GPU upgrade help - Dell Inspiron 580 i5 750 2.67GHz

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wxy123

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Feb 20, 2011
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Hello all, don't hate me because I have a dell - I want to upgrade my gpu, here are my specs:

Purchased in June 2010 for $700:
Inspiron 580, Intel Core i5-750 processor(8MB Cache, 2.66GHz)
4GB DDR3 SDRAM AT 1066MHz-4X1GB
AMD Radeon 5450 (1GB) - want to replace
750GB - SATA-II 3Gb/s 7200RPM, 16MB Cache HDD
300W psu
Windows 7 Home Premium 64

Purchased in June 2010 for $120:
Monitor - Dell ST2310 (23") 1920 X 1080 res

Usage - Battlefield, Call of Duty, NFS - would like to play on high res

Budget - Would like to spend around $200 - 300 for everything needed to upgrade.

I have been browsing the forum and other websites for hours and have not found an answer to my question: what is the best gpu i can get for this system?

From the forums, I understand that psu can be replaced, contrary to what the tech support say at dell (will fry my mb?)

I am looking at ati 5850, but don't understand if my system will "bottleneck" its full potential.
What's the difference between this diamond 5850 for $194: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103085&cm_re=5850_radeon-_-14-103-085-_-Product
and this visiontek for $274: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129141&cm_re=5850_radeon-_-14-129-141-_-Product
other than $80?
If 5850 is too much for my system to handle, then perhaps the 5670? Any other recommendations?
I'm a little worried about temp - will extra fans be necessary? If so, any suggestions?
What's really up with dell and psu compatibility? If I need to upgrade the psu, will this OCZ 550W on sale for $69 give me enough power? Any better options?:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022
I'm assuming that after this upgrade, there is nothing else I'll be able to do to my dell in the future, so 550W is sufficient, is this a correct assumption?
I'll pop these two questions in while I'm at it:
Does wireless keyboard/mouse really affect gameplay?
And lastly - I'm using VGA cable for the monitor - is HDMI better and why?

Would love to get some feedback on all the questions, but if anybody wants to respond with recommendation on how to get the most out of what I have now by purchasing gpu/fans/psu, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for any help in advance.
 
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wribbs

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Consider these:
MSI N460GTX -M2D1GD5/OC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $136 AR +2 games
PowerColor AX6950 2GBD5-M2DH Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity $230 AR

Don't have a PSU recommendation atm but 550W would be good.

Not unless you run out of batteries.

Digital vs Analog. The layman wont notice a difference; the videophile will be tormented.
 
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wxy123

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for one bro you got a nice unit, don't bash Dell, why did you buy it then.?
second, do you have the 305-watt Dell psu right now or at time of order did you upgrade to a bigger supply.?
it's a standard ATX power supply or similar in size to ATX supply and can be changed without any modifications to your unit.
also, you can fit a dual slotted card in that unit so size shouldn't be an issue.
the power supply you picked out will work but there are better deals.
I also recommend going over to nVidia and maybe a GTX460 $200 or the GTX470 and GTX560 are around $250 at the moment.
if you have any real questions about your Dell and any upgrade path just ask me,
but don't bash..
Click to expand...

Hey malmental, thanks for reply - sorry, didn't mean to bash - i live in Austin and Dell has done a lot of good things here - I was just a little po'd at them last night because tech was telling me one thing, and i was reading other thing online. And don't get me wrong, I love my computer, big step up from my dell laptop (which still works after 5 yrs and was a great buy, just not cutting it anymore for gaming) - I just want a better gpu and turning out to be a bigger hassle than originally expected.

to answer your questions - it has original 305W dell psu. for upgrade to more powerful psu, any recommendations?

Any reason you suggest nVidia? Will I run into any issues ie mb compability if switch to GTX?
 
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wxy123

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Feb 20, 2011
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Hey Wribbs, thanks for your reply - any reason for suggesting 6950 over the 5850?
 
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wxy123

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http://www.anandtech.com/show/4135/nvidias-geforce-gtx-560-ti-upsetting-the-250-market/1

GTX560TI vs HD5870 = GTX560Ti wins
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=294

GTX560Ti vs HD6950 1GB = GTX560Ti wins
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=331
Click to expand...

cool, i really don't care whether it is nVidia or AMD, just want whatever I get to work, especially if in a year I ever want to buy 2nd card for Xfire or SLI. I did read that SLI performs better than Xfire, so going with nVidia might be a better choice.
One question - since GTX560 just came out, is there that much of difference between it and 460 that I would notice on my system? Paying 2X as much, I would hope to get around 2X the performance. I looked at anandtech and although 560 is better in most categories, not sure if it is worth the extra $110.

So what do you think, get a 460 with psu ($139) and 550W psu (~$50) with couple extra fans ($??) should do the trick?
 
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