I bought a Lenovo H430-57311430 PC. This PC is actually to be used by my kids, mostly for them screwing around with video editing, but I also want this PC to have the ability to play some games. The funny thing is, the Ivy Bridge i5-3330 in their PC, is better than the Sandy Bridge i5-2500k in my personal PC...... right ? Of course, I'm not sure if the memory is any good, or very fast, not sure what kind of crappy motherboard they put in this. I also know that I can't upgrade the ram past 8gb, which really sucks. The power supply is a very weak power supply. So, whatever video card I add to it, it needs to be one that barely uses any power. Otherwise, have to upgrade the power supply right away, which would kinda suck. I mean, certainly, I could upgrade it, but was trying to spend the least amount of money possible. I was really supposed to get a $300 PC, not a $400 one.
http://slickdeals.net/f/5658626-Lenovo-H430-57311430-Desktop-PC-Intel-Core-i5-3330-3GHz-Ivy-Bridge-8GB-RAM-1TB-HD-DVD-Burner-Media-Card-Reader-Windows-8-1-year-warranty-400-AC-Staples-com-and-In-Store
•Intel Core i5-3330 3GHz 6MB Cache Processor
•8GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory
•1TB SATA Hard Drive
•DVD Burner
•Media Card Reader
•Gigabit LAN
•Windows 8
Looking at Tom's Hardware Guide, I've seen the recomendations for the best video card for the money. I'm trying to stick with cards that would be under $100 out the door with tax,shipping, everything. On Tom's, they recommend the Radeon HD 6670 DDR3, as the best video card for $65 or less. I'm not sure how much power this card consumes, and if I could use it safely with the Lenovo. I think I have to get a "half-height" video card, to be able to put it inside the smaller tower.For more $$$ is the Radeon HD 7750. Supposedly these can be found $99.99 somehwere, but with tax and everything, it would go slightly over my $100 limit. I've heard that the 7750 doesn't use very much power, so I might be able to get away with leaving the current power supply in there. I'm not sure how large the card is, and whether or not it would fit inside the Lenovo.
Another thing to consider, is that I'm a bit partial to Nvidia right now. It seems that certain PC games tend to run better on Nvidia cards, plus, because my kids are going to try to do some video editing, I think the Nvidia cards usually are better at that... Right ? I'm not seeing much bang for the buck from Nvidia for under $100 though.
Damn.... I was just looking at Tom's Hardware Guide, and it seems that all of these cards recommend at least a 400 watt power supply,and I'm pretty sure the one currently in the lenovo is less than that. Ouch. Guess, I'm going to have to add a power supply into the mix.
http://slickdeals.net/f/5658626-Lenovo-H430-57311430-Desktop-PC-Intel-Core-i5-3330-3GHz-Ivy-Bridge-8GB-RAM-1TB-HD-DVD-Burner-Media-Card-Reader-Windows-8-1-year-warranty-400-AC-Staples-com-and-In-Store
•Intel Core i5-3330 3GHz 6MB Cache Processor
•8GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory
•1TB SATA Hard Drive
•DVD Burner
•Media Card Reader
•Gigabit LAN
•Windows 8
Looking at Tom's Hardware Guide, I've seen the recomendations for the best video card for the money. I'm trying to stick with cards that would be under $100 out the door with tax,shipping, everything. On Tom's, they recommend the Radeon HD 6670 DDR3, as the best video card for $65 or less. I'm not sure how much power this card consumes, and if I could use it safely with the Lenovo. I think I have to get a "half-height" video card, to be able to put it inside the smaller tower.For more $$$ is the Radeon HD 7750. Supposedly these can be found $99.99 somehwere, but with tax and everything, it would go slightly over my $100 limit. I've heard that the 7750 doesn't use very much power, so I might be able to get away with leaving the current power supply in there. I'm not sure how large the card is, and whether or not it would fit inside the Lenovo.
Another thing to consider, is that I'm a bit partial to Nvidia right now. It seems that certain PC games tend to run better on Nvidia cards, plus, because my kids are going to try to do some video editing, I think the Nvidia cards usually are better at that... Right ? I'm not seeing much bang for the buck from Nvidia for under $100 though.
Damn.... I was just looking at Tom's Hardware Guide, and it seems that all of these cards recommend at least a 400 watt power supply,and I'm pretty sure the one currently in the lenovo is less than that. Ouch. Guess, I'm going to have to add a power supply into the mix.