Maximum PC

I hope that I can remember enough information off the top of my head for you guys to help me. I am here at work so I don't have access to the computer in question, but I would like to start doing my research.

My girlfriend and I just bought guildwars 2. I feel like a bad boyfriend for admitting this, but I didn't know that she was running on board video. I think this might be the reason that guild wars won't even install on the computer. It doesn't make too much sense to me, but that is what the staff over on the tech support forum are telling me.

She is running an old Intel duo 2.2 or something like that. Don't know the motherboard model, but what are my limitations on adding a new video card to her rig? I just need something that will meet the minimum requirements, but I want to make sure it is compatible with her currently system.

I'm not sure what kind of power supply she is running, I am hoping that just adding the vid card won't over load her. She doesn't want a whole new Rig.

It'd be nice to know what the system specs in its entirety are. Go run Speccy and let us know what it is.

Yeah I thought so. Ok I don't get off work until 8PM EST. Another 5 hours or so and I'll let you guys know.

Ok, here are the specs.

I'm just looking to fill the minimum reqs for Guild Wars 2 for her.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.20GHz 32 °C
Conroe 65nm Technology

RAM: 3.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz (5-5-5-15)

MOBO: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Benicia (CPU 1)

Graphics: HP w1907 (1440x900@60Hz)
Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family

(Pretty sure that is on board, I'm not even really sure how to update the drivers for these graphics, the Intel sight is giving me a hard time about it.)

Please let me know your recommendation for a vid card I can just slot in the system and get the game working.

Hum. not to sure on this one. seems to show a Micro ATX MOBO.
And I don’t know what kind of PSU is in it.

At first thought seems its going to need something small that sips power.

Hard to say without the PSU description.

This a vender PC? Maybe the make and model would help more.

(also I don't think GW2 is to much on a card. I did a test with my GTX 275 and it says its fine for it.)

Yeah its an HP Pavillion A6334F.

Do standard vid cards still fit in a micro atx board? I would assume there is just less room so you can't get anything crazy, but that is not what we are looking for anyway, probably just a single slot video card.

I'm only running a GTX 260 right now and I can run GW2 just fine. Is it safe to say I am safe with pretty much anything I pick up? What kind of price range should I be looking at?

According to this:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Running_the_game

...you need at least an nVidia GeForce 7800 or Radeon X1800 (or Intel HD 3000 on-board, which is obviously impossible). I will assume you have at least one PCI (or faster) slot open on your mobo, so all you need is something like a GeForce 8000 series card. I don't think your PSU will be an issue.

If you really cared for her, you would build a brand new PC for her

Err... someone else either confirm or contradict?

It's not really the board you should be worried about, it's more like the space.

I think the best you could do is either a GTX 550 Ti, GTX 560 Ti, or GTX 660.

Perhaps you might consider checking to see if the GTX 260 you are ruing might work for her PC.
If so you can upgrade yous with something more new that’s not that expensive and she can run the game with it.

Bottom line is you need to crack that puppy open and see what connectors the power supply has and its voltage. Seeing form the spec sheet on it it has 1 PCI x16 on it. So the odds may be that the PSU might have the connectors that can run the GTX 260, Maybe as I'm not able to find anything on it.

But if worst comes and there’s no connectors for a card like that you might be able to get by with a GS 8400. I don’t think many of them would need the extra power connectors.

But that’s a bare minimum that I wouldn’t really recommend but might get you by for now. Id say if all possible the best chose would be to build a new PC. You can get pretty decent gaming PC for her for as little as $500 to $600. depending on what you have to buy.


GeForce 8 series cards.

I have offered to build her a new PC. She has some weird attachment to things that she has owned for a long time, I can't explain it lol. So she won't let me replace the PC.

Thanks for your help guys, I think I have a good idea of what I'm looking for.

Just break her computer on accident, problem solved

Or just get parts that'll fit in the case. Somehow.

*CRASH!!* oops.. sorry hunny. I accidentally dropped your pc off the top of the house.. lol.

Lol, that would be a great project for the forums I think we will do that together sometime.

I'll take a picture of the inside of her case, buy all the components that will fit in it and do a secret build while she is at work.

Before hand I'll tell her it is time to back up, format and have a nice fresh windows install, after she backs everything up I'll say "Let me do that windows install for you while you are at work honey."

BAM! Hidden new comp inside the old comp, with all her files back upped and transferred to the new build.

"It is faster because we just formatted remember?"

Sounds like some kind of show.
“while my girlfriends out were secretly switching her computers parts for new ones. Let's see if she can tell the difference!” lol.

Gosh that is a nice detail. It all fits. Probably would not exceed 9.5" expansion card length. They mount in center of case. Pretty nice MB actually.

Hopefully she has 3-4Gb of RAM if 32bit, 4-8Gb if 64bit OS.

That massive old 250W ATX PSU (at least it is made by Bestec, ATX-250-12Z, rev. D, not great but not bad) limits you to maybe an HD7750, otherwise stick with a 6450 or 5450. Or upgrade the PSU and slap a real gaming GPU card in there.

so I am still looking in PCI-E though right? It is not so old that I'm dealing with just PCI?

Just found this:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/evg ... d71825en02

But the system reqs say that I needs 400w PSU. Looks like her system might just be told old to upgrade this way.

Hrm I'm noting all the ones around that level recommend 400watt. Can I get away with the 250 watt?

You know IT REALLY IRRITATES ME when I take my time an look up and provide a link and some OP is too lazy to figure it out! But yes, if you must be spoon fed it is a PCIe x16 video slot.

As to whether the 250W PSU will work that is a lot of hypothesis to go along with facts.

The maker, Bestec does not do a bad job constructing their PSUs BUT all PC makers use the PSU to cut pricing corners so it is definitely not the best either.

Secondly, as you have found out 250W is a pretty poor amount of power on any modern PC and also where they cut a pricing corner.

Lastly, a PSU loses the ability to actually put out the max. power it was rated for as it ages so it is unlikely to be capable of putting put 250W now, if it ever was.

But most people rarely use a GPU at anywhere near the max. power levels.

And it is only the +12V power that matters for the GPU. The GPU chip maker provides a recommendation for a power capacity that is overall (and covers 3.3V and 5V as well) to cover the system. To cover their butts this is usually grossly over estimated which is not bad engineering practice and makes the lawyers/liability Ins. Cos. happy.

If the TDP of the particular GPU is calculated the max. number of watts the GPU can use on the 12V rail can be determined. My rule of thumb is to not exceed 25% of the 12V rail on a cheat. That leaves 75% for the rest of the system which should be more than enough.

You GF's PSU has 14A output on the 12V rail which is not very good...more amps on the 3.3 and 5V rails (18 and 25A respectively). An old ATX pre-1.3 rev. That leaves you with about 46W for the GPU card...when the PSU was new assuming it ever actually supplied that much claimed power.

That means the nVidia 8400 or even the 8500 will work despite what the card maker recommends. But why would you want that old junk?

The HD6450 runs rings around the 8400 for the same price (but neither are very good gaming cards), while the HD6570 (with DDR3) actually meets GuildWar2's min reqs. and scrapes by with a 44W TDP.

edit: Ran across this.

TDP != Power consumption. TDP is Thermal Design Power, which is a cooling system requirement. It just happens to be that thermal energy is measured in watts, like electrical power. And radio power... and apparently anything that has "power" in it.

Otherwise, a 250W power supply is horrible for any semblance of a gaming system. Those are useful up to office PCs, light workloads, fileservers, and HPCs.

Just for the record Fascist I did use that link to look at the system spec's. As you can tell I am not the techiest person so I wanted to double check.

Anyway thanks for all your help everyone. I wish she would just me replace the whole rig, but I am sure we'll get it going.