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System Upgrade: Advice Required

S

Shinobi

Newbie
Hello!

Thanks for taking a look at my post. My system was actually built two years ago but recent failure of graphics card and monitor has spurred me to get some opinions and advice. So this is a bit of a varied post but I thought this was as good a place as any to post it. Hope that's OK.

So here goes nothing... For some unknown reason, both GPU and monitor seem to be intermittently sending out signals i.e. constantly turning on and off I can only assume that a failure on one of them has caused the problem to be replicated on the other. Anyhow I've set about replacing them and settled on the Gigabyte GTX560 for graphics and am still looking around for a monitor. If anyone can suggest a 27" monitor for under £300 it would be greatly appreciated. I'm currently looking at the Acer S271HLA and Samsung T27A300.


System Specs

Built Nov 2010 for £500 (Now with new graphics card £530 value)
Motherboard: Asus M4A77T ATX
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 AM3 Black Edition
RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) Patriot DDR3 1333Mhz CL7 Gamer Series
Cooler: Arcticco Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooler
Graphics: Gigabyte GTX560 1GB 830MHZ (Replaced ZOTAC GTS 450 1GB DDR5 OC)
HDD: Samsung 1TB F3 7200rpm SATA 3Gb/s 32MB
Optical Drive: SATA Samsung SH-S223L 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM with LightScribe
Case: Galaxy Black Mid Tower Case with Blue Bubble Light LED Strip
PSU: 450W
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit​

To Note: The Motherboard, CPU & RAM were bought as a bundle.


Now, according to eXtreme PSU Calculator, 457 is the recommended wattage for this system, so I feel an upgrade would be necessary anyway given my new graphics card but the site from which I bought the GTX560 states that 500W is the minimum required whereas other sites state differently. So my question is what wattage would you all suggest and could you recommend any PSU's? I'm on a very tight budget at the moment so the cheaper the better, certainly don't want to spend more than £50.

Sorry for the long explanation and thanks in advance
 
What is the primary use of your system? Gaming, graphics, video editing?
 
Hi ferguj1, thank for your speedy reply. In answer to your question I'd say gaming, however I do a fair bit of video editing. I also watch everything on my PC since I don't own a TV. I forgot to mention I am planning on adding 4GB of extra RAM because I find my frame rate dropping whilst recording game-play.
 
The product page on GeForce's website, says 450 watt minimum. It sounds as though your card will be getting a pretty good workout most of the time, so in my opinion I would opt for the larger PSU. From personal experience, I have had great luck with Corsair products.
 
Hi Dani, welcome.

Thanks ferguj1 I might look at getting a 550W then, see what I can afford. What may I ask though makes you think the GPU will be working so hard? My previous one which I mentioned was the GeForce GTS 450 seemed to sail through most games on high settings without getting too hot (Unless playing Skyrim on Ultra is what caused it to give out :-P ) and my new GTX 560 is almost 50% better.
 
I guess I shouldn't have said working hard, but just that it will not be sitting idle by simly web browsing and such. It will be working and drawing more power thru gameplay and video editing.
 
Power requirement according to Gigabyte is 500W min. http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3707#sp

Since I was looking for 550W anyway that's fine however I'm a little confused as to whether some of the power supplies I'm looking at will do the job because most of them have dual +12v rails with less than what I'm told the required amperage for this GTX 560 model is (which is 27amps). Some forums have said that it can draw from both rails because it uses 2 pci-e connectors whereas others have said it's simply not possible to share amperage from separate rails. This being said, I also read that most PSU's that are advertised as 'dual rail' are actually still a single rail but have just been partitioned or something? So confusing.... I'm not a bloody electrician!

If anyone could provide some clarity regarding this matter it would be greatly appreciated. Also can you bump this thread or something? I'm thankful of the feedback I've had so far but would be useful to have some more.

Thanks
 
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