Posts by Karen Fox92

I’m feeling a bit skeptical again... but if you honestly think that 450W unit is going to handle this build for the long haul:
AMD Athlon II X3 445
4GB DDR2
Sapphire HD5830
2 SATA drives
2 DVDRW
2 PCI cards

then I guess I'm buying...

Casey Long2 said:They are. is probably your best bet in this price bracket...

What do you mean by that? They ARE a bad choice.😕
I actually had that AMD card on my shortlist too—before I scratched it. Why exactly do you think the Dell Latitude is a bad move?

Thanks everyone—finally snagged an EVGA HD5830 😵. Now I definitely need to shell out some cash for a new power supply. After wading through a sea of comments and suggestions, I'm leaning toward one of these;

EVGA Silent series 550W

http://www.amazon.com/example-link

or maybe Corsair CX430

http://www.newegg.com/example-link.

Hopefully neither of these is a terrible choice??🤔

Benjamin King2 writes: Total Power 340W Max.
Look, I get that getting exact specs isn't always easy—I tried calling some shops, but since yesterday was a holiday, nobody was working. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if those 5830s are actually in stock...
If they're totally sold out, I might just pivot to the Radeon HD 5770. On paper, the gap between the 5830 and the 5770 looks massive, but from what I can see in the benchmarks, the real-world difference isn't all that huge.

Benjamin King2 said:That’s basically a server power supply—if it’s actually putting out 350W, I wouldn't mess around with it... the 5830 should be significantly more expensive, so maybe check what clock speeds those cards are running at.

Actually, it isn't much more expensive—at least not this EVGA one I found on eBay. It’s roughly $283 for the 5830, and even the 5770 models are starting around $267.
The EVGA 5830 runs at 800/4000 MHz, while the 5770 sits at 850/4800 MHz.
But since the 5830 is 256-bit and the 5770 is only 128-bit, that's definitely playing into my decision...🤷

I’m probably picking up this card next week, but I'm a bit iffy about my current power supply—wondering if I’ll be forced to swap that out too.
According to the OuterVision Power Supply Calculator, my current setup hits maybe 350W at peak, but adding an HD 5830 would push that closer to 385W.
The PSU I'm running is some kind of Dell Power Supply so... yeah, I have my doubts.
Replacing the PSU as well would be pretty pricey, so if it's necessary, I might just go with the Radeon HD 5770 instead (since it's basically the same price as the HD 5830 (😕)).
Any advice? Thanks!