Hi, I have a hardware question

ok first off, lets start with my system specs:

http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Hewlett-Packard-HP-Pavilion-Media-Center-A1520n-PC

thats my comp, I added 3 more gigs of ram, so it has 4 gigs, and i installed a geforce 8500 gt back in january, I recently bought Age Of Conan and I am forced to run the game on low settings and in some areas my FPS is 25-30 but in other areas its 4-8 even dropped to 3... I was looking at this vid card and was hoping the game and my comp can handle this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150280

I was told my power supply may not handle it, that it needs to be like 500 watts, I think my power supply is 300 watts, so I found this and want to know if this one is a good power supply to run the card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817148027

now with all the info I gave u, keep this in mind, I am not looking for ultra realistic fancy garphics with an fps over 100 or whatever at the same time, I would like my game to look nice and run smooth so I am hoping to have it run say at medium settings and maybe a little bit on the high settings with a nice high fps that will make the game play smooth instead of lagging a lot, I dont know much about computers thats y i am here lol, dont want to waste 200 dollars on a couple of items that may not be good enough or may not need, k, well thank you in advance for your answers and for your time, bye

 

This guy get decent reviews and I haven't yet gotten a bad refurbished product from MWave. It also will save you 50% ($60 at Newegg, $30 from MWave)
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/review.hmx?scriteria=RB20266

 

The video card you listed is top notch! And the price is excellent too and there's a rebate. But that power supply is total piece of :crap Big Time. Personally, I'd be looking at a 600w power supply minimum and look to spend at least twice the price of the crappy one. Here's a good choice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341010 It's got four +12v rails, it's 80+ certified, and after the rebate it's less than $60 (before shipping charges).

 

I'd like to add a little note about powersupplies I learned from a PC magazine a while back. It said that examining a supplies shipping and handling costs or its actual specs in reguard to wieght can tell you alot about a supply. The heavier supplies are usually better because they have beefier caps and sinks in them and will cost more to ship. It doesn't work for all models but it can be a nice tool when shopping.

 

Okay first things first they should not have sold you 4Gb of RAM without explaining that you will need a 64Bit OS to actually use the 4Gb. Do a google on XP 4Gb RAM! Buggers letting you buy that when they should know you wont be able to use it (you will be using 3Gb at the very most).

Secondly yes that is a top end Video Card which will need it's own PCI-e plug from the PSU (the one u list doesn't seem to have one and would not be able to provide a dedicated power source to that video card!). It will give you the nice eye-candy you want.

Thirdly and MOST IMPORTANT we need to ensure that whatever PSU you buy will actually have the same power plugs for your Motherboard Sockets!!!!!

I recommend we start from scratch and you provide us with some more details so that we can provide some solid answers. Please DL and install EVEREST and then tell us what your motherboard is:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

Motherboard name should be enough and then we can go from there. Otherwise there is the chance you will make a mistake and buy something that you cant use!

Then here is a very good refrence list on some PSU:

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=136602

 

Also we need to ascertain the dimesions of your current PSU and any new PSU to make sure it will fit into the Case!

 

hey sorry, forgot about this thread lol, but yea I went with the power supply and card, and everything is working great, the power supply did support that pci-express plug thing u spoke of for the video card but however, when i polay the game it is a "little" better meaning the fps is between 15-32 sometiems drops a little lower and at times it stays between 25-32, now do u think my problem is my processor? i been told my 3800+ was fine and will run the game fine, but is it possible it can be holding the video card's true potential back? i was told i can try and overclock the processor and make it go from 2.0 ghz to 2.4 ghz, how do i go about doing that? is it risky, it wont harm any of my hardware right?

 

Well have you updated the Video Drivers (got the latest from the cards website?).

OC Guide here.....make sure you read it very carefully because a poor or bad OC can and will damage your hardware through heat stress or shorten it's life span considerably:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=52812