Graphics Card, OS and Hard Drive Issues. PLEASE HELP.

[Drumstixxxes]

Hi guys,

I have a couple questions concerning what I'm asking for for Christmas that are Hardware/OS related, and if they will fit/work on my computer. (Please bare with me, I'm a n00b with Hardware.)

This Christmas, I am asking for (among other things irrelevant to this topic):

• Seagate Barracuda LP ST31000520AS 1TB 5900 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive.

• A nVidia GeForce GTS 250 or 260 Graphics card.

• Windows 7 Home Premium.

(I am obviously asking for these things because my computer is running out of HDD space, my video card doesn't show satisfactory graphics (for example, Far Cry 2 lags epicly with shadows set to Medium), and Vista just plain sucks.)

As of now, I am running:

Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit on an Inspiron 530 (yes, the one with the very small case) with Intel Core 2 Duo @2.00 ghz and a nVidia GeForce 8600GT Video card, with a 320 gb 7200 rpm 16mb cache Seagate-GL Hard Drive. The computer hasn't had any new video cards or Hard Drives added to it.

The questions I have are the following:

Will the 1TB HDD have to replace the 320 gb one I have now, and if it does will I have to transfer ALL of the files (around 263 gb) to the new one?

Will the GTX 250/260 even FIT in the Inspiron's case? If it doesn't, can I even cut parts out of the case so the card can fit? If it doesn't fit no matter what, can I possibly buy a bigger case, or is that just impossible? (Sorry if that's a dumb question.)

I've heard things about power supply in Watts for the GTX graphics card, and I'm not sure what amoun ot Watts my power supply has right now for the 8600...

Will Windows 7 let me keep all of my files in my hard drive? Because when I was about to download the Windows 7 beta, the site warned me that I should backup my files in an external hard drive or some crap like that, so I won't lose all of my files in case something goes wrong, so I didn't download the beta.

My only restriction:

My parents will most likely not let me get a new (and better) computer at all.

Am I completely out of luck??

Thanks in advance for your help.

[gerbils_alt_2]

As long as the connections are the same the hard drives should work fine.
I would suggest just adding it on via another SATA port from your motherboard, and using both the hard drives.

I don't suggest getting a nvidia at the moment, as ATi seems to have the edge on the market. I can't reccomend a card though, I'll leave that to someone else.

[Drumstixxxes]

[QUOTE=gerbils_alt_2;18533448]As long as the connections are the same the hard drives should work fine.
I would suggest just adding it on via another SATA port from your motherboard, and using both the hard drives.

I don't suggest getting a nvidia at the moment, as ATi seems to have the edge on the market. I can't reccomend a card though, I'll leave that to someone else.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for your help, but what about the shit with Windows 7?

[Taipan]

Ati 4870 is great.

Also Windows 7 isn't worth the money if you have windows vista with SP1 and 2.

Windows vista had a bad launch and therefore a bad name. The service packs fixed evrything.
Windows 7 is using the same base as windows vista. You should not expect any difference safe for 10% less ram usage.

I sell PC's as a saturday job but if you don't believe me:
[url]http://tweakers.net/reviews/1236/3/preview-prestaties-windows-7-vs-punt-xp-en-vista-cinebench-r10.html[/url]

It is in Dutch but Charts are universal