Buffing up an Acer Aspire M5630

[nuclaer]

I bought an Aspire M5630 a few years ago and have made some upgrades recently. I replaced 1x1GB ram with 2x2GB and added a GeFroce 9500. I also added a extra WD Blue for some HD space. The system has been great until now. I am looking to upgrade the graphics card to play the latest games, there is a good deal at my local computer shop for a GeForce GTX 460 SE (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16. I currently have a 300w PSU (that came with the prebuilt system), I need to upgrade the PSU for the new card. I am not sure if its a good idea to add these parts to a pre-built system. There is quite a bit of room around my current graphics card (2 inches inches all the way around it) so I think it would fit a bigger card. Still I am not sure if putting in a beefier PSU is a good idea, maybe I should just rebuild a new system from scratch, but I dont have the cash . Looking for a good PSU recommendation (under 80$, a decent W amount), advice on if I should mess with this prebuilt system and if all these parts will work together.
Thanks.

PS. My current PC:
Acer EG31M
2x2GB DDR2 Kingston
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
GeForce 9500 GT
LITEON PSU 300W (I think)

EDIT: Would it be a good idea to buy the PSU first, install it, and make sure everything works, then buy the graphics card?
EDIT 2: There is a deal on for a PSU at my local computer store as well, Coolermaster eXtreme Power Plus 700W for 79.99, this a good choice?

 

[killer8297]

Funny how I have the same system as you. Treated me nicely for the past 4-3 years, well I am still using it right now but I'm upgrading soon. I upgraded 2x1g ram to 2x2gb as well. I had a 9800gtx in the system which recently broke down and it currently rma. Had to cut some metal out of the hdd slot to make room. The psu that came with the computer died a long time ago along with couple more crappy psu killed by my 9800 gtx. Ironicly this time my 9800 gtx was killed by a powersupply. As of now I'm using a new Gigabyte gtx 570 soc and ocz zx 1000w which will be used in my future build, but the gtx 570 will have to be bottlenecked in the system until I can get my 2500k. I had to cut even a bigger chunk of the case to make room for a bigger graphics card, gotta love the case.
Anyways on with your question. Considering that you can not clock the q6600 and that you are using a gtx 460 650w would be more then enough. I would recommend corsair tx series. And you might want to look for a power supply with less wires. Even when I'm using a modular psu, the robust cable is a pain. I can even close my front case right now haha.

 

[nuclaer]

Thanks for the reply! I went ahead and put in the 700W PSU and 460 and its running great! Maxed everything, Dirt 3, BFBC2 and Crysis with playable frame rates. Your right, the cables were a bit of a pain to fit in. It look me half an hour just to hook up the PSU and I was sweating like crazy by the end haha. Thanks for your advice .

 

[charrua2]

Anyone of you having problems with the USB controller? Mine has been reset somehow to USB 1.1, and no matter how many device driver updates I get, it still runs slow. I looked in Microsoft website that I should have som kind of a "Enhanced Host Controller" line by the Universal Serial Bus Controller section, but I don't and I can't seem to find a way to get this in ... I am currently running a fresh reinstall of Vista 32b SP2. Thanks for any clues you may know ...

 

[drmusic4771]

My question is I have a choice between a Acer M5630 or a Gateway LX6810-01 which one would you get ? I know they are older systems but limited on money ( My friend tells me to get the Gateway because it holds more memory and the graphics card is better etc.