Is my PC any good?

A 500W@ 25A PSU is a extremly weak Power Supply :-/


For the 4830 something like a Corsair 400W / 32A will be plenty and will power everything with ease.



However, if you want more head room for future upgrads etc.. , thats fine,
Im just saying this is the min. you should be aiming for. You'll have a little headroom, but not much.

just keep in mind to get a good quality PSU.
Pay attention to the 12V rail most of all, and effeciency and you will be fine,.

And by good quality that doesnt mean 'most expenisive" Or biggest wattage.

I wanna thank you guys for all the help.

BTW how hard is it to take out a power supply from your tower and install the new GPU?

Taking it out is the easy part; disconnect all cables from the power supply, remove 4 screws, lift the power supply out. Should just come right out assuming the heatsink on the CPU isn't in the way.

Putting it back you just reverse the process. Slide it into its position, put in the 4 screws, and connect everything back up.

My 700W psu powers my 4850 and 5770 fine and it has 25A 12V rails, that's why I set that as a standard but in any case, good brands to go for are: Corsair, Seasonic, Antec, PC Power & Cooling, and OCZ.

And for graphics card, you might want to go for the 4770 perhaps, it is stronger than the 4830-almost 4850-, uses less power, and is a cooler card(there's also ocing potential...). In terms of pricing...I was under the impression that the 4830s were no longer in production.

GPU is easy, remove the back grill near the PCI-E slot and push card in until fully inserted and locked in...and then there might be a snap to hold the rest of the grills in. The graphics card does come with instruction manual. And screws maybe?

LyzeUH, you & I may have a slight misunderstanding.

When I refered to a 25A rail being weak, i meant a single 25A rail.


Some PSUs use more than one 12V rail, in which case is slightly different.

The PSU you have seems to have multiple Rails at 25A each, in which case is plenty.



Thought I should clarify.

Yeah I forgot to mention that I have multiple 12V rails...all good.

Is a PSU really necessary though? (I mean, who's to say I don't already have a good one?)

To know for sure, pull the side of the case off and look at the PSUs specs.

it should be labeled on the side. See what its rated wattage is, and what the 12V rail is rated.

Then you will know whta you have to work with.

It's just that I don't want to dissect my PC either for fear of destroying it.

Why do I have such a crappy GMA X4500?