Help buying power supply and graphics card, to play Guild Wars 2!

[TimIsMe]

Hey everybody,

I would like to upgrade my graphics card and power supply, but I do not have much knowledge on computers. However, from the research I have done, I understand that upgrading to a better graphics card is not as simple as just buying one. It has to match the motherboard, and you have to have the correct power supply right?

I bought a prebuilt PC from Best Buy a few years ago and it is a HPE-210y and I found the specs from another forum and it was the exact model and product number that I have.

My current power supply is only 300W from the stock power that came with the computer and my graphics card is ATI Radeon HD 5450 with dedicated graphics memory of 512MB. I currently play Guild Wars 2, and I have to play it at the lowest settings and it is absolutely a shame to the game!

My questions are: What graphics cards can I buy that match my motherboard and is there an easy way for me to know this? My price range would be about $400 or so, but could be as low as $200, all depending on college fees, so if you have any suggestions I would appreciate it. Also, what power supply should I buy to be able to handle the graphics card around the $100-$150 range? Are there any power supplies that do not fit into the prebuilt case that came with my computer?

I feel like besides the graphics card and the power supply, my computer has a lot of other solid components for now, correct?

I appreciate all the help I can get!

System
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Manufacturer HP-Pavilion
Model BK170AA-ABA HPE-210y
Total amount of system memory 8.00 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 4

Storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total size of hard disk(s) 931 GB
Disk partition (C (920 GB Total)
Disk partition (D (12 GB Total)
Media drive (E CD/DVD

Graphics
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Display adapter type ATI Radeon HD 5450
Total available graphics memory 3571 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 512 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 3059 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.773.0.0
Primary monitor resolution 1920x1080
DirectX version DirectX 10

Processor
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Model: AMD Phenom II X4 945 (HDX945FBGIBOX)
Speed: 3.0 GHZ
Socket: AM3/AM2+
Bus speed: 3600 MHz HT3

Motherboard
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
H-RS880-uATX (Aloe)
Manufacturer: Foxconn
Form factor: uATX
Chipset: AMD 785G
Memory sockets: 4 x DDR3
Front side bus speeds: 5200 MT/s
Processor socket: AM3
Expansion Slots:

1 PCI x16 slot for graphics card
3 PCI x1 slots
1 PCI Express x1 minicard slot

Computer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
HPE-210y


I copy and pasted this question from another person, but I figured, it has almost been a year, I could get a bigger and better graphics cards, as well as a power supply.

The old thread is here http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/315218-28-help-buying-power-supply-graphics-card

But I'd like an updated answer.

Thank you very much for reading, and I do appreciate it.

 

[allanitomwesh]

For $400 you can get a hd7970 ghz.ed on sale. Awesome card. Also there's the gtx 670 by nvidia. Any hd79xx or gtx 6xx should perform.
$100 will get you 650w gold thereabouts which is plenty,you only have one graphics card slot, so it'll cover any and all cards you throw at it. Good brands include seasonic, pc power and cooling,fsp,xfx and corsair. Avoid powercool and other cheap but high wattage psu's. 80+ certification is also a good indicator of quality.