Upgrading to new card help

[RineEater]

1. Motherboard -
2. Graphic interface - PCI-e
3. Memory - 1 GB
4. CPU - AMD Athalon 64 4000+
5. CPU Speed - 2.41 GHz
6. Power Supply Make/Model - Delta Electronics Inc./ DPS 330AB 15A (no clue about this one)
7. Watt output/Amperage - +12V/15A
8. Max Power- 300W

I love first person shooters and i just bought STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl and it's not that fun on my current and very crappy integrated nvidia 6100. I'm looking into the e-GeForce 8600 GT 256 MB PCI-E DX10 Graphics which i can get for $120 or a PNY GeForce 7600GS 512 MB for $100.

I guess that's pretty much my financial range. The problem is i dont know what's better for its price. I'd assume the 8600 b/c of my little bit of research it was only ever compared to the 7900 (so maybe the 7600 is a lot worse than the 8600, but for a $20 difference i want to be sure). But i'm not sure and that's why i'm on here asking you guys.



I looked up the 8600 and found this product which looks exactly what i'm looking to buy- it gives the specs and what the needed power supply: http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=256-P2-N755-AR

it says minimum of 350Watt and +12v/22a- so i know now i'd have to upgrade my PSU. So i got to looking for a new PSU and found this: http://www.compusa.com/products/pro...cm_mmc=compusa-_-rss-_-ad-_-computer_upgrades

It looks very good and more along the high end which i dont mind, but it mentions something about having connectors for: "Two PCI-E connectors for PCI-Express video cards on 550W and 650W models, one connector on 430W model" and i was wondering if this is ok if the 8600GT card says "Minimum of a 350 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 22 Amp Amps.)
Minimum 400 Watt for SLI mode system.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 24 Amp Amps.)"

However, is that PSU really needed? how about this: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=344088

for so much less.... i dont want to be cheap, but i dont want to spend all my money either.

 

[CMH]

I suppose if they said it'll work on a 350W PSU, you can probably get away with that 380W Antec PSU.

You might want to see how much more you'd be paying for the 430W model.

As for the graphics card, I would think the 8600Gt would perform better, even though it has less RAM. You might want to check www.tomshardware.com, they have a nice chart comparing graphics cards in a whole variety of settings. Great to see which is the better card.

 

[kpo6969]

The Antech Earthwatts 380 is 27amps, more than enough. The card's recommended minimum is always subjective. My 8600GT says 300w and 18amps and out of the box it comes at 620/1600mhz. My 305w psu is 22amps.

Have a look at this too:

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards...06b07dff5ea56c5456e7d0806&card1=513&card2=387

 

[RineEater]

well i can get the 2 different PSUs for the prices on the pages those links go to. The EarthWatts for 34.99 and the TruePower Trio for $40 more at 79.99.

If i had to buy today, i'd go with the 8600 and the true power trio.

The only thing is will the TruePower be too powerful for the card? is that even possible? B/c it says of the 3 models is comes in, 430W is the lowest, is that ok being so far from the rating for the 8600?
And thanks both of you for those links and replying.


and i just realized will i have to worry about the PSU fitting inside the computer?

 

[Melcom]

I Can Help !

I dont know your real need what do you what better sound, no chipping I dont know please reply to Melcom !

 

[Halos]

In my opinion, that power supply is a little overpriced for the low wattage. I'd suspect you can find something better and/or cheaper online at one of the warehouse type websites (i.e. Newegg, Tigerdirect, etc.). But some people don't necessarily like ordering from those, in which case your best option is place like CompUSA. I have the 8600GT, and I know that it works great with all my games. I would recommend it in a heartbeat, great price for the performance you will get out of it.