Advice on a graphics card for a low end PC

whotook316

I'm having some trouble picking out a PCI graphics card for my PC, and am hoping someone here can help me out.

I want to upgrade my PC with a graphics/video card (onboard graphics are truly v. poor) mainly to improve the quality of video playback and maybe play one or two games - simcity 4 would be nice. The problem is that I have a fairly low spec machine with no AGP or PCI-E slots (only PCI) and a 165W PSU - even worse is the fact that the case takes a proprietary PSU which cannot be upgraded.

I recently bought a 3DFuzion nVidia GeForce FX5500 256MB Graphics Card from svp but I had to return that as it had a minimum PSU requirement of 250W. I'm currently looking at the Sapphire 9250 Radeon 128MB card - anyone know if this would run on my machine? If not, can anyone suggest a decent PCI card (at less than £50) that would be suitable for my machine?

PC specs -

Intel Celeron 1.7ghz
ASUS P4SC motherboard
512 RAM
DVD drive
1 hard drive
Running windows XP
165W PSU

Thanks

nickmack

A 165W PSU is incredibly low and virtually any graphics card would need more juice than this. You are very likely to experience lock ups and general power issues. Maybe you could think about getting a new case and PSU?

whotook316

I did think about that, but I figure a new case+PSU+graphics card is probably going to cost me upwards of £100. That just seems too expensive for what I'm looking to achieve - a sharper picture on DVD playback and a few games.

Surely there must be an old card that will do the job on 165W?

If not I'll muddle through and look at building a vista ready machine in Jan 2007.

going2die_rich

If you upgrade a graphics card without increasing your PSU, you will most likely sooner or later blow your PSU. (This has happened to me in the past). PSU start from £8ish and you can get a decent one for £15 for your needs.

Look on Ebuyer.com both for your graphics card and a PSU. If you've got a bit more cash look at the cases as a few of them have PSU already fitted which works out only slightly more expensive than just the PSU in some cases.

whotook316

I'm going to need a case and PSU as my current machine has a propreitary PSU (never seen that before). I've been warned against buying cheap PSU's in the past, so I think I will make a decent investment and get some good components.

I'm not sure about using ebuyer by the way. I ordered a mouse and keyboard set from them and the keyboard didn't work when it turned up and the mouse never did turn up. That was three months ago and I still haven't had a response from cusotmer "service"

Blacksheep1979

I wouldn't even think about buying a PSU for less than £30 really as whilst it may be rated at '400W' etc it will not be able to hold a large current on all rails on will fail quicker than apricier one and possibly take other components with it.

kat21

look for companys that do cheap factory returned products like dabs
MSI S754 nForce3 250 ATX Audio GB Lan Raid USB2.0
In stock now
quicklinx: 45FCWS
mfr#: K8NNEOFSR VER2

£29.96 inc vat


Quantity to buy of MSI S754 nForce3 250 ATX Audio GB Lan Raid USB2.0
http://www.dabs.com/productlist.aspx?&NavigationKey=11143&NavigationKey=4294963788&NavigationKey=11&NavigationKey=45730000&CategorySelectedId=11143&PageMode=1
look through there range of products
kat21