Upgrade Options

[cyberjunaid]

I have HP Pavilion HPE h8-1360t. The specs of the pc are attached below. I am a noob in terms of the hardware side of the computer, trying to learn more about it. I want to know what are my options to upgrade the video card?

 

Regards,

 

cyberjunaid

JUNAID-HP.txt

 

edit:

Are there any good ones for gaming?

[Daniel Z.]

Anything without extra power. 1050

[DCWalt]

The specs don't say anything about the Power Supply but I would assume it's pretty low end. The card that's in there right now doesn't use any external power and i would guess the Power Supply wouldn't be capable of handling a card that does.

 

On the off chance that the Power Supply has a 6 pin connector you might be able to squeeze in a GTX 1050 Ti but probably not. A GTX 1050 is probably the best you're going to do or you might be able to find a GTX 950 Ti at a lower price. Neither of those cards require external power.

 

If you have a little bit more money to drop your best bet would be to get a new Power Supply along with a GTX 1050 Ti or even a GTX 1060 depending on how much you have to spend.

 

~Edited to exclude a terrible suggestion~

[cyberjunaid]

47 minutes ago, DCWalt said:

The specs don't say anything about the Power Supply but I would assume it's pretty low end. The card that's in there right now doesn't use any external power and i would guess the Power Supply wouldn't be capable of handling a card that does.

 

On the off chance that the Power Supply has a 6 pin connector you might be able to squeeze in a GTX 1050 Ti but probably not. A GTX 1050 is probably the best you're going to do or you might be able to find a GTX 950 Ti at a lower price. Neither of those cards require external power.

 

If you have a little bit more money to drop your best bet would be to get a new Power Supply along with a GTX 1050 Ti or even a GTX 1060 depending on how much you have to spend.

 

The Antec VP-450 is a 450 Watt PSU and it's only $39.99 on newegg if your budget is super tight. it's not pretty but it'll run a GTX 1060 no problem.

The power supply is 300W but its not a very good one. The specs are attached as a jpg.

[DCWalt]

yeah, don't even try to use that with a graphics card that needs external power. Either upgrade the power supply or get a card like the 1050 that doesn't need external power.

[Rune]

1050 Pheonix is probably the highest you'd want to go.

[DCWalt]

1 hour ago, DCWalt said:

yeah, don't even try to use that with a graphics card that needs external power. Either upgrade the power supply or get a card like the 1050 that doesn't need external power.

I was thinking about Antec VP-450 power supply I recommended to you earlier and realized it was a terrible recommendation... If you do pick up a new Power Supply read the description carefully and make sure It's a "single rail" power supply. Without going into to much technical detail it basically means the PSU can deliver it's full load where you need it to go. I'm currently being screwed over by a dual rail PSU and I accidentally recommended one to you too.

 

Get something somewhere in the vicinity of 500 or 600 watts. Any more than that and you're wasting both power and money on that computer. 600 Watts would run a GTX 1080 so it'll be more than enough for any lower level cards.

 

And make sure to get a good brand. Corsair, EVGA, Seasonic and Silverstone should all be fine. Stay away from Thermaltake, Rosewill and any off brand units unless you want a dead PSU, a dead computer or a house fire.

[cyberjunaid]

Thanks guys, and yeah I am willing to buy a power supply with the graphics card. I always thought why my graphics card was crap even though the memory is 2 GB but recently I realized the video card memory size is not an indicator of how well it runs games. Due to that realization, I thought it is better to just ask for advise then regret it later.

[cyberjunaid]

A question should I get a modular PSU or not? Take note other than installing a wireless network card in my PC, I have no prior experience with PC building, so any advice is great advice to me.

[cyberjunaid]

Another question, Can I buy the two fan gtx 1060 version? What about founder's edition? 6GB?

[cyberjunaid]

On 12/19/2017 at 12:21 AM, DCWalt said:

I was thinking about Antec VP-450 power supply I recommended to you earlier and realized it was a terrible recommendation... If you do pick up a new Power Supply read the description carefully and make sure It's a "single rail" power supply. Without going into to much technical detail it basically means the PSU can deliver it's full load where you need it to go. I'm currently being screwed over by a dual rail PSU and I accidentally recommended one to you too.

 

Get something somewhere in the vicinity of 500 or 600 watts. Any more than that and you're wasting both power and money on that computer. 600 Watts would run a GTX 1080 so it'll be more than enough for any lower level cards.

 

And make sure to get a good brand. Corsair, EVGA, Seasonic and Silverstone should all be fine. Stay away from Thermaltake, Rosewill and any off brand units unless you want a dead PSU, a dead computer or a house fire.

So, Can I buyany version of gtx 1060 graphic card like the two fan version or the founder's edition?

[zombienerd]

On 12/19/2017 at 12:38 PM, cyberjunaid said:

A question should I get a modular PSU or not? Take note other than installing a wireless network card in my PC, I have no prior experience with PC building, so any advice is great advice to me.

Modular is helpful in a small case, so you can leave out wires you don't need.  However, it's really just aesthetic, and has no bearing on performance.  Find one that is quality in your budget.  If it's modular, then great!

2 hours ago, cyberjunaid said:

So, Can I buyany version of gtx 1060 graphic card like the two fan version or the founder's edition?

As long as the length of the card will fit your case, a quality 450w supply should handle a 960 or 1060 quite nicely.

[xg32]

2 hours ago, cyberjunaid said:

So, Can I buyany version of gtx 1060 graphic card like the two fan version or the founder's edition?

you can try to squeeze in a 1050 with the current psu buy a 1060 with a 450w power supply, you can pretty much get any 1060.

[DCWalt]

6 hours ago, cyberjunaid said:

So, Can I buyany version of gtx 1060 graphic card like the two fan version or the founder's edition?

you CAN use any card you want as long as the case has enough room for it but your problem is going to be ventilation. In small cases with little airflow it's best to use GPUs with blower type coolers like on founders edition cards. Fan style coolers vent their heat into the case and with tight cases like that the heat just tends to build up. I wouldn't think you'd be in danger of damaging anything but you could throttle both your GPU and CPU. You would effectively be upgrading to downgrade if the temps got too high.

 

If I where you I would stick with a founders edition card and vent that heat out of the case.

[DCWalt]

On 12/19/2017 at 10:38 AM, cyberjunaid said:

A question should I get a modular PSU or not? Take note other than installing a wireless network card in my PC, I have no prior experience with PC building, so any advice is great advice to me.

A modular PSU isn't really going to gain you anything unless you're trying to keep a tidy case. If you're concerned about aesthetics or blocking air flow with a rats nest of wires then yes, get a modular PSU. But keep in mind that the PSU that's in there now isn't modular and I assume it hasn't been a problem in terms of airflow and your case doesn't have a window so it's probably worth getting a non-modular PSU and saving a few bucks.

 

What you should be more concerned about is the 80 Plus rating. A more efficient power supply means less power draw from the wall, less heat and less noise potently. Rather than dropping more money on a modular power supply for the sake of it, put that extra money towards an 80 Plus Gold power supply. Most Gold PSUs are modular anyway, I'm just saying in your case that shouldn't be the main priority,

[DCWalt]

On 12/19/2017 at 7:22 PM, cyberjunaid said:

Another question, Can I buy the two fan gtx 1060 version? What about founder's edition? 6GB?

If you can find a 6GB card at a good price then go for it but don't waste the money if it costs a lot more than the standard version. you can get a 1060 for under $250 new. The ASUS 1060 STRIX 6BG is $400. you'd be a lot better off buying a 1070 for that price.

 

Having a lot of graphics memory is only going to help you if you're running higher resolutions like 4K. Given the system you currently have I assume you're just running a 1080p monitor in which case 6GB of graphics RAM is going to do nothing for you. Save the money and get a 3GB 1060 or upgrade to a 1070.

[cyberjunaid]

On 12/23/2017 at 5:02 PM, DCWalt said:

If you can find a 6GB card at a good price then go for it but don't waste the money if it costs a lot more than the standard version. you can get a 1060 for under $250 new. The ASUS 1060 STRIX 6BG is $400. you'd be a lot better off buying a 1070 for that price.

 

Having a lot of graphics memory is only going to help you if you're running higher resolutions like 4K. Given the system you currently have I assume you're just running a 1080p monitor in which case 6GB of graphics RAM is going to do nothing for you. Save the money and get a 3GB 1060 or upgrade to a 1070.

wait so I CAN get a 1070 card?

[DCWalt]

7 hours ago, cyberjunaid said:

wait so I CAN get a 1070 card?

yes, why wouldn't you be able to? you could get a 1080 or a Titian if you had the money. nothing is stopping you from putting any graphics card you want in that computer. just make sure you get a power supply big enough to handle it. A 650 Watt PSU will push almost any card you want. just make sure it's single rail.

 

I'm running the same CPU you are and I have dual 970s. You might be a little bottle necked but that's unavoidable unless you just build a whole new PC. Buy the best card you can afford and that thing will be a great little computer. Just carry the card over into your next PC when you upgrade.

[cyberjunaid]

9 hours ago, DCWalt said:

yes, why wouldn't you be able to? you could get a 1080 or a Titian if you had the money. nothing is stopping you from putting any graphics card you want in that computer. just make sure you get a power supply big enough to handle it. A 650 Watt PSU will push almost any card you want. just make sure it's single rail.

 

I'm running the same CPU you are and I have dual 970s. You might be a little bottle necked but that's unavoidable unless you just build a whole new PC. Buy the best card you can afford and that thing will be a great little computer. Just carry the card over into your next PC when you upgrade.

Thanks man, I thought since my PC is old. It would not be able to get better video cards but I can understand that better cards would just bottleneck. Final question, if I am looking for the dimensions of the card to make sure it fits, what would I look at to make sure that it will fit? The PC case dimensions? the motherboard dimensions?

Thanks again.

[DCWalt]

4 hours ago, cyberjunaid said:

Thanks man, I thought since my PC is old. It would not be able to get better video cards but I can understand that better cards would just bottleneck. Final question, if I am looking for the dimensions of the card to make sure it fits, what would I look at to make sure that it will fit? The PC case dimensions? the motherboard dimensions?

Thanks again.

open your case and measure your usable space from the inside. Don't just rely on the external dimensions. You'll have drive cages and wires to contend with on the inside. any card you get is going to be at least dual slot (stay away from triple slot. it's a waist of space in your case.) so make sure your case has enough PCI brackets on the back. From the pictures I found it looks like you should be fine.

 

In terms of the card, most manufacturers list the card length. try to leave yourself a little room though. If, for instance, you only have 12 inches of usable space in your case then don't get a 12 inch card if you can avoid it. you could run into clearance issues. Leave yourself an inch or two of wiggle room.

 

Remember you'll need space to run power as well. Depending on the card you get you may need anywhere from a single 6 pin to dual 8 pin. it's probably not going to be a problem, just something to keep in mind.

 

So chose the card you want, measure the inside of your case, get a version of that card that leaves you some wiggle room and get a power supply that can handle it.

 

If you need anymore help feel free to PM me.