I just bought a new HPE-570t. One of the downsides is a limited power supply (300 watt).
I'm thinking about future upgrades, such as a better video card than what I've got in my system (currently a ATI Radeon HD 5450) and an internal Blu Ray writer. I understand that I could add the Blu Ray burner without a power supply upgrade, but that for a better video card, I would need to change power supplies.
My computer suffered from the Sandy Bridge chipset defect, so I'm going to be getting a new machine. And I was told that I could add upgrades at that time. As I understand it, a 460 watt power supply would be $56, and I could upgrade to an HD 5770 for only $10 more (the $10 HD 5770 is according to someone who said he added that upgrade for that price with my computer model).
Assuming that's correct, that upgrade would be $66.
Or I could wait a while (I don't really need it now) and install it myself.
Here are my questions:
1) If I did an upgrade myself, I could obviously add a much bigger power supply than the 460 watts available from HP. But is there any reason for this? Or should I just get the lowest power unit that I think will fit my needs? What power supply and wattage would you recommend?
2) How do you mate components? For instance, how do you match a video card to a processor? I might be wrong, but it seems like the i7-2600 that my computer has has its own built-in graphics and a new technology. I would want any video card upgrade to work WITH what my 2600 offers, and not against it.
I've read that some people have bought power supplies that were larger than their case capacities, or that they had to stuff it in so tightly that they created airflow/heat problems. I'd rather get something the same size/shape to avoid issues, which means I'd have to look over my unit for those specs.
Basically, I've never messed with the internals of a computer before. I've had laptops up to now, and the only thing I've done is upgrade my RAM. While I'm not too afraid to open up my case and make fairly simple replacements, I wouldn't want to get something that required a bunch of alterations; I'd just want stuff that fit in same-same and ran right without software hassles.
I'm thinking about future upgrades, such as a better video card than what I've got in my system (currently a ATI Radeon HD 5450) and an internal Blu Ray writer. I understand that I could add the Blu Ray burner without a power supply upgrade, but that for a better video card, I would need to change power supplies.
My computer suffered from the Sandy Bridge chipset defect, so I'm going to be getting a new machine. And I was told that I could add upgrades at that time. As I understand it, a 460 watt power supply would be $56, and I could upgrade to an HD 5770 for only $10 more (the $10 HD 5770 is according to someone who said he added that upgrade for that price with my computer model).
Assuming that's correct, that upgrade would be $66.
Or I could wait a while (I don't really need it now) and install it myself.
Here are my questions:
1) If I did an upgrade myself, I could obviously add a much bigger power supply than the 460 watts available from HP. But is there any reason for this? Or should I just get the lowest power unit that I think will fit my needs? What power supply and wattage would you recommend?
2) How do you mate components? For instance, how do you match a video card to a processor? I might be wrong, but it seems like the i7-2600 that my computer has has its own built-in graphics and a new technology. I would want any video card upgrade to work WITH what my 2600 offers, and not against it.
I've read that some people have bought power supplies that were larger than their case capacities, or that they had to stuff it in so tightly that they created airflow/heat problems. I'd rather get something the same size/shape to avoid issues, which means I'd have to look over my unit for those specs.
Basically, I've never messed with the internals of a computer before. I've had laptops up to now, and the only thing I've done is upgrade my RAM. While I'm not too afraid to open up my case and make fairly simple replacements, I wouldn't want to get something that required a bunch of alterations; I'd just want stuff that fit in same-same and ran right without software hassles.