Confused with psu!!! Ghetto style gpu upgrading!

ShadowHearth

hey lads, some of you allready noticed me trolling abit in this part of forums.

i am seriuosly looking in to very cheap upgrade for my pc.

its old dell xps420

q6600 2.4ghz
3gb ram
8800GT
640gb
dells 375 PSU ( has to be prety solid as it handles 8800gt perfectly which needs minimum 400)

I want to squize a bit more life out of it. its 4.5 years old system and it newer let me down! Due to some big spending in next 2 months i cant afford new system untill autumn, but i could squize a few quid for a tiny upgrade.

so Best i could think off: get best gpu that my psu could handle!

here comes the confused part: everyone recomends 700+++ psu to run even tetris, but does it even need that?! i checked few forums and i get even more confused. Some people run 550ti with 400 psu. athers then say that 550ti takes more power then 6850/70, and gives better performance. 6850 recommended psu is 500... the more i read in, more confused i am... i even discovered that they recomend 600psu for 8800gt where it runs on 375 in my pc for allmoust 5 years...

misses is in austria now, she checked in a few prices for me on gpus. Its more expencive then online shops, but it will be less hassel with delevery and delevery charges.

so what best gpu i can drop in to get max performance with same 375 psu?

this what my misses found in austria:

geforce gtx 550ti 129eu

hd5770 99eu 1024mb version

hd6870 179eu

so far lads said that i could have 5770 with no problem at all, what about rest? and what gpus i could look in to? i got time till next friday



THANKS!

Mister Man

I may be wrong, but the 6850 isn't very power hungry at all, might be worth looking into?
Have you considered buying a cheapo PSU from adverts/eBay/DoneDeal?

ShadowHearth

Mister Man wrote: »

I may be wrong, but the 6850 isn't very power hungry at all, might be worth looking into?
Have you considered buying a cheapo PSU from adverts/eBay/DoneDeal?

i newer thought of second hand psu... newer knew someone would sell it .

would 6850 still need better psu then so? what would be bare minimum? i am not looking in to upgrading for this pc. it will be as a secondary pc in the house for misses when i get new pc. she does not play games.

Fluffy88

I have a similar machine here but with a 8600GT and I have been looking at what I could do for an upgrade. I have been using this website (http://www.hwcompare.com/5995/geforce-8800-gt-512mb-vs-radeon-hd-6850/) to check the stats against my own it's handy to see the difference especially because it gives the watts needed for the card.

ShadowHearth

Fluffy88 wrote: »

I have a similar machine here but with a 8600GT and I have been looking at what I could do for an upgrade. I have been using this website (http://www.hwcompare.com/5995/geforce-8800-gt-512mb-vs-radeon-hd-6850/) to check the stats against my own it's handy to see the difference especially because it gives the watts needed for the card.

i have to say: THANK YOU FOR THAT WEBSITE! :eek:

5770 and 550ti will be same as 8800gt in power drain. so spot on!

5870 is 50 watt more! will i be pushing? i would plane to play on 1650x1050 ress, not " so called full hd these days :rolleyes:" ressolution.

what could be the worse to happen if i put 6870 in to my pc and psu will be a bit low? will i be able just find a better psu or will i burn my system?

i really want to go for 6870 as it will push away date to buy new pc quite alot!

ShadowHearth

guys. i am doing some more research and looks like dells 375 can handle 6850/70 prety well!

i got a problem thought, i can find only one 6 pin connectors which is used by 8800 gt.

i read that you can make anather 6 pin with special connectors that are supplied with card. i dont even know if i got them to make 6 pin...

i got these spare connectors coming from psu:
after some reasearch i finded out its

4 pin molex power connector
4 pin floppy connector ( oh god... )

cant see any ather spare cables.

so will there be ( or is it even possible) adapter to make that molex connector in to 6 pin?

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#peripheral

it says here it is used for such reasons.

ShadowHearth

okay i see loads of views, but all advices thined out, when we being more specific.


so 6870 needs 151wat and uses 2 6 pin connectors, by the looks of it these connectors are 150wat each. thats why i need 2... 150 + 1.

i need 2xmolex connectors to make anather 6 pin one, but i got only 1 molex out there, but 2 spare SATAs. i found on amazon SATA to molex adapter, they are only 2 paunds each, but the awesome part is - delevery 24paunds... and i cant pick super saver delevery method... RAGE!

would maplins in cork have them? or you know anather spot to get those?