video card upgrade for PC with 365W PS

[socrates63]

I have a HP PC with a 365W power supply, and I want to upgrade the video. The system currently has a single HD and a single DVD drive. The CPU is an Intel Core 2 Quad. How do I figure out whether the system can handle the power requirements of a video card?

I'm looking to spend $120-$170 on a video card -- a middle of the pack gaming performer. I'm looking at Radeo HD 5750 cards and some nVidia cards. I also found an interesting fanless Gigabyte GeForce 9800 GT card. Quiet performance is always good.

But as I read the product specs on newegg for various video cards, I see many cards requiring 400+ watt PS. Assuming I can even upgrade the PS in this HP, is that what I need to do?

[Fungi]

The 5750 is nice, but I'm pretty sure only the upcoming 56xx series meets your low PSU requirement, especially under load (since 57xx is ~15W idle, much higher load)

4670 was a definite low-power winner last time, and I'd definitely recommend the 5670 based on preliminary benchmarks like ATI Radeon HD 5670: DirectX 11 For $99 : Introduction - Review Tom's Hardware

[Dusty Chalk]

I would just assume it doesn't, and budget in a new power supply with the card. That's probably one of the easiest things in the computer to replace. Well, unless it doesn't fit in the case, in which case you'll need a new case, too, and then it becomes one of the hardest, only because you then have to move friggin' everying to the other case.

Recommendation: go modular on the power supply.

Me, personally, am going to go with the new Radeons.

[socrates63]

Thanks, Fungi.

I just found a thread on HP's support forum where someone asked about replacing the video card. Basically, "The recommended graphics card for the dc7800 is an nVidia 8440 and it must be a low profile." I'll take a look at your suggestions.

@Dusty

I was hoping the HP could be upgraded to perform better than my current nVidia 8800 GT based system. Trying to upgrade mass market PCs is a PITA (I had to replace the PS in order to install the 8800 GT card in my current Dell PC)... maybe it's just time to put together a HTPC in a audio component looking case with gamer specs that I've been dreaming about for years.

[Dusty Chalk]

Sucks, but you should still be able to steal most everything from the mass market codger. That was effectively the second half of my first paragraph in my previous post.

[tkam]

Sounds like it's time to just build yourself a new PC, you can get a lot of performance for not that much cash these days. I agree with Dusty, re-use the parts you can, like the cpu, ram and any disk drives.