Inspiron 530 / Silent / Team Fortress 2

samsamson

Hey guys,

I'm brand new to PC gaming and I'm looking to dip my toes in the water. I've played TF2 on the 360 and loved it, and I've heard it's best on the PC, so I thought I'd try it out as my first real game on a PC.

I have a Dell Inspiron 530, crappy integrated graphics, 300W power supply I believe.

Any advice on what graphics card to get would be much appreciated. Here are my requirements:

1) Can play TF2 at high quality settings on a 17 inch 1280 x 1024 monitor.

2) Silent. I would prefer if it didn't use fans because this is also my parents work PC and I want to keep noise for them to an absolute minimum when they're just browsing the net, typing documents etc. If it makes a bit more noise ONLY when gaming then that's okay I guess.

3) Work in my Inspiron 530 without the need for a Power Supply Unit upgrade. Something that will work just fine with the bog standard 300W PSU would be ideal.

4) Budget of around 100 euro or less

Thanks alot!

CakeJumperer

A mid range gpu should max out TF2 at that res easily, probably with 60+ fps.
You should be able to pick up a 2600 or 3650 fairly cheap.

TerrorFirmer

Silent GPU's are easy to find and cheap in the budget range but are a little rarer in the performance range, usually costing more, or requiring you to spend extra on a 3rd party cooler.

Few cards to consider, all completely silent and capable of running TF2 at high settings, 300w psu perfectly sufficient.

http://elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1515313&productID=S5349715

http://elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1390632&productID=S4604576

Most cards are fairly quiet at normal desktop use though, so it's not a huge deal, but just if you want completely silence. For about 20 extra euro though you'd get a 200% faster 'normal' card (such as 9600GSO, 4670, etc), it just depends on what precisely is important you, regardless the cards above will run TF2 at high.

Overheal

any 100 euro GPU should belt through many of TF2's graphical settings. For best results though I strongly recommend disabling the shyte, like Anisotropic Filtering, Anti-aliasing, etc. as these take a huge toll on resources, and are really, gods honest, you would never notice the difference in the middle of a game between Low Quality and High Quality, except to say that the Low will play much, much smoother.

samsamson

Thanks for all the replies.

If cards like the ones TerrorFirmer posted could handle TF2, is it okay to assume that they would also run Portal and Left4Dead (not out yet I know) without any problems?

The HD 3650 is looking like a good choice for me

CakeJumperer

You should handle all of those games just fine with a 3650 samsamson:)

MooseJam

Hey you should know that the power supply in an inspiron 530 has no PCI-E power lead to power a decent graphics card, you will need to get one of these

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=319547

however the power supply also has no molex connectors so you will need to buy SATA to molex adapters, to turn the spare SATA connectors into molex ones and then plug the above adapter into them, thats what I did, works great though

samsamson

Cheers MooseJam, I didn't even realise graphics cards got plugged into the power supply

Does the HD3650 take power from the power supply (therefore I'd need all those connectors and adapters) or is it different somehow?

MooseJam

yes a hd3650 requires power from the power supply

you will need two of these http://www.satagear.com/SS-PW2MA3_SATA_Adapter.html
to convert spare SATA leads into molex

and one of these http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=319547 to plug your new molex connectors into and then to power the card

MooseJam

by the way I know it's a pain ordering various stuff but it's worth it in the end, shop around for the adaptors you may find better prices

duridian

MooseJam wrote: »

yes a hd3650 requires power from the power supply

you will need two of these http://www.satagear.com/SS-PW2MA3_SATA_Adapter.html
to convert spare SATA leads into molex

and one of these http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=319547 to plug your new molex connectors into and then to power the card

Moosejam, I'd say you are thinking of the HD3850 and not the HD3650 which is what samsamson is considering.
I have never yet seen a HD3650 that required an additional connection from the power supply, and if it ain't needed then all those expensive little adaptors aren't needed either.
Here are some sites with pictures/examples of HD3650 cards, most of which have more onboard ram than the silent one you are considering, sam. The extra memory should need even more juice, yet none of these have an auxilliary power connector, so surely the 256MB one you are looking at won't need this connector either.
Powercolor HD3650
Sapphire HD3650
Diamond HD3650
An assortment of HD3650 HD3850 nd HD3870 cards

MooseJam

yes you are right, 3850 i was thinking of, good news for samsamson, a lot less faffing about, sorry for the misdirection, thanks for pointing out the error duridian

duridian

No worries. Glad to help.

samsamson

Ah excellent, so the 3650 gets powered just from the motherboard, no wires or anything to plug in?

thanks moosejam for trying to point out a potential problem and thanks duridian for clearing it up!

duridian

samsamson wrote: »

Ah excellent, so the 3650 gets powered just from the motherboard, no wires or anything to plug in?

Yes indeed, apparently it gets all the power it needs from the PCI-Express slot on your motherboard.