Advice on new graphic card and powersupply

So unfortunately after a lot of problems with my grapic card, see this post, the card finally died the other day.

In looking for a new graphics card and most likely thereby also a new PSU, I'm in need of advice. My old graphic card was a Point of View Pov - GeForce 9800GT 1024MB and it worked fine on my system, except for not enough power and cooling. The cooling issue have been solved with an extra exhaust fan.

What I want for my new graphics card is that it can run Coh with ultra mode on around mid settings or better if possible. My budget for the card is max 200 dollars (the old one cost me around 60 so there should be room for some improvement), but there is so many to choose from that I have no idea which is better or not. What do I look for in a card? Do the Nvidia cards have to have GTX in model number to run Ultra mode etc?
Would a card such as this be sufficient. (The link is to a danish webshop, but the specs should be readable, price is about $140)

Now that said I understand that my current 375 wattage PSU is not able to produce enough power, so im looking for a new power supply as well. What should I look for here? Do I have to watch out for compatibility issues? Would this be sufficient? (Again the danish website, price approximately $40)

These two items are just examples of what I found interesting, and is by no means what I'm dead set on getting.

My rig is Dell Dimension 9200 , with dual core 2.1 ghz, 4 gb ram running windows vista 32 bits.

And the inside looks like this

I'm clearly at a loss here, and any help would be very much appreciated.
If any more info is need just let me know, and I'll try and supply it as best I can.

Thanks in advance
Team Tios

Honestly, I've NEVER heard of Hantol prior to this post. As such I'd be VERY wary of buying. And the price of $40 for a supposed 720W PSU? Uh, no. I wouldn't put one of those in my system because I know I'd be swapping it out after it died in a couple weeks.

Maybe look at this one from Silverstone. A more reliable name.

The 450 should be a decent step up for you. It's going to run like a GTX 680 or anything but you should be able to do at least basic Ultra Mode at acceptable framerates.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Thanks for your answer Hyperstrike!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyperstrike The GTS 450 card requires a minimum of a 400W PSU with 22 amps on the +12V rail. The Silverstone delivers about 34 amps on the +12V rail.

This is a bit hardware technical for me, but does it mean the Silverstone 500W you referred to, has enough wattage? Just checked the wattage usage on the GTS 450 on tomshardware which states a maximum load of 219 Watt (though that is the 1Gb version, dont know if that matters). So changing the power supply and thereby adding 125 Watt more, would that be sufficient?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyperstrike It's a 20+4 model power connector on the main. This means there's a 20 pin connector (which is what your board uses), plus an additional 4 pin connector if the board required it.

Okay, if I get this right, what you are saying is that this PSU would fit my computer, socket/connector wise, but not all PSU's does?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyperstrike This PSU may be a bit longer than the original PSU. So take some measurements and compare them against the dimensions on the Details tab here. But, from the diagram, it doesn't appear that you'll have any problem. There appears to be lots of space between the back end of your optical drive and your current PSU.

You are quite right I think. I have a fair bit of space between the CD-ROM and the PSU.

I'm so sorry for what might seem like trivial/non-intelligent/right out stupid questions, but I just want to make sure that I buy the right stuff from start, and get a bit enlightened on the way (if possible ).

I really appriciate your help so far Hyperstrike, and this kind of spirit and dedication to helping other COH gamers, is why I love this community and the game.

Thanks

Team Tios

First, looking at that Dell manual, there is some kind of retention mechanism on the case for the power supply. I have no idea how that may interfere with a longer PSU.

Looking at the website you linked to, your $200 USD budget and a currency converter, means you are budget is around 1000-1100 KR. Only problem with that budget is I think you are expecting a lot more improvement than I think that you will get.

Hyper recommended the Silverstone, I would recommend either the Antec EA-430D or Antec BP-500U, either for 400KR. Primary reason I picked those two is because they are the size as the PSU you are replacing. But if that latch inside is easily defeated, then physical size won't be an issue.

This leaves you with 600-700KR for a video card. I'll pick the Gigabyte model but I'm worried that the double wide for the full length design could interfere with the big honking CPU heatsink in that Dell. BTW the GTS 450 is only roughly 30-35% faster than the 9800GT.

Oh and a little tidbit on that Hantol PSU you linked to. It may be rated 720 watts but it could only output 288 watt at 12 volts which is the voltage that both CPUs and video cards use. The EA-430D can put out 384 watts at 12 volts, the Silverstone ST50F 408 watts.

One thing I'm hesitate to point out, the GTS 450 supposedly uses the same about of power as a 9800GT. In "theory" you don't need to upgrade your PSU but it's a whole lot safer if you did.

Well both are in the same price range but what is the difference in:

• 2 GB DDR3 RAM (GeForce GTS450)
• 1 GB GDDR5 RAM (GIGABYTE GeForce GTS 450) and the other having

Always go with faster GDDR5 memory. DDR3 would cripple performance.

Just want to bring an update and thanks to Hyperstrike and Father Xmas for helping me pick the right graphic card and PSU for my computer.

Got the parts yeasterday and the installation went very smoothly.

The sata power-cables weren't long enough to reach both my HDD's and my optical drive, so I need a extra cord to reach the DVD player. But that can wait, who uses the DVD player these days anyway

I also noticed that the CPU is in need of some thermal coolant, but that should not pose a problem as of yet.

I invested in the POV Geforce 450 card, because the Gigabyte card was clearly to big, and would come in conflict with the CPU's heatsink (thanks for the heads up Father Xmas.

The top temprature measured on the GPU yeasterday, was 49 degree celcius, so the cooling is totally fine.

Thanks again both Hyperstrike and Father Xmas for your amazing help.

Regards
Team Tios

COH is running

Those aren't power cables, they are SATA data cables.

What you are looking for is something like this, a SATA power extension, but I can't find something like that at your site.

What you can use is something like this which converts a 4-pin MOLEX power connector to a SATA power connector.

Hope that helps.