need a recommendation for under 40 dollars!

[stormy13]

ATX is just a standard,

ATX - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

doesn't take into consideration what may be inside the unit.

I really want to fit the 240gt on it but i dont want to do something disasterously stupid. If the 9500gt is the safest way to go then i guess i'll have to stick with it.

As for a choice between the two, the GT 240 no contest. For the most part the GT 240 is about on par with the 9600 GT, with the major difference being the GT 240 is a Dx 10.1 card whereas the 9600 GT is DX 10. If nothing lese even nvidia makes the decision a little easier,

GeForce GT 240

GeForce 9500 GT: a graphics card perfect for the ultimate 3D user experience and playing the latest PC games.

If you look at the specs they claim the GT 240 only requires a 300W PSU, with the 9500 GT needing a 350W minimum. As long as your 400W isn't of the quality like those in the article I linked too earlier, you should be fine with the GT 240.

 

[windo7]

Wow i've just finished reading that entire article and i was shocked. Ok i thought atx was a barand haha. I'm ignorant, i know.

Yeah the 2 cards have a rather low wattage, whichis why i'm hoping it would work. It's just the amperage that's leaving me in doubt. I'll see what my gutt tells me in the morning. I guess there's no sure way to tell.

Thats funny because neither on the outside nor on the inside does my psu say anything bout the brand name.
Lets hope for the best and thank you so much for your advise.

 

[ThePizzaMan]

as long as you have enough amps on the 12 volt rail you should be fine

 

[windo7]

i've 16A on my 12v rail. No idea if thats enough...

 

[stormy13]

There should be a label on the PSU something like this,



Depending on where it is placed and how the PSU is mounted, it could be on one of the two sides that you can't see.

If it helps any I have been running a x1950 Pro on a 430W PSU (Thermaltake) with 18A on the 12V with no problems for about 2 years now, and the x1950 requires quite a bit more in the power department than the GT 240 (around 40-50W more).

 

[windo7]

I know what you mean about the sticker but on mine it says the voltage and amperage and above that it says atx p400 p4. It doesnt say any brand name etc. I took off the case on the left and right sides, just to be sure, but nothing. It could be under the top cover but those screws are not the normal screws. So i didnt want to remove them. Thank you for your reply and i'll try to get one of those 2 cards.

 

[ThePizzaMan]

you should be fine with 16, but when you pick the card you want exactly it might be good to find out how many amps it needs

 

[windo7]

Well at least for today, I might have to stick with the 9500GT because the gt240 is going for 52, with 2 hours left on its clock! I'll see how it goes with the 9500GT and if its really much too, I'll switch back to the GT240. But I think both these cards are cheaper than the Radeon 4670. Because the Radeon 4670 with 512mb is going for the price of these 2, when both of these have 1gb on it.

Thank you for all your help guys

 

[windo7]

OK one last quick question:

Please help me with this: Is the gt210 the same as the 9500gt? I've read that they're really pretty much the same card? True or false? Reason I ask is, that the gt210 is pretty cheap new.

If you're wondering, I'm not bidding on the particular gt240 I had in ebay. Too much for me

 

[ThePizzaMan]

hm... for the most part i think so yes, might take more power though

 

[stormy13]

Unless it is hidden in Nvidia's OEM channel, there is no such thing as a GT 210,

Every PC needs good graphics.

despite what they are calling it on ebay. It is about as low as you can get for a video card, and about the equivalent of the 9400 GT,

Video Card Comparison - GPUReview.com

 

[windo7]

No it wasnt on ebay, it was in one of those many online shops I've seen. But you're right, the online shops dont seem to really know what they're selling, in my opinion. I'm not talking about stuff like newegg or nextag. Some of the ones I've seen say its a 1gb gddr3 and then when you click on it, its a 512mb gddr2 or something.

But you're right, the geforce 210 was the card I was talking about. I used the nvidia 'help me choose' feature and the major feature difference that I found was that,
Geforce 210 - has no PhysX support but has 3D vision ready.
9500gt - has no 3d vision support but has PhysX and SLI.
The CUDA cores are also a little lower, as well as the relative graphics performance on the GeForce 210.

Of course, for me this is something like deciphering a binary code haha

But I guess failing the gt240, I should stick to the 9500gt.

Thanks again guys

 

[Joshatdot]

One thing to remember is that not all power supplies are created equal. Just because it says 400W doesn't mean it is. Not saying yours is one of those (you didn't say what the make and model of it is) but this article here,

The Bargain Basement Power Supply Roundup Review

should give you an idea as to just how bad some PSU's are.

Interesting read, I really like reading stuff like that. I need to check if they tested my PSU, Antec EA-430.

Anywho, here is a good comparison of the Geforce cards: Wikipedia - Comparison of Nvidia graphics processing units

FWIW, I would go for the 9500GT, the GT 210 is almost half as slow (because it's 64bit and the 9500 has 128bit bus). On the other hand, the GT 220 is abit faster than the 9500.

 

[windo7]

Thank you for that wiki link. I'll be definitely getting a graphics card within the next week and I'll post here, what I bought. For me thought the 40 dollar limit is just as important..

 

[ThePizzaMan]

well good luck

 

[windo7]

Gentlemen,

Thanks to all your help I was able to purchase a Graphics Card. Though it wasnt the 9500gt or the gt240, I settled for the gt 220. Which according to Josh was faster than the 9500gt anyway. I bought a 1gb gt220 and without delivery, the price on ebay came up to 22,50.

Quite cheap I think. With delivery, it stayed just under the 40 dollar mark. I just hope all goes well now on my pc.

Thank you all really much for your help! Have a good weekend

 

[ThePizzaMan]

congrats if ya need anymore help we're all here

 

[shozum]

I have to disagree with the 9500GT nay sayers. Been running the 1GB version for about a year now and it has run everything from Civ 4 to Aliens versus Predator just fine. Heat hasn't been an issue, it overclocks well, doesn't require a seperate power supply link and with a 1080p HDMI hookup I enjoy the latest releases in HD. I was so pleased with the card I now run 2 in an SLI set-up on my new PC. Sure it's not going to let you enjoy dx11 but for someone with a budget it's quite a nice little card. Recently I picked up one brand new from newegg for $62 and it had a $10 Mail in rebate which made it even cheaper. Scoring 6.x in Win7's WEI at the moment with the SLI set-up and enjoying Battlefield 2:Bad company at max resolution and that game is fairly new.