Windows 7: Need a small/cheap PC upgrade

kpo6969 · 28 Dec 2010

Black TG480-U01 ~28A
2 Force TG480-U22 ~30A
EasyCon TG480-U15 ~30A

With your psu 6 years old you may be pushing (really pushing) it.

QuackPot · 28 Dec 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by GeneO

Quote: Originally Posted by QuackPot

I have a (almost) 6 year old desktop which is on it's last legs and I need a fairly cheap replacement.

Current specs are:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
2GB DDR
GTS250 1GB
2x 250GB HDDs
480W Tagan PSU

I'm currently looking at a:

Intel i3 540 (maybe a i5 if psu can handle it)
Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H
4GB DDR3 1600 RAM
GTS250
480W Tagan PSU

I know it isn't the best of specs but I'm not made of money and I want something cheap before the VAT goes back up next year.

So would the newer rig be ok on that PSU? That's my main concern atm. I'm like to push to a i5 760 but I'm not too sure about cooling and power consumption. I did read on another forum that someguy with a AMD x2 3700, 4850 and 4GB of ram worked well on his 460W psu. But would the tagan be powerful enough for the new rig?

Also, any other suggestions about specs and where to buy them?

Cheers.

That PSU has two 20A 12V rails - each capable of 240W. It should be fine with an I3 and GTS 250. Or so the spec says - these are not always truthful. The GTS250 pulls a maximum of 150W and the I3 75W. PSU loose their power capability over time so you need some margin. That power supply is 6yrs old? Still may be fine - just make sure your PCi-E aux power connector for the graphics card and the MB/CPU power connectors are on different rails.

But I would go for a 550 watt, e.g. you can get a 550W OCZ fatality with 2 25A 12V rails for $64 ($45 with rebate):

Newegg.com - OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

On the side of the PSU it says 28A on the 12v rail. So I'm hoping it'll be enough. Plus I used one of the PSU calculators and it said my new system would use 340W on average.

The only thing about getting a new PSU is having to get a new case to keep it cool. And that'll be about £70 which is a lot for a student.

Windows 7: Need a small/cheap PC upgrade

Need a small/cheap PC upgrade problems?