Posts by Casey Long2

Absolutely. http://www.amd.com/en_us/products/details/graphics/amd is easily your best bet within this specific price bracket...

There’s really no point in chasing more than 1 GB of GDDR5—it's not like you'll get any extra mileage out of it since the chip itself is relatively weak; having 2 GB or something similar wouldn't actually give you anything more to work with. Honestly, the Radeon HD 5770 is about as much as you can push with that power supply while staying within a reasonable budget...

Actually, those modular power supplies tend to run quite a bit more expensive—honestly, they often cost more than the entire computer itself is worth.

They’re absolutely right on that point. Honestly, the only real difference you'll find is the cooler—but since that chip doesn't really run hot anyway, you might as well just go with the cheapest 😉

It’s not even really necessary, honestly—Chicony HPD4802RWR2 is more than enough for a setup like that (plus, the power supply is actually decent quality)

I’d highly recommend the Sapphire HD 5570. Honestly, considering its size and what you’re paying, this card is an absolute steal. My brother actually has one in his rig—paired up with a Core 2 Duo T7400 mobile processor—and the performance is surprisingly solid. He’s been running > at full HD resolution, and it stays buttery smooth on medium settings. If I remember correctly, he even played > on it, and it was totally playable 😉
. At this price point, it’s really a fantastic value 👍
. In my opinion, spending those extra $6.75 is definitely worth it 🙂

Aha! We're talking about an AGP graphics card here—that's a much bigger headache than the processor itself. You really need to be specific, because if you aren't, you'll end up accidentally buying a PCI-E card instead!
First off, spending money on a GPU for a rig like this isn't exactly the best investment. And honestly, limiting yourself to one specific card makes it even tougher.
Something like a Radeon 2400 or maybe an x1950, though in my opinion, spending anything more than $50 on such an old machine is just throwing money down the drain...

This is pretty much the absolute ceiling of what the rest of your rig can actually handle—honestly, if you ask me, it might even be a bit of an overkill. For $83, it’s still arguably worth the investment, but once you push beyond that, you're just spinning your wheels.
As far as the power supply goes—well, I don't have the slightest clue whether your current setup can cut it or if you're looking at an upgrade.

That’s an ancient motherboard with an AGP slot. To put it bluntly—you can pretty much forget about finding any modern cards for it; that standard was phased out ages ago. Honestly, if you tried to hunt down anything "new" that actually fits, you'd end up spending three times what the entire computer is even worth. So, unless you can snag something used (and I mean specifically with an AGP interface, definitely not PCI-E) for maybe $67 at most, it’s just not worth the investment.

As for the power supply—we don't have any details on what you're currently running, so...

Out of all the Lian Li cases out there, why on earth would anyone pick the Armorsuit? 😁 I mean, Lian Li makes some truly stunning chassis, but this one just doesn't hit the mark for me 😁

Regarding the iMac... personally, I don't think the 21" version is worth the investment. It’s priced significantly higher than a comparable PC setup, and when you look at the screen size versus the actual specs, that iMac just doesn't justify the premium. To my mind, it feels more like a flashy lifestyle piece than a serious workstation. Now, the 27" model is a completely different story—if you opt for the i5 processor, the much beefier configuration combined with that absolutely breathtaking display makes those $2,500 feel worthwhile. That 27" IPS panel alone is worth the $1,000 price gap compared to a high-end professional PC if you actually know how to leverage that color accuracy...
(Keep in mind, we're talking about a machine that comes with its own OS. Using a fake version of Windows just feels unprofessional to me 😉 )

If you're diving into graphic design, getting those color definitions right is non-negotiable—you absolutely need an IPS panel, and let me tell you, that level of accuracy doesn't come cheap.
HP DreamColor or maybe a Dell UltraSharp could serve as your entry-level baseline...

If you're still running XP, then—if my memory serves me right—you should see an "Add New Hardware" option sitting right there in the Control Panel; that’s usually where it'll walk you through the driver installation process. Alternatively, if they've moved over to Windows 7, that specific menu option isn't really there anymore, so they'd need to head into the Device Manager and select "Update Driver Software" instead. Once they're there, just point them toward the correct driver file, and they should be all set to get everything installed properly.

What kind of software are we talking about here? Usually, just running the driver itself should be a breeze without needing any extra bloatware. If the driver comes with its own setup or installation file, I’d suggest kicking that off first. Otherwise, if it’s just a raw file, you can always head over to the Control Panel or dive into the Device Manager to get it installed manually.

Should I just grab the driver directly from the manufacturer's website?

You’re going to have a pretty rough time trying to run any modern titles on that setup. To be honest, that processor is feeling a bit anemic by today's standards—it's just not hitting those necessary benchmarks anymore—so even if you were to slap the most powerful graphics card in the world onto it, you wouldn't see much of a difference. In my opinion, picking up a 5670 is definitely the smartest move for the money you're looking to spend right now...

A 500W unit is more than enough for this setup. Honestly, if you're looking at that specific range, the Seasonic 520 w is easily the smartest buy you can make.
Now, if you aren't strictly stuck choosing between just those two models and you’re looking to step things up a notch, I’d personally recommend the Corsair VX 550 w—you get plenty of overhead in terms of power, plus it comes with a solid 5-year warranty.
That said, generally speaking, you really can't go wrong with 😉Scythe
either; they're reliable.

There’s really no point in aiming for anything beefier than a GTS 450—the rest of the build just won't be able to keep up with a more powerful card anyway.
If you aren't running a monitor with at least a 1080p resolution, you shouldn't bother with the 1 GB version; honestly, the 512MB model will be more than enough for your needs. 😉

What kind of build are we talking about here? Do you really need that much raw wattage?
Now, look—Enermax is easily at the top of the food chain when it comes to sheer build quality, but you’re definitely paying a premium for that name. The Scythe Stronger series is solid too (it might not quite hit that same elite tier as Enermax, but it isn't lagging far behind)...

At the end of the day, though, we're talking about sinking a massive amount of cash into a power supply.

It’s impossible to say for certain whether one will just give up the ghost outright or not, but the reality is that both power supplies—the Dell unit and the MS one—are pretty low-tier in terms of quality. Personally, I wouldn't touch either of them; there’s always that nagging risk of something stupid going wrong, like overheating, burning out, or even just poor voltage regulation causing unstable power that ends up messing with your other components...

"Too expensive" is such a subjective term, isn't it? It really all comes down to what you value—how much are you actually willing to shell out? Beyond that, how much memory are we talking about here? Do you need enough to run a small server farm, or just enough to get through the day?