Can I load a PCIe graphics card into this to play Skyrim?

[jordanpr]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883103267

Don't hate ;-). I'm on this kick where I only upgrade my computer every couple years with the "lowest rung" of decent computers so that instead of paying bleeding edge prices every 2 years, I pay the absolute minimum and it still feels like a huge upgrade to me.

Anyways, brother bought me Skyrim today because "he forgot to get me a bday present", and I'm trying to figure out the least resistance/lowest cost way to play this game without weeping at the graphics that I will be missing. Would it be possible to load in a graphics card into the PCIe port on this guy that can handle Skyrim and many other games of the past 2-3 years that I throw at it? Thanks in advance.

 

[BlockheadBrown]

According to the specs, there's one PCIe slot. You could put a low-profile card in it from the looks of it.

 

[jordanpr]

Any recommendations?

 

[BlockheadBrown]

I took a look at what's available on newegg - not much. If you look at the pics, there's not very much room either.

 

[BlockheadBrown]

I don't know that upgrading to a 5450 is really worth it.

 

[BlockheadBrown]

Really, you'd be better off building your own rig at this point.

 

[chimaxi83]

From one of the reviews:

"No extra power cables from the power supply. so if you order a video card that needs power connector your out of luck unless you use a splitter. over all I am satisfied with my purchase, the only reason I did not give it 5 eggs because the lack of power connectors and pci-e 16 slot has no locking mechanism for video cards. why else would you use the pci-e 16 slot for."

From the looks of it, it would also have to be a single slot card. You might be able to fit something like this in there, depending on how much space there is between the slot and the bottom of the case. That card only required one power connection, which you could do with the included splitter.

Edit: this card takes up one slot entirely, doesnt have a larger heatsink like the other one I linked. Overall though, that's about as good as you're going to get, from a space and power perspective.

 

[Bryf50]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121397
This would probably be your best bet for a reasonable price. It'll do well in most games as long as your expectations aren't too high. It's similar in performance to the 540m in my laptop which does most modern games on low-medium @1366x768.

If you want to step it up a bit this should work too.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161397
But i don't think its worth the price difference.

Edit: On the other hand there is a pretty big difference in performance going with the 6670

 

[jordanpr]

Last question, which is probably an idea-killer...

The power supply is showing 220W on newegg. This can't possibly support an external card, right?

 

[Bryf50]

Last question, which is probably an idea-killer...

The power supply is showing 220W on newegg. This can't possibly support an external card, right?

Actually I believe you'll be just fine with either of those options.

On a system with a much more power hungry i7 920 setup and running the power virus that is furmark.

A lot of people on here seem to forget that you don't need to play pc games at ultra settings,locked at 60 fps, and at 1920x1080.

 

[chimaxi83]

Oh yea, power supply. Not sure, it might be fine, as long as nothing is overclocked in your system. Guru3D tested a 6770 and found power consumption to be roughly 88 watts at load. The card I linked though shows minimum 450w supply needed, but that's nowhere near what this card will draw.

 

[SolMiester]

Last question, which is probably an idea-killer...

The power supply is showing 220W on newegg. This can't possibly support an external card, right?

I doubt it, certain not an external card for gaming...guess the 2 yr lowest pc build cycle does have its drawbacks eh?

 

[jordanpr]

I doubt it, certain not an external card for gaming...guess the 2 yr lowest pc build cycle does have its drawbacks eh?

Hilariously enough, I found this in the review section for the linked cards:

Pros: Took My Acer Model ax1420g-u5832 from a wimpy little internet viewer to a serious gamer. D3 Beta runs smooth as silk and the card hardly ever gets over 40 degrees C even under heavy load. Took my windows experiance index from 3.2 to 5.9. My acer only has a 220 watt power supply. I would reccomend this card to anyone with a SFF system or anyone not wanting to spend a fortune on a more powerfull power supply. Thanks newegg.

Cons: Zero



Not too sure about "serious gamer", but even being able to run Skyrim on medium sounds pretty pleasant for an extra $60.

 

[gmaster456]

Sorry if I missed this, but what is your budget?

 

[jordanpr]

Sorry if I missed this, but what is your budget?

My budget is:

1. Cards that work in a PCIe x1 or x16 slot
2. Cards that could possibly work with a 220W power supply
3. Cards that work with the case/setup mentioned in my first post.

I assume that is already limiting us to just a few cards, but if you had some mega low-consumption high-performance card you wanted to throw out there, I'm super game (even if it's a "less competitive" price.

 

[Bryf50]

Looking around some more and I think this might be your best bet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127611
Looks like it consistently outperforms the 430 for a little more.

I assume that is already limiting us to just a few cards, but if you had some mega low-consumption high-performance card you wanted to throw out there, I'm super game (even if it's a "less competitive" price.

In this case I think if cost is no factor the 6670 I linked earlier is the upper limit of performance you can get. But the difference between it and the 6570 doesn't seem to justify the price increase.

 

[MegaWorks]

Don't bother with your power supply no video card will load on that unit, you're going to get a nice black screen on start up. Your better off changing your case with a new power supply, and then we could talk video cards.

 

[Bryf50]

Don't bother with your power supply no video card will load on that unit, you're going to get a nice black screen on start up. Your better off changing your case with a new power supply, and then we could talk video cards.

Source? At least some facts to support this? A pretty graph showing a low end GPU system pulling more than 220w? I posted mine a few posts up.

 

[chimaxi83]

Don't bother with your power supply no video card will load on that unit, you're going to get a nice black screen on start up. Your better off changing your case with a new power supply, and then we could talk video cards.

That's not entirely accurate. My sons machine has a 250w power supply, and the Phenom X4 and 9800GT has been chugging right along in it for about 3 years now. Both parts consume more power than OP's CPU and a 6770, for example. He should be fine, at all stock clocks.

 

[ElFenix]

Don't bother with your power supply no video card will load on that unit, you're going to get a nice black screen on start up. Your better off changing your case with a new power supply, and then we could talk video cards.

if he put in a card that required an extra power cable, i might agree. but that's not what people here are suggesting. 220 watts is plenty for a lot of lower end cards. just so long as he's also not running some CPU intensive thing like DC or furmark while gaming, the power supply can be adequate.

reading around, that computer has a lite-on 5221-06 power supply. which appears to be TFX. you might want to check dimensions, but seasonic makes a nice 300 watt TFX supply if you need to add some wattage.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151090

 

[Schmide]

An Athlon II x3 doesn't use that much power. Total system power loaded sans extra VC is going to be 60-100w. Considering a 6670 uses about 15w idle and 50w load, it should be fine.

A on the nVidia side GT 430 about the same and a gt 440 like 65w which may be a bit on the edge.

 

[-Slacker-]

A hd 7750 is the highest I'd go with. Those 220 watts advertised is the power taken from the wall and, accounting for the loss in efficiency over the years, I wouldn't rate that PSU at more than 150w...

Fortunately a hd7750 eats no more than 60watts, and the athlon is a 65w part ... combined with the low power mobo and the HDD, you'll scratch the limit of your PSU, but you should be fine, as long as you don't fit more gizmos on your rig wile you're gaming.

 

[formulav8]

Don't bother with your power supply no video card will load on that unit, you're going to get a nice black screen on start up. Your better off changing your case with a new power supply, and then we could talk video cards.

:thumbsdown:

I've many times been able to put in higher wattage components in power supplys that are not up to the power requirements. Especially if its a decent quality power supply.

 

[gmaster456]

A hd 7750 is the highest I'd go with. Those 220 watts advertised is the power taken from the wall and, accounting for the loss in efficiency over the years, I wouldn't rate that PSU at more than 150w...

Fortunately a hd7750 eats no more than 60watts, and the athlon is a 65w part ... combined with the low power mobo and the HDD, you'll scratch the limit of your PSU, but you should be fine, as long as you don't fit more gizmos on your rig wile you're gaming.

There's no way the psu lost that much power in that amount of time.

 

[Bryf50]

A hd 7750 is the highest I'd go with. Those 220 watts advertised is the power taken from the wall and, accounting for the loss in efficiency over the years, I wouldn't rate that PSU at more than 150w...

Fortunately a hd7750 eats no more than 60watts, and the athlon is a 65w part ... combined with the low power mobo and the HDD, you'll scratch the limit of your PSU, but you should be fine, as long as you don't fit more gizmos on your rig wile you're gaming.

A 7750 might be possible but there aren't any easy available low profile models.