need help and or ideas

[orgoth]

heres the deal I recently bought a compaq presario 1720nx its decent its got the 3500 semperon cpu the one thats on 939 socket
got a cd drive and a few other goodies I bought it cause my work was selling it cheap and its way better than my old 701 mhz duron for college
so heres the deal this system has a PCI express slot but the down side is that it only has a 250w power supply... Im pretty sure thats it...
curret card is a ati xpress 200

I need a better card with pixel shader 3.0 at least cause I want to play thief 3 again. so what should I do can I get a decent power supply into this thing or is that end hopless, my other option is just putting a card in that will be ok with my low power system.

 

[doolittle]

You should be able to handle up to a 7600gt with a 250w. Anything beyond that maybe replace it since it appears to be a standard ATX size since hp partsurfer says you have a Bestec ATX-250-12ZD 250w (or similiar) and looks like a standard ATX mount hole pattern and dimensions.

 

[shadowduck]

You should be able to handle up to a 7600gt with a 250w. Anything beyond that maybe replace it since it appears to be a standard ATX size since hp partsurfer says you have a Bestec ATX-250-12ZD 250w (or similiar) and looks like a standard ATX mount hole pattern and dimensions.

Like Dell though Compaq might use special pinouts on their motherboards. If you plug a standard PSU into a Dell motherboard, it will blow the board on startup. (At least this used to be the case.)

 

[doolittle]

Apparently they have changed their evil ways

ATX12V-HP250BT (Bestec ATX-250-12ZD) with mouse-over pinouts

Well it is missing the -5v but if you don't need it you won't miss it

atx 20-pin connector pinout

 

[Anoobis]

From what I can see, Thief 3 only requires hardware support for SM 1.1, not 3.0 but it does require at least Direct X 9B to be installed on your system. An X800 might fit the bill with your current PSU.

 

[bweir]

I wouldn't trust the PSU to power my desk lamp, but that's just me. OEM PSU's tend to be very overrated and are often the weak link when a user-initiated upgrade causes a crash, or worse, a PSU failure. Look further into getting a compatible PSU of at least 350 watts if the price is reasonable. Otherwise, with a more powerful video card, you run the risk of toasting your 'puter in a bad way, moreso if the video card has the dual-molex requirement that is so common today.

 

[orgoth]

Im just looking to have a semi decent card ( maybe not oblivion reqs) but something that can play most games with a few goodies I tend to run games at 1024x768 medium settings ect... So im just wondering what I can put in for a graphics card without fraging my machine

 

[jaguarskx]

Call Compaq/HP support and tell them you bought the PC from work because they were liquidating their old PC, but you think the power supply (PSU) is giving you problems. Ask if it can be replaced by a standard ATX PSU.

If it can then get a 350w PSU at the very least. Antec is a good brand that makes relatively inexpensive PSUs. For a budget PSU I generally recommend the XClio 450BL 450W Power Supply for about $50 shipped. There are certainly less expensive PSU than this and it is probably and overkill for you.

Here's a hardware review of this generally unknown, but very good PSU.

The fact of the matter is you should look for hardware reviews of PSUs. Don't always rely on word of mouth.