Looking for a new Video Card

[Widjaja]

do you think i could gut my hp compaq dc7900 sff out an put it in a mid tower case an buy a new psu?

I have not worked with any current DC series desktops lately but I have encountered these issues with the HP DC series desktops.

CPU cooler attached to pull out back plate.
This means you will need to either find a back plate or purchase a aftermarket cooler which comes with a new back plate.

Although I have managed to remove the whole panel which the mother board is attached to on a DC series desktop and placed it in a Mid Tower case.
Also there maybe no IO plate for your motherboard as it maybe part of the plate which your motherboard and CPU heatsink attaches to.

As you have found out, the HP desktops come with specific power supplies for their Cases and they are VERY overpriced.

I think your DC is an ATX form factor and not the unusual mother boar configurations I have been noticing recently with HPs new desktops.

So there may be some minor issues or some major issues with installing your DC hardware into a new case but if there are only the minor issues, those are the ones which you will encounter and will have to either install the plate the motherboard and CPU cooler is attached to or just purchase a new CPU cooler with replacement back plate.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Are they going to be releasing GTX 440 and 430? It seemed like they were going to be releasing the GTX 450, 440, and 430 around June but they ended up postponing the release of those cards to a later date. Is the 450 suppose to compete with the 5750 or 5770? Will be it be $150? I'm waiting till prices fall down or something new comes out. I don't want to spend more than $80-100 on a video card so right now most such as the 5670 and 5770 are too expensive. I understand the 5750 and 5770 are already 9 months old so they can be had for cheap on Ebay. They had a Sapphire 5750 sell today on ebay for $71.57 which is a pretty good deal.

The 450 should compete with the 5770/5750 and should cost less than $150, probably about 15% less in price than a 460 768MB but obviously thats guesswork at present, some rumours say $129.99.

 

[bear2790]

Since January 2010 I've had a whole bunch of different gaming cards as follows:

- GTX 275 core 240 (Palit)
- GTX 260 core 216 (XFX)
- HD 4870 512MB (XFX)
- HD 4890 1GB (Sapphire)

I just got my paws on a Palit 9600GT 512MB Green Edition card today (Green means it's GPU/memory is underclocked compared to the regular version 6900GT, there's no SLI/Crossfire connector and no auxillary 6-pin power supply connector). Bought it on ebay for $50 shipped (Priority mail no less).

nVidia geForce 9600GT Video Card PCI-E VGA, DVI, HDMI

I was amazed at the level of gaming performance I experienced. I added an Accelero Twin Turbo Cooler I had laying around (which is not needed to achieve the following results since the stock cooler gave 70C max during Furmark, the Twin Cooler maxed at 52C). Then did a safe & stable OC to 680/1500 and here's some hands-on results:

Mass Effect 2 1920x1200 no AA @ >55fps avg
Mass Effect 1920x1200 AAx16q @ >60fps avg
Half Life 2 maxed at 1920x1440 > 100fps AVG

More than enough for smooth gaming. I would imagine that a HD5770 1GB would do well if you need DX11 but it will cost you 2-3X as much right now (cheapest I've seen at the egg was open box @ $130 + S/H).