BleepingComputer.com: Upgrading GPU and possibly PSU. requesting Help

Hello, i have recently been having issues with my GPU (i think its on the fritz) so i'm going to upgrade it to a more powerful one. i think the specs listed below are correct.

Potential Upgrade :

GeForce 9600GSO Professional Fatal1ty XfX 768mb PCI-E Bus 580mhz core GraphicsCard
ATRIX Arx Arx 650w 80+ PSU

Current spec

GPU - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT (512 MB)

CPU - DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2600 MHz (13 x 200) 5200+

PSU - Unknown but almost certain a 500-550w

MOBO - ECS nForce6M-A (3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN)

HDD - Hitachi HDT725050VLA360 (500 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA-II)

SoundCard - Creative SB X-Fi XtremeMusic/Platinum Sound Card
Audio Adapter : SigmaTel STAC9221 A2 @ nVIDIA MCP61 - High Definition Audio Controller

RAM :

DIMM 1 : 1 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 @ 400 MHz) (4-5-5-13 @ 333 MHz) (3-4-4-10 @ 266 MHz)

DIMM 2 : 1 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 @ 400 MHz) (4-5-5-13 @ 333 MHz) (3-4-4-10 @ 266 MHz)

I hope the information is thurough .

Please tell me if my system would benifit from this change and would it be a easy installation . also, can yo utell me if the PSU will provide the correct fittings? the GPU i have chosen has a DVI x2 output, is just buying a DVI - VGA adapter enough to ensure good Display?

please tell me if i need more info.

EDIT :
OS : Windows XP SP3
Potential OS : Windows 7 on release / XP update expire

This post has been edited by eastonch: 29 March 2009 - 02:41 PM

I've never heard of Atrix so, I cannot tell you anything about their products. That GPU should work fine, but the 9800GT would be a superior card. However, due to your CPU you may end up bottlenecking it. A DVI to VGA adapter comes with the card, however, if your monitor accepts DVI, you would be better off with that.

an upgrade should be fine, I dont think your CPU will bottleneck any 9000+ card that much, if really at all. your lack of memory is going to be your bottleneck. Personally, the 9600 isnt a huge jump from the 8600, I think I would go with the 9800 if it were me. also, I would go with a EVGA or PNY card instead of Geforce if I were to purchase Nvidia (I normally use ATI) A better PSU would be a good idea, probably a good 650-700 watt PSU, I would recomend Antec, coolermaster, Corsair, or OCZ PSUs, with multiple 12v rails, probably needing to push at least 19a per rail. Their making them now that are supposed to run all off of one rail, but I dont trust em yet, call me old fashioned.

The CPU won't bottleneck the GPU per se, but in CPU intensive games you may experience a slowdown even with a higher end GPU. There are a number of good graphics card manufacturers around such as those listed along with XFX and Asus. For power supply manufacturers, I say go with Corsair, Silverstone, OCZ, or PC Power.

Yeah, the videocard isn't that much of an upgrade compared to the present setup. The PSU has 2 16 amp rails, and thats not great for a "650 watt" rated PSU.

Ditto on the "Corsair, Silverstone, OCZ, or PC Power".

So ur saying i need a new CPU to support a new gpu if i went 9800gt?

You can certainly install the 9800GT and see what happens, but in some CPU intensive games you may have a slight slowdown due to the CPU being older. But your biggest concern will be with your RAM. Games and the OS will fill up 2GB easily. From what I can tell, you can install a huge amount of RAM in that motherboard, up to 32GB, but the most cost effective amount would be 8GB. Since you're using 32-bit XP, you're limited to about 3 to 3.5GB if you were to install 4GB. If you were using 64-bit, you could use several times that amount.

more ram would definetly be on my list. My dual core doesnt bottleneck my system any if at all, except maybe in crysis, my bottleneck was the 2 gigs of ram I ran forever. I upped it to 6 gigs, and my computer runs SOOOO much smoother its not even funny (im running a athlon x2 6000+ windsor by the way) it made a HUGE performance difference. you can pick up a 2 x 2 gb set of Patriot DDr2 here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820220335 for like 36 dollars after rebate, that in the end, isnt much more then a 2 x 1 gb set, and these sticks will outperform the ones you currently have selected. they run at the same clock speed, but have lower timings, and I can speak for their quality in that Im using a set of these paired with a 2 x 1 gb set of patriot extreme performance in my system, and I put a set in a build for my dad, and they run fantastic, they give you tight timings, they look cool, and they run cool which means they will last longer as well as outperform most generic memory. as far as the PSU 2 16amp rails is kinda pathetic, even for a 650 watt PSU. it may be able to run the card ok, but its gonna stress it, and if you want to upgrade in the future its going to limit you. I would recomend a PSU with at least 3 if not 4 12v rails at 19amp or more each, or if its a 2 rail system, probably 26 amp each.