Upgrading 8600GT 256MB, £50 - £200 Budget, 300W PSU

Hey guys first post so Hi!

Anywho, I recently have been wondering about upgrading my old 8500GT 256MB GFX Card to support some of the newer games that are coming out. My PSU is 300W with 18a on the +12v Rail, I have been looking round and some of my choices are:

#9800GT - Low Power edition
#GT240
Any other reccomendations about High Performance, Low Power Useage are Needed

I am really looking for a GFX card that packs a punch with gaming but low on Power.
Which will be best to suite my budget and PSU?

Cheers,
Lone

P.S My Machine is a Dell Inspiron 531 with OEM PSU and OEM 8600GT 256MB

Currently the most powerful card not requiring an extra power lead is the HD5670, expect to pay around 75-85 pounds in he UK.
Have a quick gander here:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gami [...] 039-7.html

you will have no issue with the 5670. make sure its the PCI 2.0 version of the card rather then the 2.1, your DELL BIOS may have issues with it.

FYI, I ran regular 9800GT & 9600GT off that exact same PSU

Have you purchased the new PSU yet? The 12v amperage seems quite low for a 700 Watt unit- Or does it have more than one 12v rail? It is very easy to misread those rating labels!
At the top end of your £200 budget theHD6870/GTX470 are within reach but I'll hold off on that recommendation until I know more details on the PSU rating and installed CPU.
And finally, what monitor resolution do you use? If the system has a 'weak' CPU and you game at 1280x1024 the HD5770 or GTS450 would be plenty, if you use a 1920x1200 monitor or 1080 TV as a display then a faster card is a better option because it is less likely to be held back by a slower CPU.

The 5770 should be max for your PSU and your CPU.They both only require 1-6 pin connector.You might get bottlenecked by your CPU though.

It's not as powerful as the HD5770 but if space is so limited then that is likely to be the limiting factor anyway, so you're rather forced into that route.
That said, the GTS450 is not a bad card, cartainly a big leap up from the 8600 and capable enough given its miserly power consumption.

28a on the 12v for a 700w is not very good. in fact, it screams of an out dated design. a quality 400w PSU would offer you a better value.

to answer your question, yes the GTS450 will run on that PSU. how long your PSU lasts is a better question.

Unfortunatley, I live in the UK and am unable to order from Newegg. The dimentions for that card are too big at 8.8" x 4.4", I would need a card that is atleast 7" maybe 7.3" at Maxmimum as my OEM Case is not a FULL ATX Tower. I guess I'll need to get a new PSU then, the one I have in is only a Cheapo £25 Storm PSU from Scan. I know that my dad's PSU is a 700W with 48A +12v rail but thats only an EcoLabs, it really only cost him £20 from Ebay. Would you say that 48A +12v rail is about right?

Where did you get a gts 450 for £62? That's a stunning buy.

What so your saying to me you had the exact case/tower as me? (Inpsiron 531), I have found a new PSU which has two +12v Rails, +12v1 18a and +12v2 18a would this be more than enough or am I better getting more? do the 2 rails add together?

BTW plastichairball would you mind telling me which manafacture your GTS 450 is? As there are so many lol Which is the best to buy? I was looking at the "PALIT 1GB GEFORCE GTS 450" http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb [...] vi-i-hdmi]

And BTW the Palit card looks quite good! The page didn't load properly so I didn't see the price, but the specs look good.

Why wait:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/prod [...] &catid=123

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] ubcat=1854

Around £150 the pair

Or you could try, amongst others: Pixmania, CCL, Scan, Dabs, Microdirect and E-buyer.

Blast! Wrong link for the PSU-me bad .


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] =CA-034-CS

Anyway, those were just to show you can get both and stay under the upper end of you £200 budget.
Try to stick with better brands: Corsair, Silverstone, Antec, FSP and OCZ are considered the best, avoid cheap, high rated units they are cheap for a reason- and it's not their tight purchasing control.

Thanks for the suggestion but I think that the £67 mark is abit too much for the PSU and I don't really want the GTX 460 abit over I think. TBH I only want a cheapo PSU really and like the guy plastichairball said he's running it off a 400W that was £16 with some good +12v Railage lol I might get a 650W maybe 500W with something like +12v 48a or something...

Thanks for the suggestions but the max i'll go for a PSU is £25 maybe £30... I did find this Colours PSU with Dual +12v Rails; +12v1 20a and +12v2 19a... http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650 [...] tx12v-v22] Would that be enough?

im not sure, it states 20a and 19a yet it only has 1 6-pin pci-e connector, thats very bad for a 650w unit and makes it look like it cant output what it says. i would recommend this power supply for £30, its also on ebuyer for £37. 4 12v rails providing 16a each.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Huntkey-500w [...] 73fb3014e1

if you really want a gts450, go for this evga 1gb gts 450 superclocked card with hawx 2 included for £91. pretty good deal considering hawx 2 costs £29.99 on steam atm.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb [...] vi-i-mhdmi

just for comparison, the huntkey comes with 2, 6+2 pin pci-e connectors. the ebay link has 3 days remaining but it is a buy it now auction. just in case it runs out before you can get it, heres the ebuyer link.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176438