compaq presario cq5320f upgrade

floridaguy727

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I have a Compaq Presario CQ5320F and was going to upgrade the power supply and grapic card will these work with my computer?
power supply Corsair Builder Series CX 500 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS (CX500)
grapic card EVGA GeForce GTX 650 1024MB GDDR5 DVI mHDMI Graphics Card 01G-P4-2650-KR or PNY NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 2GB GDDR5 2DVI Mini HDMI PCI-Express Video Card VCGGTX650XPB
 
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Yes, that should work (key word: should). Though with prebuilt machines you sometimes have compatibility issues when the MB pcie port is a different version from the card, even though pcie is spec'd for backwards compatibility. So, make sure you have your bios updated (if that is even possible for a compaq...).

senkasaw

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Yes, that should work (key word: should). Though with prebuilt machines you sometimes have compatibility issues when the MB pcie port is a different version from the card, even though pcie is spec'd for backwards compatibility. So, make sure you have your bios updated (if that is even possible for a compaq...).
 
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floridaguy727

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one other question is there a difference in pci express 3.0 and pci express x16, because some cards say one and others say the other. when i checked the specs it just says pci expressx16.
 

senkasaw

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pci express 3.0 refers to the version (1.0, 2.0, or 3.0....4.0 spec is out there but not used yet) which indicates the specification used and the max bandwidth per lane: 1.0 = 250MB/s, 2.x = 500MB/s, 3.0 = 985MB/s.

the x16 indicates the number of lanes (which dictates the size of the port, can be x1, x2, x4, x8, x16, or x32 never seen x32 though).

Usually when it just says x16 it is referring to PCI express v1.0 x16 slot.

edit: the different version specifications are all backwards compatible...in theory :) sometimes motherboards wont support different versions when they ship though...usually fixed with a bios update (this problem is most common in pre built systems and on cheaper motherboards, at least in my personal experience).
 

senkasaw

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Looks like the cards you have in your original post are referring to the size of the HDMI connector when they say "mini." So you should be just fine. Their PCIe connectors are normal PCIe connectors :)
 

senkasaw

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Solid build. The only recommendation I would have is swapping out the 7770 for an r7 260x. It is a newer card and will get you some better performance for the money.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-1003662l -good deal on that one right now.


Hmmmmm...looking closer, you may not need the extra corsair fans...The zalman case should come with plenty to cool your case with. That would save you $55...which we could then shove into a more powerful GPU...

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx660dc2o2gd5 BAM. That would sit you right smack on top of a gtx 660! excellent card!

Also, 'nother thought, you could check out tom's system builder competition $750 gaming pc (posted just yesterday)...the article has benchmarks for a few games. And it hits your price point right on. It might have some good design ideas.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-budget-gaming-pc,3780.html

This one would be a stellar performer in games. Though it sacrifices a few other things (like no ssd (huge sacrifice for me personally), cheap case, no aftermarket heatsink), but it does save some serious money... If you were to do something like this (drop the ssd, aftermarket heatsink (no overclocking the cpu though...), and no extra case fans (which I think you would be fine with in your zalman case), you could really upgrade your GPU.


Sorry. I might have done too much here...I get excited when it comes to new builds.
 

senkasaw

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Yep, 750 ti is still a great card. :)

Overclocking is when you crank up the speeds (beyond initial design) at which your hardware is running, in order to get more performance out of it. This creates a lot of extra heat. For a 3.5 GHz cpu you could "overclock" it to run at say 4.0 GHz...so it would be faster. But this eats up power, creates lots of extra heat, can make your system unstable, and reduces the life of the component.

Edit: Also, with your system selection as it is, you have decent room for upgrades in the future (when budget may permit). Overall a very balanced build.