PSU headache

S

Sum44

New Member
Well, I'm going to start off by saying I am not the most sophisticated man with regards to computers, not by a long shot.

Recently, I purchased a a computer from a retailer (budget of 1000$ CDN); I am content with it and it's capabilities for my non-gaming needs, however, the video card is lackluster so to speak, but there is a PCI-Express x 16 slot available.

I have 2 questions:

I have read up on as many sites as I could regarding power supply and upgrading it according to the current specs of your computer, and perhaps I am crazy, but I don't think the PSU that came with my computer is even capable of providing enough power to the computer itself. I opened the case, and determined that the PSU was 300w.

The specs of my computer are found here

Mfr. Part Number: ASE700-EQ661A
Processor Type: Intel Core 2 Q6600 Quad
Processor Speed 2.40GHz
RAM: 2048MB DDR2 (Exp To 4GB)
Hard Drive 500GB (7200RPM)
Optical Drives DVD Dual (DVD+/-RW)
Graphics Card Intel GMA X3000 w/ Dynamic Memory
Available Expansion Bays 1 x 5.25", 4 x 3.5"
Available Expansion Slots 1 x PCI-Ex16, 3 x PCI V2.3, 1 x PCI-Ex1
Cache 8MB L2
Disk Drive No
Fax/Modem No
Network Card Gigabit LAN
Sound Card Embedded High-Definition Audio
System Bus 1066MHz

I/O Ports: 2 x IEEE 1394 Firewire Oort (6 pin & 4 pin), 8 x High-Speed USB 2.0 Ports (4 front and 4 rear accessible), 9-In-1 Card Reader (supporting CompactFlash (Type I and II), IBM Microdrive, MultiMediaCard (MMC), Secure Digital (SD), SmartMedia, xD-Picture Card, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick)

(I was told quad cores are power hungry)
Was I given a subpar PSU on this premade computer?

My second question is that if I were to upgrade to a 300w min required video card, should I consider upgrading my PSU to something slightly larger than a 300w as a buffer?

Thanks in advance for the help, and apologies in advance if these are foolish questions.
 
Last edited:
Well that psu would probably be fine running that system at the moment though i would suggest a better one because the ones that come with computers like acer are extreamly low quality units. If you were to upgrade to a new video card you would have to upgrade it, how much could you spend on one so we can help? you can also check out this thread...
http://www.computerforum.com/90118-useful-psu-guides.html
 
ThatGuy16 said:
Well that psu would probably be fine running that system at the moment though i would suggest a better one because the ones that come with computers like acer are extreamly low quality units. If you were to upgrade to a new video card you would have to upgrade it, how much could you spend on one so we can help? you can also check out this thread...
http://www.computerforum.com/90118-useful-psu-guides.html
Click to expand...

I was eyeing the EVGA 8600GT and the EVGA 8600GTS for a video card upgrade.

As for a power supply, price wouldn't matter, but it's a "I want to spend more than I have too" kind of situation.
 
Ok, I will definitely look into Corsair PSU's.

One last question, would my computer most likely be a ATX 2.0 24 pin?
 
I've came up with this paring based on the PSU Good/Bad list

EVGA GeForce 8600 GTS

with a

Ultra / X-Finity / 500-Watt / ATX / 120mm Fan / SATA-Ready / SLI-Ready / Black / Power Supply

seems solid to me.
 
Yeah that psu will be fine, if you want to game you might want to think about the 8800gts... but the 8600 will play most games on fairly high settings but if you realy plan on gaming i would consider the 8800
 
unfortunately, that may be out of my budget range, I'll have to check.

I've never done a power supply swap before, is there anything I should watch out for?

Also, thanks for the help, I appreciate it.
 
not realy, just make sure you get everything pluged up :P

On SOME PSU's there a voltage switch on the back and it should be on 110v for US
 
well, it took me quite some time, and a bit of coaching over the phone, but i managed to figure it out :D

it runs great. thanks for the help.
 
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