EggXpert

Hi all, I need some opinions.  I need to install a video card and therefore also a power supply in my computer.  I want to start gaming on the PC instead of just the XBox 360.  The game I really want to play on the PC right now is Skyrim, but I'm sure there will be more down the road.

This is the computer I have currently: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c03073678

As you can see, it's a Pentium G620 dual core 2.6 GHz CPU with 6GB of RAM. I know for best performance I should replace the CPU with an i5 or i7 which I will do in the future.  But for now my funds are limiting me to just the video card and PSU.

 Anyway, here are the video card and PSU I have in my cart right now.

Video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125410 

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

Can you guys tell me if you think I'm making good choices?  If not, please tell me why what I picked isn't recommended and what you would recommend instead.  Also, HP lists my computer's case as a "mini tower".  Do you guys think that the video card I selected will fit in my case, based on the dimensions listed on HP's site?  Thanks!

We can't judge fitment if they don't list the distance between the back wall and the drive cage.  You have to crack open the case and measure it yourself.

I would buy a Radeon 7770 or 7750 (depending on available connectors & fitment) and keep the stock power supply for the moment.  The 7770 is faster than a 550Ti on about 2/3rds the power, which matters since your case was designed for a 300W system.  Skyrim also favors AMD GPUs pretty heavily.  The 7750 performs identically to the 5770, and the 7750 7770 is going to fall a little bit above the 6850.

You could probably run a Core i5 without changing the power supply too, but I wouldn't recommend it.  I would go ahead and swap the case & PSU when you upgrade the processor.

TheSlakey:

We can't judge fitment if they don't list the distance between the back wall and the drive cage.  You have to crack open the case and measure it yourself.

I would buy a Radeon 7770 or 7750 (depending on available connectors & fitment) and keep the stock power supply for the moment.  The 7770 is faster than a 550Ti on about 2/3rds the power, which matters since your case was designed for a 300W system.  Skyrim also favors AMD GPUs pretty heavily.  The 7750 performs identically to the 5770, and the 7750 7770 is going to fall a little bit above the 6850.

You could probably run a Core i5 without changing the power supply too, but I wouldn't recommend it.  I would go ahead and swap the case & PSU when you upgrade the processor.

Could you possibly link me to a card you'd recommend?  The 7770s I'm seeing on Newegg don't seem to list the power requirements or the measurements of the card.

They're all limited to 100W by default.  The stated power supply requirement is going to be like 400W, but you can ignore that because you don't have a 140W CPU and a 32 lane motherboard chipset.

The regular Sapphire version should be fine.

TheSlakey:

They're all limited to 100W by default.  The stated power supply requirement is going to be like 400W, but you can ignore that because you don't have a 140W CPU and a 32 lane motherboard chipset.

The regular Sapphire version should be fine.

Ok thanks.  I had also read that the 6850 is a great card, and I found this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

So you're saying I can use my current 300W PSU for now with no issues, but when I upgrade to an i5 CPU, I'll need to get a new PSU, correct?

I just noticed something else.  The specs on my motherboard state that it has one PCI Express x 16 Gen 2.0 slot.

 The Sapphire 6850 card is PCI Express 2.1, and the 7700 card is PCI Express 3.0.  Does that matter?

A 6850 uses more power than a 7770.  I wouldn't get one of those.

No.