upgrading advice please

spakkker

You will be disappointed if you aim for minimum requirements. I've read recommends for something scoring 1200 on this chart which does sound high-ish to me and will use ~250W -the radeon seem to use less power than nvidia
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php
You should be ok with gonzo's suggestion but these can use upto 175W it seems-
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/graphics-cards/354787/ati-radeon-hd-5670

A £25 psu could always be added if needed

gonzo127

you will find that the 175w quoted is for whole system draw (ie power measured at the socket) so thats the power for the entire rig including cpu, ram, hdd, gpu etc. so with a 350w psu even taking into account the drop in availible power due to psu in-effecience (heat loss etc) the 350w psu would have to have a effecience of less than 50% to be unable to deliver enough power.

as ever the big problem with upgrading an of the shelf system is the psu which is why i have only suggested a gpu which doesnt need a extra power supply, ok its never going to the most powerful system in the world, and for a small amount more money you can get much more powerful graphics cards, however i believe all the more powerful cards require an extra power supply which would put extra strain on the psu and with the knowledge that the PCI-E slot in its self is less than perfect and that the psu is probably getting close to its maximum stable power output anyway going for anything more powerful would run a much higher risk of creating a unstable system