Out of Pod Experience

check it out

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.770953

power supply seems a bit low for the graphics card, no OS or optical drive and only 4 gigs of ram

but everything else seems decent

anything i should be worried about?

will be my first gaming computer, i put together my non combo build on newegg and it has everything for about 60 bucks cheaper but a worse processor and graphics card.

help lol

The barracuda series is the set of Seagates that gave them their rep, too... I don't pretend to be an expert but I would not order that on the strong suspicion that liquidating that model is probably the whole reason behind the bundle.

A 550W PSU should be quite sufficient for that particular configuration.
The vidcard draws under 200W (~185W most likely, stock should be ~170W), CPU should draw under 100W most of the time (95W TDP), everything else combined should not go over 70W, so there's quite a bit of slack there (from ~350W to 550W claimed) even for when the PSU starts suffering from old age.

Personally, I'd drop the HDD altogether, get a nice SDD and reuse an older HDD from whatever machine you already had, if that's an option at all.
HDDs are quite expensive nowadays thanks to the recent Taiwan floods, but, eh, what can you do, not much of a choice if you have no other spare HDDs.


And yeah, I'd really, really get a bit more RAM than just 4 GB. Preferably at least 8 GB.

While on topic.

My Gf's desktop computer is a
HP Pavilion a1640n Tower desktop.
Asus p58w-la
1.8 dual-core cpu
2 gigs ram
Operating system is windows XP.
geforce 8500gt video card 512MB version.
Stock 300W power supply.



I have a Geforce(pny) 8800GTS 320MB video card that I can put in the video card expansion slot but she is going to need a
good power supply before I put that card in.

I figure she can get away with the ram, since its windows xp.

The dual core is crap though and she may need to simply start from scratch and get a descent mid-level barebones computer bundle off newegg or wherever. I'm on the fence, I guess we can try grabbing a power supply this week and trying the 8800gts for now and see if that gets her by, if not I did find a CPU/Motherboard(asus)/memory bundle on pricewatch for just under 200.

She started playing swtor, and she is getting average 5 FPS which makes the game unplayable.
I'd rather her not invest heavily in this since she really isn't a hard core gamer. Before swtor, she couldn't remember the last time she used her desktop.

Her CPU should be an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (C) DC 1.86 GHz, correct ? That's what the tech specs for that machine say. That CPU has a maxTDP of 65W, and the rest of the machine (other than the vidcard, that is) should not draw noticeably over 70W (probably not even 50W most of the time).

The same techspecs make no mention of the PSU, so I can only assume you saw that it's a 300W one by actually reading some stamp on it or something like that.
Or did you personally buy a 300W one at some other time ? HP is not exactly known for oversizing its power supplies (if you know what I mean) and the techspecs say the machine comes with integrated video (so the 8500GT you probably bought separately).
If anything, I would have expected HP to stick in a 180W PSU or even a smaller one. A fairly good condition 180W PSU should be able to run that machine plus a 8500GT with ease.

The precise type of 8800GTS you have should be eating up roughly 143W of power at stock speeds (compared to only around 45W that her current card draws) and be capable of running EVE in fullHD at near-max graphics detail (lowest AA settings but otherwise max) with over 60FPS in most places if the CPU could handle that (it probably will). With the current graphics card (8500GT) she should be getting around 20FPS in the same conditions, give or take. DOES SHE ? If not, you have some other problem.

If the PSU is in good enough shape AND able to actually deliver most of its alleged 300W, then you should not really need a PSU upgrade (~145W video + ~65W CPU + ~60W rest = ~270W) in the short term (but you'll reduce the PSU life expectancy faster).
You can also intentionally underclock the video card and/or the CPU in case you fear the PSU might be causing problems.

The PCI-Express specifications say maximum power draw from slot is 75W, then additional power required has to be supplied via 6-pin connectors (+75W each) or 8-pin connectors (+150W each).

So, a 8500GT (power draw ~45W) needs no power connector, but a 8800GTS (power draw 143W for reference card) needs at least one 6-pin connector (slot plus one 6-pin connector should handle up to 150W power draws).
If it's an overclocked version it might just borderline require two 6-pin connectors or one 8-pin connector since it might draw more than 150W total.

You do not need to have the precise connector on the PSU, you can use an adapter supplied from the bog-standard MOLEX connectors (which are usually rated to handle up to ~130W per pin without serious thermal damage).
6-pin adapters are usually supplied from one or two MOLEX connectors, 8-pin adapters are always supplied from two MOLEX connectors.

also HDD prices went up recently, i think they will start coming down after christmas, this is due to the christmas rush and flooding in india? taiwan? i forget exactly where but Western digital and other HDD factories were flooded big time

i read that some of the western digital plants have actually started again due to some serious effort of the people there, but your probably right.
i was plugging in numbers for a pc to build and was like wtf is up with the huge price compared to september, and the HDD was a major part.

OCZ has a new drive comeing out based on the indilinx controller which should (read: if the stars align) get SSD prices down below 1$ /Gb retail. The new drive is called the OCZ Petrol and comes in sizes ranging from 64 - 512

so if your footprint is only 120gb, then an ssd will make all the difference and the prices are getting close to those inflated mechanical drive prices.

http://www.pcper.com/news/Storage/OCZ-Technology-Petrol-SATA-6Gbps-SSDs-Reduce-SSD-Deployment-Costs-Thirty-Percent