Larger Power Supply or more RAM ??

D

diverdon

New Member
Hello Everyone , I did look for an answer for this before bugging you .

I am going to upgrade my computer some ,... Again... and am wondering which will get me the best results .. I have 750 mg of memory most always have 500 mg or so available ... and I have a 450 watt power supply ..

OK so the plan is to go to 2 gig on the ram memory and also get a bigger power supply 800-1000 watts ??

Sooooo??? Is there 1 you would do first?? I am thinking the RAM Memory first . And the power upgrade later it will be for some additions I am thinkin of getting later ..

That's it .. And Thank You Very Much for and help or suggestions you can give .. Thanks again , Don J.
 
Personally, I would go with RAM first. As you see in my sig i don't have much, but upgrading it to 1 or 2 gigs would give a really noticable increase in performance.

Unless your getting another graphics card soon, leave the PSU till later.
800-1000 watts sounds a tad excessive... but the most important thing is amps on the 12v rail. For a decent card like a 9600gt/9800gt you will need one with at least 26 amps.
 
Hey, what kind of computer do you have> and is there a reason that you need a 1000watt power supply. What are you going to power off of it?


Maybe look into building a new desktop pc?
 
What is your budget I don't think you need that big of a power supply unless you plan on putting two GTX 295 in SLI a good 700 watt will be good for any graphics card out right know and probably the next 2 years. For around $100 you can get a good power supply and 2GB of RAM no problem.
 
Get 4gb of ram if you can, first. With ram prices these days a 2x2gb kit will cost you very little.

Then get a power supply from a good brand. Don't look for something cheap with loads of watts. Something from Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, Silverstone, or OCZ.
 
Ethan3.14159 said:
Get 4gb of ram if you can, first. With ram prices these days a 2x2gb kit will cost you very little.

Then get a power supply from a good brand. Don't look for something cheap with loads of watts. Something from Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, Silverstone, or OCZ.
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don't forget Antec, Thermaltake, Xclio, Seasonic, and FSP
 
Ethan3.14159 said:
Simply that they no longer produce quality products anymore. Their toughpower series is decent, but they are so overpriced that you can get something far superior from Corsair and other brands for less.
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They are overprice that is true but thermaltake still makes decent power supplies they have just slipped lately they will be back to the quality PSU soon I hope.
 
OP, to give you the right advice we need to know:

1. What OS you use and whether it is 32bit or 64bit
2. What hardware you have (GPU, Mobo etc)
3. What future upgrades you think you might be planning?
4. What budget you have.
 
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Thanks for the help

WOW !! Thanks for all of the replies .. I am embarassed to say what my comp. is .. Cheap emachine . I upgraded the RAM 1 time already and 2 GB is the most I can put in it ... The only thing I am wanting to put in it is a TV tuner card and a video card to go with the new 23 inch monitor I have but not any big special vid card ....

I had "Built" 2 computers in the old days .. actually just bought a motherboard that worked with my casesand put a video card in it other than that I was using the old pards from the MB that died .. No real problem for me to do ... I just don't have the urge to do it again .. I would just like to make this one work as good as I can without starting over ..

I saw where someone said the power supply doesn't have to be that big .. only like 600 watts maybe??? I am on my 2nd one now and it's 450 watts and 2 yrs old .. OK I'm ready for all of the lectures about wasting time and money on this piece of junk .. and I do really thank you all for the help ... OH yea e mch model # is T2792 Thanks .. sorry for the long reply . Don J.
 
Russian777 said:
Xclio??? Talk about chinese crap.
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Your the guy that likes Rosewill PSU right.

You say Xclio are crap. Tell my who makes them??

I will even give you a hint. The same companies that make some Antec/Cooler Master/Corsair/Silverstone/Thermaltake/Zalman
 
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diverdon said:
WOW !! Thanks for all of the replies .. I am embarassed to say what my comp. is .. Cheap emachine . I upgraded the RAM 1 time already and 2 GB is the most I can put in it ... The only thing I am wanting to put in it is a TV tuner card and a video card to go with the new 23 inch monitor I have but not any big special vid card ....

I had "Built" 2 computers in the old days .. actually just bought a motherboard that worked with my casesand put a video card in it other than that I was using the old pards from the MB that died .. No real problem for me to do ... I just don't have the urge to do it again .. I would just like to make this one work as good as I can without starting over ..

I saw where someone said the power supply doesn't have to be that big .. only like 600 watts maybe??? I am on my 2nd one now and it's 450 watts and 2 yrs old .. OK I'm ready for all of the lectures about wasting time and money on this piece of junk .. and I do really thank you all for the help ... OH yea e mch model # is T2792 Thanks .. sorry for the long reply . Don J.
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what brand is it?

And old doesn't=bad if it serves your purposes. What you have to remember is most people here either game, do video/picture editing or are in it for bragging rights, so their machines eiter fit their needs or often way exceed them but it is what they want, and most have an old "heap of junk" that they use for other things. Hell, only about 4 months ago i got rid of my 512, celeron D integrated hp system, but right up until it broke it did what I needed it for, browsing the internet and watching videos.

Depending on your specs 600W will probably be too much, but as has been said, it isn't the wattage that limits your system, it is the ampgae on the +12V rail.

For example, case study. I had a 750W off brand PSU powering my system that i picked up for about £15 i think (bargain i thought). In $, that is about maybe $26 or so. I got it not knowing all those years ago that wattage was near enough irrelevant compared to the ampage and all was fine because my system was well within what the unit could handle. I then upgraded my RAM and video card so instead of 2GB of RAM and a single 8600GT video card i now had 8GB of RAM and 2 8600GT video cards, and about 2 weeks after the upgrade boom, my power supply blew and VERY LUCKILY took no other components with it.

Now in my search for a new PSU (a day of solid research and scouting for units) I found that the amps are important, so i checked my broken unit and found it only had 19A on the +12V rail. I had the money to get an 850W Corsair PSU and this had 75A on the +12V rail so i got it knowing this would solidly power anything that was out at the time, so mine was safe because of the 75amps.

So, let's say for example your specs are:

768mb RAM
1x80GB HDD
P4 processor
7600GT video card

for that it isn't too taxing for the power so a 450W power supply would easily power it so long as it isn't your bargain bin unit. You said that you are on a 450W PSU at the moment and if that is a cheap and nasty one then a decent 450W would very very easily power your system and let you upgrade a bit
 
Thanks For the tip about looking at the 12 volt amps available . I allways thought that the rated watts was what was available and that it was just divided out among the different sources taped into it .. What's the formula that fits this ...lets see amps ...450 divided by volts ..12 equals amps ?? Right ??? that would give me 37.5 amps at the ready if I am right .. And I will be REAL suprised if that theory is correct ...

The computer model name is a emachine model #T2792 and the power supply is a OKIA ? name brand replaced under warranty 2-3 years ago .. I know this machine is not in any league AT ALL with you guys computers . I am just hoping to get some advice other than "Throw it out and start over" Ha? Ha?

Like I said I have this new big flat screen monitor and the fast cable connection . I just would like to use this for entertainment like videos .. Watching and recording (Some) TV .. And general web surfing .. I enjoy looking up all kinds of stuff .. My Hobbie is the RC Airplanes so Theres lots of stuff to look up about them ...

Anyhoo ... I think I will get this Ram Memory 2gigs of it ... Max I am allowed to use on this mch ... Saw a brand named "Crucial?" pretty Cheap? $40 per gig then lok for a new power supply before this one dies and takes something else like the motherboard with it ..


Thanks soooo much to you all for the help and not laughing tooo much about my POS computer .. (At leas not in my face , Ha?) I am very open to any suggestions anyone has ... afterall thats why I posted here .. and I only hope maybe someone else will see this post and be able to use some of it for themselves ...
Thanks Again, Don J.
 
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