Ancient PC needs a few upgrades but I'm broke sooo.... - Hardware & Software

Alright, I have an ASRock K7S8X motherboard and I'm looking to replace the PSU I have since I'm sure it's much older than the mobo but I'm also looking to buy a new GPU that supports AGP and is under $70, I've got my eyes on [URL="http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4683555&CatId=318"]this[/URL] for the GPU at the moment and it's the primary reason I want a new PSU... I mean I don't even know the specs of the current PSU I just know it's old as hell. I'm willing to spend $100 tops for the PSU and GPU together. Would like a reply asap as my current GPU is dead and I'm running the comp off of the horribad(probably nonexistent) onboard card.

Can you give us a speccy? That motherboard is socket A/AGP, this seems like a lost effort already. And what are you planning to use it for? If gaming I'd probably recommend saving a bit more for a console or a semi-decent build.

If you're spending < $50 on a PSU, you should join the taliban :L

Not looking to really do any hardcore gaming, I just want enough to get my computer back on its feet until I can dish out some serious cash. It played the games that I wanted to play at a perfectly playable FPS. Hoping that I can find an affordable 400w PSU atleast.

get [URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171046[/URL] [URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125281[/URL] or for closer to 80 for all [URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139053[/URL] [URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171046[/URL]

The first two actually seem doable $120 total including the S&H, didn't realize PSUs could run that cheap either. Ordered them, I know I kind of jumped on the first actual response but I'm god damned desperate and in a hurry since I've got papers to type up for school and shit. Will post results.

I wished you wouldn't have, I was gonna offer you my old psu for free :\

One question though, the card says it requires a 400w psu and the psu you recommended is 460w, won't that leave almost no juice for the other computer parts to use? I don't really know how PSUs work.

[QUOTE=The_Marine;33507712]One question though, the card says it requires a 400w psu and the psu you recommended is 460w, won't that leave almost no juice for the other computer parts to use? I don't really know how PSUs work.[/QUOTE] The card wont draw 400w of power, thats the recommended PSU wattage thats not how much power the actual card will draw. I'm running a 9500 GT which says a 360w psu and I'm running it on a 250w without a problem. [editline]30th November 2011[/editline] A 4650 wont draw more than 100w under full load and the CPU you're using only draws about 75, 75 + 100 = 175, then you throw in the HDD which is maybe 20w? possibly more which is only around 210 - 220.

Oh, okay. Cool, was worried for a second. And yeah, my hard drive is pretty old and so is the mobo so I guess power usage shouldn't be too bad.

The PCIE slot can allow 75 watts 6 pin PCIE connectors allow 75 watts 8 pin PCIE connectors allow 150 watts Hope that's useful.

[QUOTE=The_Marine;33507712]One question though, the card says it requires a 400w psu and the psu you recommended is 460w, won't that leave almost no juice for the other computer parts to use? I don't really know how PSUs work.[/QUOTE] I doubt your system will pull more than 400

My friend has some dual core, E6xxx I think, and has a HD4670. He had a 350W IED PSU so yeah. The PSU exploded but he is now running it on a 450W one or 500W one and it runs fine. My HD4650 + E5200 runs well on my 500W terrorist-grade PSU.

[QUOTE='[EG] Pepper;33507967']The PCIE slot can allow 75 watts 6 pin PCIE connectors allow 75 watts 8 pin PCIE connectors allow 150 watts Hope that's useful.[/QUOTE] Also the 4650 wont draw more than 46watts, I was just using 100 as a high estimate. After some googling it only draws 46 max so once again 400 watts is more than enough. [editline]30th November 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=tratzzz;33508307]My friend has some dual core, E6xxx I think, and has a HD4670. He had a 350W IED PSU so yeah. The PSU exploded but he is now running it on a 450W one or 500W one and it runs fine. My HD4650 + E5200 runs well on my 500W terrorist-grade PSU.[/QUOTE] A good brand 400w will do him just fine.

[QUOTE=Zerokateo;33508329] A good brand 400w will do him just fine.[/QUOTE] That's why I said IED. It was probably just a shitty 200W PSU. But it ran for 2 years and then broke.

My PSU is a 250w and it's just extremely old and I've had power problems for many years(I have a lot of USB ports and plug in my mp3 players, flash drives, and various other peripherals but they constantly turn on and off because of insufficient power) and I just felt that it was time to replace the damn thing.

[QUOTE=The_Marine;33509089]My PSU is a 250w and it's just extremely old and I've had power problems for many years(I have a lot of USB ports and plug in my mp3 players, flash drives, and various other peripherals but they constantly turn on and off because of insufficient power) and I just felt that it was time to replace the damn thing.[/QUOTE] Just get the Coolermaster and 4650 fisher linked if you can afford it or get the cheaper 3450. [editline]30th November 2011[/editline] You wont have problems like that on the PSU he linked.

Already done, should be here on Saturday or Monday. Can't wait, I just don't look forward to actually installing the PSU... all those tiny wires.

[QUOTE=The_Marine;33509226]Already done, should be here on Saturday or Monday. Can't wait, I just don't look forward to actually installing the PSU... all those tiny wires.[/QUOTE] ...that lead to single connectors that are keyed so you can't confuse them 24pin mobo 8 pin CPU SATA power 6 pin PCI-E power and possibly 4 pin molex, if you have anything like older fans that still need them there really isn't that much to it, mostly just cable management to make sure you don't have cables blocking half the airflow around the case

I see. Excuse my ignorance but this is the first I'll be doing anything to my PC myself. My dad used to take care of it for me but since he passed away a couple of years ago, it's up to me now. Anyways, I think I should get a couple sticks of memory too but I'm not quite sure what to get. According to the mobo's manual it has "3 184 pin DDR DIMM slots: DDR1, DDR2,and DDR3" So, I'm assuming the ram I want to get would be [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145440[/url] ?

You are correct, and dang I just trashed my old DDR ram, was 512mb and I would've given it to you for free.

Alright, turns out that UPS dropped it off today but never bothered knocking on the door or anything. Everything's installed and [I]appears[/I] to be working alright except I just tried playing Oblivion and was in the Bruma castle but when I went outside, the computer restarted. Could this mean I didn't hook something up correctly or does Oblivion just hate ATI cards? Actually, it seems that all games are acting up... god damn it, I should've known everything wouldn't work immediately. I also noticed that the card comes with an "AMD HD Audio Device" but I already have a C-Media AC97 Audio Device, could having two sound drivers installed cause things to act weird?

[QUOTE=The_Marine;33509089]My PSU is a 250w and it's just extremely old and I've had power problems for many years(I have a lot of USB ports and plug in my mp3 players, flash drives, and various other peripherals but they constantly turn on and off because of insufficient power) and I just felt that it was time to replace the damn thing.[/QUOTE] That's not the PSUs problem, that's a USB problem. On older motherboards, each USB cluster has their own hub (usually 2-4 USB ports per hub.) The hub has a maximum shared power output of usually 500 mA, and if you overload the output capacity, you can risk blowing the USB hub out, or stuff failing due to insufficient current. Some USB hub drivers have a warning message that pops up in the systray when the hub is being overloaded. [QUOTE=The_Marine;33532544]Everything's installed and [I]appears[/I] to be working alright except I just tried playing Oblivion and was in the Bruma castle but when I went outside, the computer restarted.[/QUOTE] This is likely some sort of driver problem. Try reinstalling the drivers. [QUOTE=The_Marine;33532544]I also noticed that the card comes with an "AMD HD Audio Device" but I already have a C-Media AC97 Audio Device, could having two sound drivers installed cause things to act weird?[/QUOTE] You just have to make sure Windows is set to use the CMedia sound device. Windows can only output to one sound device at a time without running into problems.

I reinstalled the drivers and everything is still wonky. Mass Effect takes 15 years to even get to the opening Bioware/EA logos and then it locks up when it gets to the menu. Oblivion crashes the computer when I try going outside. Christ, I might just end up reformatting but I just did that like 4 1/2 months ago.

You have a motherboard that supports at best a 333 MHz FSB Athlon XP, which limits you to an Athlon XP 3000+. That's barely adequate for a game like ME. Goto [url]www.piriform.com[/url] and download speccy so we can see your complete system specs.

Except that I could play all of these games just fine before my GPU shit the bed. But, I suppose I can post my specs regardless. I think my ram may be dead or something, since everything seems to be taking a bit longer to do than it used to. [QUOTE]-Operating System MS Windows XP Home 32-bit SP3 -CPU AMD Athlon XP Barton 0.13um Technology -RAM 1.00 GB -Motherboard K7S8XE. (Socket-A) 44 °C -Graphics PL713s (1280x1024@75Hz) 1024MB ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series (Gigabyte) 36 °C -Hard Drives 78GB Western Digital WDC WD800BB-00FRA0 (PATA) 34 °C -Optical Drives HP DVD Writer 940d LITE-ON DVDRW LDW-851S DTSOFT Virtual CdRom Device -Audio ATI Function Driver for High Definition Audio - ATI AA01[/QUOTE]

1 GB of RAM won't get you very far anymore, it could be that Windows is having to do massive pagefile swaps due to lack of RAM. I would have just saved up some money and get a better machine instead of wasting more money on an incredibly outdated machine. Assuming you reused all of your existing parts, you could have spend $150 and get an APU build, which would be 1000x better. [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157277[/url] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231253[/url] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103957[/url] ASROCK A55M-HVS 4 GB DDR3-1333 RAM AMD A4-3300 Dual core 2.5 GHz APU (with integrated HD6410 GPU)

[QUOTE=bohb;33543926]1 GB of RAM won't get you very far anymore, it could be that Windows is having to do massive pagefile swaps due to lack of RAM. I would have just saved up some money and get a better machine instead of wasting more money on an incredibly outdated machine. Assuming you reused all of your existing parts, you could have spend $150 and get an APU build, which would be 1000x better. [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157277[/url] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231253[/url] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103957[/url] ASROCK A55M-HVS 4 GB DDR3-1333 RAM AMD A4-3300 Dual core 2.5 GHz APU (with integrated HD6410 GPU)[/QUOTE] Eh, aren't integrated GPUs almost always crap?

[QUOTE=The_Marine;33567616]Eh, aren't integrated GPUs almost always crap?[/QUOTE] AMD's apu is actually surprisingly good, and I'm going to assume its better than what you plan on ordering or already have.

Well, fuck. Maybe I should've waited until I spent all that money. Especially since the computer died again, going to be taking it into the shop on the Monday to see what's up.