changing out power supply and video card?

[thewolfe]

A friend has a new game that he wants to play.

He needs a bigger power supply for the card.

Advised him against changing everything and buying a gaming rig.

My question is "would it even be possible?

He has a Gateway DX 4320-01-E w/ a 300 Watt PS. They say he needs a 550 watt.

[CDN_Merlin]

As long as it's not proprietary then he should be able to get a new PS unless his CPU can't handle it.

[Krom]

If it uses a standard ATX power supply it will be fine, otherwise buy or build a new computer (for gaming: preferably Intel i5 quad core or better). And like Merlin said, if the CPU isn't fast enough, a new video card won't help as much as one would expect.

[Top Gun]

I know my ancient shitty Dell tower didn't physically fit a new PSU (the one in there is like half an inch shallower than the standard), so he may need to watch out for that.

[thewolfe]

How do I know if it's proprietary or not?

[Krom]

Research it, measure it yourself, etc.

[thewolfe]

I think he's going to look for a gaming PC. Any suggestions? He is only playing "Need for Speed" at this point.

Either specific or general specs?

[Krom]

An Intel Core i5-4000 (K) series quad core CPU combined with at 8 GB of RAM and a GeForce 760 or better video card will get the job done for the majority of people. Can be reasonably done for $1000, just pad the budget up with a SSD if there is enough left and don't forget a 64 bit copy of Windows.

[thewolfe]

Thanks I'll probably ck on Costco since he shops there and he doesn't need anything fancy.

[thewolfe]

What about this one from Dell?

Dell XPS 8700 Desktop
A high-speed desktop featuring large storage and advanced graphics. You can blaze through system-intensive applications like video editing, HD video playback, serious multitasking and extreme gaming.
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 / i7 processor (8MB Cache, up to 3.9 GHz)
Windows® 7 Professional / Windows 8 Pro 64-bit, English
Memory up to 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600Mhz
Dimensions: (Height) 16.01" x (Width) 7.30" x (Depth) 17.49"

Or this one from Costco
https://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-De ... 82459.html

[thewolfe]

Just noticed Costco's has Win 8. Not sure he wants to go thru the learning process. Is 8 getting any easier to learn?

[Spidey]

I have a XPS 8700, I’m pretty sure those USB specs are wrong on that Costco page.

Should be 6 USB 3…4 USB 2

At least that’s what my box has.

Buy direct from DELL and you can get that machine with Windows 7.

[Krom]

Even if he gets that dell, he will still need a new video card, just because it says it is good for "extreme gaming" doesn't mean it can actually run any real games. And you will be stuck with exactly the same question you have now, because that 460w PSU probably can't handle the load from a decent 200+ watt GPU without smoking.

Ever think of just buying a barebones kit off newegg and filling it out with the CPU/Video you want? A good one takes all of about 30 minutes to get from opening the box to installing windows for anyone with experience assembling PCs.

[Duper]

While I normally recommend Win7 (64 bit Pro), It's important to point out these days that if you're building a gaming rig you need to keep in mind that only Win 8 supports DX 11.2. Some of the newer games are requiring it. Also, Vid cards have had to release new lines (AMD created the R7 and R9 lines) to accommodate these new specs.
iirc, it only a newer vid codex that MS is implementing to "encourage" sales of Win 8(.1) That is to say, it's not available for win7.

[Heretic]

Well the specs on show a •1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 635 GDDR5 I have no idea if it's a good card for gaming or not, but it's newer than the gtx260 I got.

[Krom]

The GTX 260 has over double the texture fill rate and 7 times the memory bandwidth of the GT 635, so the 260 will easily run circles around the 635 even if it is newer.

The 635 is OEM only, it isn't sold directly to consumers because it has different design goals, mainly it has to be very inexpensive and it cannot draw a lot of power. Hence the 635 having a 64 bit memory interface (cost savings: fewer chips, simpler PCB) and a 35 watt maximum power, compared to the 260 which has a 448 bit memory interface and 182 watts maximum power.