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Upgrading my Dad's Dell from integrated. (Power/Budget Q)

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Its an Inspiron 570. Here are consumption-relevant specs:

Has a "300 Watt" PSU, not sure how reliable that information is (its Dell).
5600RPM Sata 3gbps hdd
Athlon x2 245 (TDP 65W)
PCI-E 2
Doesn't need to be low profile
Budget of $100

HAS TO BE NVIDIA. The guy plays two games, one of which runs on Q3E and thus there are a shitfuckton of compatibility issues with Radeon cards. Don't ask me why, and I'm not going to debate it.

I'm leaning towards a 9800GT, but that's pushing it considering rev 2 only puts I think 75W on the slot, and the only other cable this PSU has is sata.

Is a 9800GT too hungry? Alternatives?

More about : upgrading dad dell integrated power budget

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Graphics card Expert

I would probably look at a "silent" or passively cooled card. Not only do they tend to use less power, but since you're dealing with an OEM case, anything you can do to keep the heat output down the better.

auntarie said:
9800GT requires at least 400W. GT 630 should run, but it requires 300W so it will be really close... Is upgrading the PSU an option?


At this time, no. He's pretty dead-set on the $100 budget, if I can't do it for that he's just going to wait till next year and do a full build. I'd considered a 630 but the 9800 actually performs better (or so I hear) in DX9 games. Looks like that'll have to be the way to go, though.


cl-scott said:
I would probably look at a "silent" or passively cooled card. Not only do they tend to use less power, but since you're dealing with an OEM case, anything you can do to keep the heat output down the better.


Are there any actually worth buying? Most of the ones I've seen use horrible memory, and I'm not sold they're worth the upgrade cost.
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