Hi all.
First time posting here, so please excuse any mistakes.
I've just bought a HP Pavilion Slimline s5565uk PC and really want to upgrade the video card to a decent one. The original video card is the NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 and the PC is fitted with a AMD Athlon II X4 635 and 4GB DDR3 RAM (will upgrade ram to 8GB).
So, can anyone tell me what would be the best card I can fit into this PC. Obviously, this is a SLIMLINE PC, so it will have to be a low profile card.
Thank you all in advance.|||You can't put a very powerful card into ANY slimline computer. It's not just because of the low-profile restriction (although that's part of it... no midrange or higher cards exist in low-profile).
The major problems with upgrading slimlines are:
1) The power supplies are weaker than standard desktops, usually in the 200-225W range instead of 300W (the minimum for entry level gaming cards)
2) Those slimline power supplies are proprietary, so you often can't replace them with higher wattage replacements. The ATX psus available on Newegg and Amazon for $50 won't physically fit into a slimline case. In some cases 3rd party replacement psus exist but not always... and even when upgrade options exist, they're typically still below 300W and twice as expensive as regular 450-500W power supplies.
3) Slimline cases don't have enough space inside for good airflow and cooling, so slimlines upgraded with standalone graphics cards often suffer from overheating problems. This is further compounded by the fact that many low-profile graphics cards are fanless/passively cooled (which lowers power consumption, but doesn't cool as effectively)
For most slimlines, the best graphics card you can safely install is a Radeon HD 6450. It's slightly faster than a GeForce GT220 (and the newer GT520). You MIGHT be able to get away with a low-profile Radeon HD 5570 or GeForce GT430 (which are considerably better) but there's no guarantee those cards would work. They're fine on 300W power supplies but anything under 250W is a gamble for them. Note that I'm going by what cards actually draw, not the manufacturer's recommendations, which are often inflated.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…
It comes down to what your other components draw- a slimline with a low-power consumption CPU like a Sempron or Core i3 has a better shot than one with a Phenom II X6.
You might be able to upgrade your HP's power supply to a 270W unit, which would run a low-profile Radeon HD 5570 easily... it might even handle a low-profile 5670 (the best low-profile card you'd have any chance at running). While a low-profile GeForce GTS 450 does exist, the minimum 400W psu requirement makes it unusable in 90% of slimline/sff computers. All name-brand models like Dell/HP/Acer are out. And the heat problems would be awful.
Some gamers with slimlines take the nuclear option- disassembling the computer and transplanting all the guts (motherboard, drives, RAM etc) into a standard ATX case which allows them to use full-height graphics cards and standard power supplies.
But HP throws a curveball there, too.... some of their slimline models (though thankfully, not all) have a non-standard motherboard power connector that's smaller than normal, so regular ATX power supplies aren't compatible! But there is an adapter available if you're unlucky enough to have one of those motherboards.
http://www.atxpowersupplies.com/20-pin-t…
http://www.atxpowersupplies.com/270-watt…
Card performance:
http://www.techspot.com/review/240-ati-r…
In a nutshell, slimlines are designed to be used as-is off the shelf. They aren't really designed to be upgraded for gaming, 3D design work or other demanding tasks.|||all the cards are low profile,choose the evga video card
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