Jesse Williams13 said:Since I'm about to drop roughly $1667 on a new gaming build (already got my peripherals sorted), can I just keep using my current power supply? It's a Corsair 550W and it's about 5 years old.
thanks
As long as it's a decent model—like the VX or HX series—you should be fine.
Look, even by today's standards, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 isn't exactly a harmless little card—it’s just that nowadays, its lack of DX11 support and massive power draw make it a total nightmare to deal with.
Jason Newman said:I'm looking for a temporary GPU fix—just something to get my games running at 1080p, regardless of settings. I just need this to hold me over for about a year until I can afford a completely new build. Is that even doable given my current specs? Budget isn't a huge deal since I won't be putting anything high-end in here anyway.
Your power supply is solid, so stick with it. My advice? Pick a card that fits whatever budget you have left over after saving for the new rig. That way, when you eventually swap out the core platform (CPU, motherboard, and RAM), you already have a decent GPU ready to go.
If you don't want to play the long game, the best value right now is an NVIDIA GeForce GT 730
It’s a bit of a rip-off if you're paying cash, but if you really want to stick to that $3,500 budget, I can build you something similar to my setup using an overclockable Pentium paired with a much stronger graphics card. You have to accept that fitting an AMD FX-6300 into a budget that small at that specific retailer isn't realistic if you actually want a decent GPU for gaming.
EDIT
The only issue is that they don't offer much variety in power supplies there—you're basically stuck with an Enermax NAXN and you'll need to pick a different case.
You haven't really given me much to work with here. Just run Speccy and let me see what you're running. What kind of RAM are we talking about—DDR2 or DDR3? I need the exact motherboard model, the specific graphics card, the case, and even the power supply...
Don't worry about the power supply; it's perfectly fine.
Basically, like I said before, a 750 Ti and a 750 aren't even in the same league—the first one is significantly more powerful. It’s really just a matter of how much you want to spend. There's a massive performance gap between those GPUs priced around $283 (like the gtx 750 or R7 260 x) and jumping up to the $367+ range where you find the R7 265 or the 750Ti. After that, you can find a slightly better option for every extra hundred bucks you throw at it. If you're looking for the absolute sweet spot, an R9 270 costing roughly $417 would be your best bet.
It really comes down to what you're willing to shell out. A gtx 750 is a decent pick if it's around $267 dollars, especially since it's the 2GB version—though it'll likely run more like $300. For about a hundred bucks, you could have snagged an R7 265 (which is currently sitting at $367 or more), which actually outperforms a gtx 750ti for the same price tag.
Keep an eye on prices over at Newegg, and remember that cards from brands like MSI, ASUS, or Gigabyte often come with an extra year of warranty—giving you three years total—plus they usually sport much better cooling solutions.
It might be nothing. Typically, signs that you're pushing a power supply too hard include rising temperatures, louder fan noise, or even random restarts under load. In a worst-case scenario, the unit could fail entirely, though it’s rare for it to take other components down with it.
Look, this isn't some high-end, top-tier power supply (there are several versions out there anyway), and you won't find many deep-dive reviews or much user feedback online. Because of that, nobody can tell you with absolute certainty where its breaking point lies. An i5 paired with a GTX 750 Ti should be a safe bet, but an R7 265 would likely hold up just fine too.
It’s doable, but you probably shouldn't go too crazy with the other components since that power supply isn't exactly high-end—it’s not junk, but it’s nothing serious either.
For instance, instead of an R7 260x, you could grab an NVIDIA GTX 750 to take some load off the PSU. Similarly, rather than an R7 265, a slightly lower-powered GTX 750Ti would also help reduce the strain. Or, instead of sticking with the AMD FX 6300, you might consider an Intel Core i5-4460 paired with an Intel H81 or B85 motherboard.
Here is an example of a build without an optical drive:
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 (3.20GHz, 1MB, 6MB, 84 W, 1150) Box / - or an i5 4440 which wouldn't require a BIOS update 1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11 1 x Gigabyte GTX750Ti OC 2048 GDDR5 128bit 1 x Zalman Z3 mid tower case. 192(W)x465(H)x430(D)mm. Standard MB size 1 x Dell LCD 21.5 Wide, IPS, WLED, 1920x1080@60 Hz 1 x Asrock H81M-HDS, s1150, Intel H81, M-ATX, dual Channel 2 xDDR3
$1488 - admin note - price is for cash; financing would be up to 10% more expensive.
The CPU is more powerful than the AMD FX 6300 while pulling less power, and the GPU is stronger than the 260X but slightly weaker than the 265, all while being more energy efficient.
BTW, you can just reuse the optical drive and the case from your old PC if the drive uses a SATA connection; you could even skip the drive entirely.
If you're looking for a better CPU than the AMD FX 6300, you'll need to step up your game. The R7 265 is definitely the superior GPU here. If you're looking to upgrade, I’d definitely suggest going with an AOC—specifically one that features an IPS panel. You'll notice a massive difference in color accuracy and viewing angles compared to what you might be using now. It's a much better way to go if you want a cleaner, more vibrant picture.
Look, if you want to get Windows 7 running smoothly, your main priority should be securing at least 2GB of RAM and a decent dual-core processor. You can pick up those basic components for next to nothing these days. Everything else is just a nice little extra, but if all you need is a machine for Microsoft Office, you really don't need to overspend on anything more.
He doesn't even need a high-end machine. The systems listed up there actually include dedicated graphics cards, which is more than enough for basic Microsoft Office tasks. Something like this would work perfectly:
A dual-core setup with 2 GB of RAM is plenty. Just install Windows 7 32-bit and he'll be good to go. He won't need a massive hard drive either—if he really wants some snappy performance, just have him pop in an SSD.
I generally hesitate to vouch for random used listings because you just never know how reliable the seller actually is: - my main question here is, why hasn't this sold yet? If the description is accurate, it's an incredible deal.
Here are a few other backup options for you:
Just a heads up—those three above should only be considered if you're running a high-quality power supply.
If you want something brand new with a warranty, even if it's a bit lower on the performance scale, try this:
A more powerful integrated GPU could definitely be a solid move here. By the way, regardless of which path you take, you can always just drop in a discrete graphics card later on.
It’s a solid choice—it fits perfectly within your budget, the R9 270 is widely considered one of the best value models out there, and it hits that sweet spot as the absolute maximum you should pair with your CPU. 3/3
Only grab it if it’s free 😁 Let's be real—that machine is basically a paperweight at this point. Between the sluggish CPU and the lack of RAM, it’s only good for the most basic tasks. If you’re looking to drop $500/$200 or more, you can find much better hardware out there, like something with a dual-core processor and significantly more memory.