Power Supply > Video Card Upgrade - Is it worth it?

Question

eMachines T3506
Intel Celeron D Processor 352
3.20GHz
553 MHz FSB
512 KB L2 Cache

Video
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 with available PCI-express slot

Hard Drive (not so important - its enough for me)
120GB

Memory
880MB DDR SDRAM (its supposed to be one gig but its shared)

Video Memory
128MB I guess...


I was planning to upgrade to a 400-500 Watt Power Supply (max) and then to a video card from nVidia. If i did this, i would have full 1GIG RAM and video memory not shared. RIght now i know my video card sucks, and my processor is not the best but its all i can have for the next 2 years...

1. Is it worth upgrading?
2. Is the Celeron D processor that bad?
3. If i upgraded video card and power supply, could my computer be better for things like gaming, etc.?
4. Is it hard to switch power supplies?

Um to get a decent video card i need better power supply, i only got 300W.

Answer 1

With your current setup, your gaming experience will be completely frustrating.
I would upgrade.

Your processor is fine for gaming and graphics. People think that processor speed is everything but it's not. It's like rating an engine by the rpm's. The larger issues are things like RAM (I'd get another gig, one isn't enough for gaming), hard drive (should be at least 7200 rpm) and video card setup.

Get the best video card you can afford. It should be pciexpress. The more memory on the card the better and should have it's it own cooling fan. If the computers power supply is less than 400 watts, then upgrade to accomodate the video card. Doing this and getting another gig of ram will give you fantastic frame rates on pretty much any game out there.

Before you buy the new power supply, get the dimensions of the existing ps to insure the new one is the same. Also look at the computers manual to make sure you buy one with the correct connectors to the mother board. The hook ups going to things like cdroms, dvd drives, hard drives, etc, will always be universal. Replacing the ps is then a simple matter of a few screws and a few plug changes.

I did this exact same thing about a year and a half ago and my system will still handle any game out there.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

Edit- Don't get a cheap video card as the other posters suggest. If your ps is 300 to 350 watts, it WILL be necessary to upgrade with pcie.
Don't forget to dissable the shared onboard memory in your bios after you upgrade.
Download the latest drivers as opposed to using the cd that comes with the new card.

Answer 2

For gaming, the video card upgrade is definitely worth it.

Celeron-D is pretty weak by today's standards. But at 3.20Ghz you'll be ok with a real video card replacing the integrated Xpress 200 and it's shared memory. You'd see a huge jump in performance even with a $50 card like a 7300GT.

I'd suggest something better but not too expensive, like a GeForce 7600GT for $75 or maybe a Geforce 8600GT for a little more. For the 7600GT, you probably don't even need to upgrade the PSU- it's famous for low power consumption.

Anything more expensive than $150 would probably be a waste, since your processor wouldn't achieve maximum frame rates anyway. Your Celeron cannot push a Radeon X1950XT or Geforce 8800 GTS to their limits, so don't burn your cash on upper-tier cards until you've got a better CPU.

If your CPU was just a bit more powerful like an Athlon X2 3800+, then the $200-$250 cards would be worthwhile. The cards in that range definitely require a PSU upgrade. But with your Celeron, there's no point in buying a great card today thinking you'll keep it later; by the time you have a better machine it will be outdated, and a newer generation of graphics cards will be available.

Power supply upgrades aren't usually tough, you just need a screwdriver and maybe a flashlight. The only times they're a pain:

1) When the case design is cramped. You might have to remove other stuff like RAM and the video card, in order to get at the power supply. But since you plan on pulling the video card anyway, no biggie.

2) When the machine uses a non-standard sized PSU (like Dell) A 470w power supply for a Dell costs twice as much as a regular ATX one.

Here's the latest list of best gaming video cards for every price range, from Tom's Hardware:

Answer 3

1. Yes you can buy a good nvidia card for like $50 w/ 256mb of ddr built-in so its defiantly worth getting that ram back and ill think that you would defiantly see the difference in speed.
2. The celeron d is not bad if your just doing things such as websurfing and word processing, its not very good when your trying to run multiple processes at one time and/or serious gaming and photoshop, etc. If this bothers you can go to frys and look at there processors I take it your is socket 775 last time I was there they had a 3.0 socket 775 P4 Processor w/ HT for only $30 and even though its not technically dual core it should have better performance than the celeron d.
3.Yes the video card will be better for gaming, the PS really doesn't matter as long as all your hardware is getting the necessary power.
4. It is not hard to switch PS but why would you? if your PS now can handle what your running a video card should not cause you to change them out unless its pulling a godly amound of power on its own.

Answer 4

It could possibly be worth upgrading. Don't worry about the power supply and you can get a better video card. You will have to look up a graphics card and make sure that it works for your computer. Is the graphics card that you have on your mother board integrated? If it is then you can still add on another card. Power supply is not that hard to change out. But def. try and get a better video card if you want to do gaming.

Answer 5

1 & 2. Celerons don't make such a great gaming machine, but if you can't afford anything else I'd upgrade it.

3. Your computer would mainly be better for gaming and anything graphical. Other than that such as word docs etc wouldn't speed up (maybe a tiny bit since your freeing up that that that would be used for video processing).

4. Pretty easy, just gotta make sure you plug the stuff into the proper places (just unplug and replace as you go).

Answer 6

If your computer powers on, you dont need to replace the power supply.

Your box is top of the line, my machine is half of what yours is.

Upgrading the video card will give you all of your memory for non video purposes.

Power supplies are easy to switch but again, you only upgrade them if you add some hard drives and/or Optical drives and find your computer no longer able to turn on.

Answer 7

Of course, it is worth upgrading.
Now, dual core is popular but Celeron D is not bad too.
Yes, your computer is better in gaming after upgrading and
it is not hard to switch power supply.

Answer 8

The processor is junk. Everything is junk. Save up and get a real computer.