Best budget card for a Dell Inspiron 530s
By
Father Xmas,
Posted on: 2011-08-02 01:24 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Okay 1: Put some more memory into it first.
Linky to 530s-compatible memory at Crucial.com
Unfortunately you're probably going to have to upgrade the power supply to be able to mount any acceptable video card in there. Most of even the CHEAP ones are calling for a 300W PSU MINIMUM.
If it'll fit in the case: I'd suggest this.
Suggesting blind because I'm not sure if you're in the minitower or in the low-profile case.
After that, you're good for a decent low-end card.
All in all you're looking at somewhere between $100-120 total for the upgrade.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Anything is better than that Intel integrated graphics. You might be able to pull off a GT 430 or a HD 6570 but due to the tiny PSU either the GT 520 or HD 6450 are very low wattage cards. There are two versions of the HD 6450, the one with GDDR5 is normally clocked higher in addition to the faster memory. Note you will need low profile video card because it's a 530S as in SLIMLINE. This also means swapping PSUs is a big problem. It may be a TFX12V type of PSU but without one to look at I can't say for sure.
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EDIT: It is a TFX12V. This PSU seems like a popular replacement. 250 watts of 12V power, 80Plus Bronze rated. NO PCIe power connector but really wasn't expecting one. Rated well at JonnyGURU.
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On the other hand you could go the fugly route and use a traditional ATX12V PSU and run the cables into the case after ripping the 250 watt PSU out. Downside is you may be down an exhaust fan for the case.
As for memory, it should have 4 ram slots for a maximum of 4GB but it could only have 2. You should crack it open to check it first.
Oh BTW, here's the manual.
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Are you sure it's a 250W?
I have the 531 and the standard one for that (and for a lot of Dells) is the 350 W supply.
Mine does play CoH with the integrated graphic i just have it on the low settings.
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My girlfriend's son has a Dell Inspiron 530s - she bought it for him a few years ago and its served him well. When Freedom comes out, I'd like to play COH with him - we've talked about the game (he plays WOW) and he seems pretty excited by City, which is good. However, its a very, very humble machine...
Intel Celeron 450 @ 2.2ghz
2g RAM
Vista 32-bit
Intel integrated graphics
250w power supply
Obviously, this won't be a barn burner by any stretch of the imagination. Can this play COH? I think its relatively okay for low resolutions and details once I take the Intel integrated garbage out of the picture. As such, I'm looking for a nice, but inexpensive, video card for it. No preference on Nvidia or AMD here. I'm aware the CPU will be a bottleneck