Upgrading pre-built PC

[Skye1013]

Ok... so I broke down and bought a pre-built PC, thinking I could just upgrade a few things and call it good. But now that I'm reading some things, I'm not sure upgrading will be possible...

Here is what I bought:

HP Pavilion Elite h8-1010

What I'm looking at upgrading:

Vid card (currently thinking Radeon HD 6850/6870/6790 or GeForce GTX 460)
Power supply (something that fits that isn't a measly 300W so it can handle a new vid card)

From what I've been reading, it's size may make upgrading very difficult. Anyone have any thoughts on if my intended upgrades might be feasible?

[Levantine]

I'm assuming it's a stock card since it didn't say anything to the contrary. Jesus fuck that thing is tiny. I just took a look at my 460gtx and good luck with that. D:

[KysenMurrin]

Looks like a pretty small case you've got there. I had to replace my pre-built PC's case because it didn't have room for a standard-sized PSU or a larger graphics card.

That one's already better than mine was to begin with, but I think you need to crack that thing open, check how the PSU fits and what size it is, and how much space you have, particularly below the PCI slot.

[Skye1013]

Current card is Radeon HD 6450. It has a 372 rating on this chart. I don't remember what is meant by a "stock card" unless that's dealing with clock speeds? Pretty sure it's not overclocked.

[Koatanga]

Do a bit of research. Many pre-built manufacturers like to use proprietary hardware to keep you coming back to them for parts, which they can sell at a premium. Power supplies are typically where the "specialness" comes in, either in form factor or in connections.

[fuzzygeek]

Yes, be very careful with the power supply. I know Dell used to use a proprietary power supply that had a "standard" connector. If you plugged a stock PSU into a Dell Motherboard, it would fry the motherboard. They have since stopped this, but I don't know exactly when.

I don't know if HP tried the same thing, but HP has been doing a lot of stupid things since, like, the turn of the millenium.

Looking more closely at the specs

• 8GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM memory (2x4GB) (expandable to 8GB)

is a bit O.o but perhaps it was a automatically generated PDF.

If I were in your shoes I would go for the video card upgrade as well.

Looking at the card it has (Radeson HD 6450) -- it looks like a small card. The biggest concern is whether or not a higher end card will physically fit in your case; I suspect you will have problems.

The Radeon card looks like it is about 7"x5.43" (17.78cm x 13.8cm). To compare, an nVidia GTX460 is 9.8"x5.03" (24.8cm x 12.78).

[Skye1013]

Ok, I picked up the Radeon HD 6790 and it's a tight fit... but a fit. And upgraded the PSU from the 300W to a 550W. And it was the same size, so no real trouble there. Only thing is... there is a 4 prong connector on my MoBo (it's next to the processor) and the PSU has an 8 prong (that 4 of the prongs fit there, and the computer seems to be working...) Anyone know if this may present a problem later on down the road, or if that's normal?

[Talaii]

Ok, I picked up the Radeon HD 6790 and it's a tight fit... but a fit. And upgraded the PSU from the 300W to a 550W. And it was the same size, so no real trouble there. Only thing is... there is a 4 prong connector on my MoBo (it's next to the processor) and the PSU has an 8 prong (that 4 of the prongs fit there, and the computer seems to be working...) Anyone know if this may present a problem later on down the road, or if that's normal?

That's normal. Higher-end boards use a bigger connector, more wires = lower resistance = better transmission of power. With a H61 motherboard and a low-power CPU (2390T is a 45W chip, compared to 95W for the other i5s) I imagine the motherboard designer didn't think it'd need to be designed for high power draw.

[Skye1013]

Alright, awesome, I won't fret about it then

Also... LOVING the 60 fps I'm getting on "Ultra" settings (as opposed to <30 on "Good" settings.)

[Levantine]

I predict Schatze spanking all the other 'dps' in the guild by even more now. Oh lord.

[Skye1013]

I wouldn't necessarily go that far... I'll actually be able to see all of the visual effects, which might cause sensory overload, thereby decreasing my dps... plus I still have a min. latency of 200ms.

[Levantine]

Ditto, and yet we're still some of the best dps in guild.

[Jheherrin]

I wouldn't necessarily go that far... I'll actually be able to see all of the visual effects, which might cause sensory overload, thereby decreasing my dps... plus I still have a min. latency of 200ms.

Ooh, I know that feeling.
On my old pc I was running at minimum graphics, on my new one at maximum. The eyecandy is just total overload and I dropped about 10-20% dps for a few i.d's getting used to it.

I went from an Athlon 64 twin core with a GTX260 to a core i5 with a 550Ti