of handling the 4870, even if he was to use adapters. I don't know anything about ATI but on the Nvida, high end card require a lot of amperage as well and that psu might not even have half of the amperages needed.

You'd be wise if you find out about this as well since it seems you know what you are doing and were able to find about the 2 connector requirement.

Stupid things is, the bloody PSU has 0 molex plugs yes ****ing zero!!! so no luck

the gts 250 only has one pcie connector, i think thats about the best you can go right now (certainly from the nvidia lineup) without moving to a double pcie connector.

or you could go with the Visiontek HD3870...... it also has only one picE connector.... and its a really good card

I don't mean to insult you in any way, shape or form but, my recommendation is to save your money until you can upgrade to a better hardware, this way, you won't waste your money on something you may or may not be able to use but it is going to be the bottom of the line if you decide to get a new PC.

If you are getting a new PC, the best thing to do is to build your own, unless of course, you only need it for the most basic stuff. If you plan on gaminf Offline (and more so Online), the custom built is the only way to go.

It is scary the first few times you do it, find a friend in the biz to hook you up with the installation of the case/mobo/psu wiring and try to do the rest yourself... you'll have a lot of fun and you'll feel like a king when you are up on the desktop changing the side bar to your liking

+1 to that..... i wish i had done that first time around
i would have had a 4870x2 and a phenom II by now haha