Hi, My computer is: athlon xp2400+ mounted on a via km266 (Shuttle sk41g barebone) 512+256 ddr 333mhz kingston value ram 3dclub ati radeon 9000 seagate pata 320 gb 16mb buffer DVD Pioneer dvr111 samsung syncmaster 203b I am thinking on upgrading the graphics card as I can't play some games in my radeon. I know the system is quite old but what do you think about an asus 7600 gs agp card? I am afraid it is too much for my system, mainly because the CPU could act as a bottleneck, the system could get quite hot (as it is a barebone) and the PSU is only 200W so I don't know if it could deal with a 7600gs (even I've read that 7600 is not very power demanding). It is not a very balanced system but I am not in the mood to buy a new conroe (even being a great CPU). Any idea or comment? Thanks.
i'm surprised your system runs on a 200W PSU, for that spec i wouldn't recommend less than a 350W decent brand PSU like Antec or Enermax check out Big B's PSU Sticky for a full list of decent PSU brands theres also a list of not so good brands Edit: you should upgrade your PSU first, then think about your grfx card
Ah, those Shuttle's. The PSU's they use are pretty good, so you might be able to run a 7600GS. If you run into stability issues relating to more juice being required, then you'll need to look to Shuttle for a beefier unit or modify the Shuttle case to accomodate a regular ATX power supply.
So appart from the PSU issue, do you think is a good upgrade? Or too much graphics for such a CPU? (bottlenecking) Thanks, folks. : )
It's probably the best safe graphics card upgrade you can do. If there is a bottleneck, it wont' be that much, and will at least be a reversal of your current situation. If you went for a 7800GS, then you'd be in a CPU bottleneck for sure, not to mention a definite power concern.
