ATX-300-12E & Radeon HD 5670

[dragonoa]

Hi!

I'm building my first PC and have bought an XFX Radeon HD 5670.

My PSU is an old Bestec ATX-300-12E (Rev: A2), originally from an eMachines 6260. According to this topic, my card will run on a 300W PSU. Will mine suffice? I'd rather not have to buy a new PSU in the short term. However, I don't want to risk damaging my hardware. If a new PSU is advisable, can you recommend one that would cope comfortably with future upgrades (quad-core processor, sound card, etc.)?

My motherboard is an ASRock N68C-S UCC; my processor is an AMD Athlon II X2 250 and I have 4GB DDR3 RAM.

 

[megamanx00]

It might run now, but that's not exactly a quality unit so even if it suffices for now it's likely to kill something latter. I've seen those cheap PSUs kill alot of components from running out of spec over a long period of time. If I were you, I'd buy a decent PSU first. At the very least spend $45 on an Antec Earth Watts 380

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371033

or the Corsair dirtyferret suggests is sufficient. Honestly though I suggest you get a good quality 500W unit with good reviews (and I don't mean just the user reviews on newegg). Do your research. A quality 500W unit can even power a system with a single power hungry card like a 5870, 6950, or a GTX 560ti. Invest in a good PSU now and you can reuse it for years to come.

 

[dragonoa]

Thank you very much for the advice! I will buy a new PSU before installing the video card. Unfortunately, I live in the UK so I can't buy from Newegg.

Would you consider the Antec TP-550 a quality PSU? It's a little more than I wanted to spend but is available for £60 on Amazon.co.uk. Is that reasonably priced?

 

[dragonoa]

Awesome. Ordered it and it's on its way. Thank you for your help, dirtyferret and megamanx00!