Posts by Casey Long2

The 400W version is an older unit built on a Seasonic design—it hits over 80% efficiency and can actually handle more current than what’s officially rated without breaking a sweat.
On the other hand, these newer models are based on a stripped-down CWT budget platform that doesn't even reach 80% efficiency. They come with a weaker two-year warranty, perform worse overall, and rely on much lower-quality components.

stormywolf39 said:So, we're looking at a Seasonic 430W, maybe a Silverstone 400W, or a Corsair CX 400W if you can even track one down anymore—though, in my experience, that LC Power Silent Giant Green Power 460W actually turned out to be a decent little budget option for the price.

Just a quick signature note, and honestly, just saying this in the hope that people will actually take it to heart: AVOID THE CORSAIR CX SERIES UNLESS YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE 400W MODEL.

casualsurfer92 said:Will this be able to provide enough juice for an HD 5770? My CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 running at 2.13GHz—will that be sufficient to handle an HD 5770??

It’s the same old story... we suggest one thing, and then everyone starts hunting for the cheapest option possible. Look, if Spira were actually a high-quality brand, we'd be recommending it in a heartbeat...

Well, I wouldn't say that's quite right... Spira is still hanging around somewhere in the mix with Codegen.

casualsurfer92 said:Is an ATX 2 power supply rated at 420W actually better than a Codegen 400W unit??

Where from? What specific model and manufacturer are we talking about here?

Regarding that Chief unit mentioned earlier—if I were in your shoes, I’d personally go with this one.

$50 That’s definitely not a small amount of money to drop on a gaming mouse—especially when you're looking at a wireless model.

Apple makes some pretty decent peripherals, so I’d expect it to be solid enough. Still, I wouldn't go expecting anything groundbreaking at that price point...

Paul Miller64 said:hmm, I used to run an 8800 GTS with just 320MB and it worked fine....

Alright, let me put this another way: brands like those budget off-brand units you see at big-box retailers—think generic power supplies from a local discount shop—are basically bottom-tier components. They suffer from a few major issues: a) they don't actually deliver much juice on the 12V rail;
b) they aren't built with any decent internal components;
c) they lack basic protection against sudden voltage spikes;
and so on.
Sure, you might be able to get a beefier graphics card running on one of them for a while, but once you start pushing it with high power demands, things can go south pretty fast. And because of that cheap construction, if it does blow, there’s a very good chance it’ll take something else down with it—be it your GPU, your motherboard, your hard drive, or even the whole system...

The bottom line is that you should look to replace that power supply as soon as possible. Personally, I'd much rather have a rock-solid, high-quality power supply paired with a weaker graphics card than the other way around.😉

The codegen is going to crash if you try to push an 8800 or anything even more powerful through it...

analogcobra442 said:Hey guys, what's the deal with this GeForce GTX 250 card?

Black. Or maybe green. I think I've seen a few red ones floating around too.

Well, you get what you give, I suppose... such a vague question deserves an equally vague answer.

Bryan Evans77 said:That card doesn't even exist...

You probably meant the GTS 250—which, honestly, was a solid card back in its day—but it’s definitely showing its age now that newer hardware is hitting the shelves. It's running on some pretty old architecture at this point...

Were you actually looking to pick one up? And if so, what kind of price are we talking about?
Take a look at the original thread here:

casualsurfer92 said:I’d actually be down to sell it for $83 if there's a way to do that?🙂

Go ahead and post an ad—it's worth a shot. Just a heads-up, we have dedicated hardware marketplace sections right here on this forum (just scroll through a few subforums down and you'll see them). Whatever you do, please don't try to promote anything on this specific subforum—the moderators are pretty strict about cleaning up ads here, and they're totally justified in doing so 🙂

casualsurfer92 said:What kind of price can I get for her?

Well, there you have it. Of course, there’s a massive difference between what something is actually worth on the market and what you might want to hold out for...

casualsurfer92 said:Should I just offload this old GeForce 8600GT?

Honestly, it's entirely up to you—whether you hang onto it or let it go—it really isn't our call to make...

That’s perfectly fine—you won't be running into any memory bottlenecks there.

Like I mentioned before, you should have a pretty smooth experience playing on medium settings. To really push those ultra-high details, though, you're going to need a lot more raw horsepower—both from your GPU and your CPU (and honestly, upgrading those usually means looking at an entirely new rig altogether).

casualsurfer92 said:Will my current GPU hold its own for much longer? Specifically, I’m wondering if I’ll actually be able to run any modern titles on a 19-inch monitor at 1440x900 resolution—it feels like such a niche setup these days.🙂

Hey, take it easy on the caps lock—for heaven's sake...

Like I mentioned before—and I really can't stress this enough—please let us know exactly how much RAM you’re working with. It actually makes a massive difference in how we troubleshoot this, so knowing that specific detail is pretty vital to getting you an answer.
Look, Jace, you’re just going to have to accept that you aren't going to be able to force that graphics card to perform any better than it already is—it's simply hitting its limit.
It’s not exactly a massive jump in resolution, but let's be realistic here—don't go expecting to crank everything up to "Ultra" settings. That processor is already feeling a bit underwhelming by today's standards—it's definitely struggling to keep pace with modern hardware demands. That said, you should still be able to enjoy some decent gameplay if you stick to those middle-of-the-road settings... it'll hold its own well enough for a smooth experience.

@Olivia Collins5/">@@Olivia Collins5: Just like stormywolf39 mentioned, a 240 is definitely a step down from what you're currently running—even if we're talking about a 4830. Honestly, I’m a bit puzzled as to why someone would even consider swapping it out for something newer. At an 800*600 resolution, this card should be absolutely flying. If you're seeing performance dips while gaming, I’d be willing to bet my bottom dollar it isn't the graphics card itself—and probably not the CPU or RAM either—but rather some kind of software hiccup or driver issue somewhere along the line...

Casey Parker9 said:I just picked up an 8800 GTS with 512MB yesterday... honestly, I couldn't be happier with it. 😁

http://www.techshout.com/images/gefo...hics-cards.jpg

Running everything at max settings

So, what kind of resolution are we talking about here?

Carl Ward59 said:Hey there—I hope I’m in the right place! I actually just signed up about three minutes ago because I’m really trying to figure out which graphics card would be the best fit for my current setup. I'm running an Intel Core 2 Duo dual-core processor with a 530W power supply, and I was thinking of spending somewhere around $0.83 on a card.

What else are you running in that rig? To be honest, even if you find a great deal, you probably won't be able to get the full performance out of a $400 card with those specs. You'll likely hit a wall before you can even push an Nvidia gtx 460 to its limits...

Not exactly, though. If you look back at that era, they actually slowed down their release cycles quite a bit. It’s true that there’s a much wider variety of cards on the market now, but the new series only seem to roll out every year and a few months—it's definitely not the rapid-fire pace we used to see.

Something along these lines... though, honestly, you don't see much of this kind of thing around here in the States...