Trying to help out a friend

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fitzymcpatrick

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Dec 30, 2012
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He has an older Acer Aspire M5802/M3802 with no discrete video card. I'm not sure on the PS wattage or if his PCIe is 1.0 or 2.0. Was wondering if anyone could recommend a cheap (<$100) video card? Thanks!
 
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The HD 7750 would not require an extra power connector from the power supply and would be a huge improvement over the onboard graphics and is less than $100.

The one reference I found lists a 250w power supply, so I am a bit concerned about that.

This one is on sale at Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150663

It is a double wide card, so there would have to be nothing in the slot next to it.

Since the video card is on sale, I would be more comfortable with a new power supply
CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 430W for $44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

I have three concerns about the existing power supply, the age of it (capacitors age and not in a good way), the quality...
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bkoop

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Apr 1, 2012
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The HD 7750 would not require an extra power connector from the power supply and would be a huge improvement over the onboard graphics and is less than $100.

The one reference I found lists a 250w power supply, so I am a bit concerned about that.

This one is on sale at Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150663

It is a double wide card, so there would have to be nothing in the slot next to it.

Since the video card is on sale, I would be more comfortable with a new power supply
CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 430W for $44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

I have three concerns about the existing power supply, the age of it (capacitors age and not in a good way), the quality (some companies pick the cheapest power supplies) and the wattage, so my advice is the new power supply and video card or nothing at all.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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I agree mostly with the above, however a few points:

1. That Corsair CX430 blew up on me, and it's happened to others. I did a lot of reviews and found a great PSU, the Antec VP450 for $40: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371045

2. This HD7770 is only a little more than the HD7750 and has excellent reviews:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202011

3. When you see "REBATE" for a product, read the fine print especially the DATE to be sure you can actually claim it.

4. VERIFY that it is in fact an ATX power supply. You can measure it and compare:
from Wikipedia:
"ATX power supplies generally have the dimensions of 150 × 86 × 140 mm (5.9 × 3.4 × 5.5 in)[12]:23–24 and share a common mounting layout of four screws arranged on the back side of the unit. That last dimension, the 140 mm depth, is frequently varied, with depths of 160, 180, 200 and 230 mm used to accommodate higher power or modular connectors."

6. Your CPU will probably be a bit of a bottleneck, but adding this HD7750/70 will be a huge upgrade. Don't expect to run many modern games such as Battlefield 3, but there are several games that should run quite nicely. You can try getting DEMOS and experiment to see what runs well.
 
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fitzymcpatrick

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Dec 30, 2012
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Thanks you guys! I really appreciate the help! That 7750 looks great and so does the 7770, eventually it will be up to my friend if he wants to sped a little bit more money. But I'll definitely recommend that we replace the power supply as well!

Thanks again!
 
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