Upgrades

[Qwertyness]

I am thinking about a few upgrades to my HP computer. I currently own an HP Pavillion p6520y. I have a few questions about computer information I need. My first question is what is the stock or default power supply via PCI express AND 6-Pin power cord? My other question is about RAM. The graphics card I am looking at has 1Gb of GDDR5 RAM. If I have 3 (to be 4) 2Gb RAM cards in my computer will this GDDR5 RAM be compatible?


Thank you for the help,
HP Customer

[Qwertyness]

I forgot to add that my current RAM cards are all DDR3 RAM.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The power supply in your PC is only 250W.

That means means the best you can do in your PC is a Radeon HD 4350 or a Radeon HD 6450.

You cannot install a video card that requires additional power via an auxiliary connector without first upgrading the power supply (unless you want to see a lot of smoke). 

GDDR5 video memory just communicates with the GPU on the video adapter, and should have no effect regarding compatiblity with the rest of your PC.

Paul

[Qwertyness]

Do you think I would be ok with an HIS IceQ 6570?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I think that might be pushing the P/S beyond its limits.

The recommended P/S for that card is 400W.

I put this HIS 6570 card in my HP 8200 Elite CMT which has a 325W P/S, and it works just great. No problems whatsoever.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161374

Also, HP lists a Radeon HD 6570 as an optional card for my PC, so I wasn't too concerned about my P/S being 75W shy of the recommended video card wattage specs.

But mine has 75 more watts of power than yours, and that could make a big difference.

You can try it but...

[Qwertyness]

I've looked into it a little more and am thinking about getting a 500w power supply with an HIS Radeon HD IceQ 6850. I couldn't find the wattage requirements but a slightly more powerful IceQ video card requires 500w power supply. ) I am thinking about a Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 500w) I have one more noob question however. When a computer use wattage, does it stack or is the limit per unit/hardwhare? For example if my video card uses 500w and my CPU uses 75w (not real specs) would I be overloading my PSU?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

It is fine to ask questions. 

Your P/S has to be able to power all of the hardware within its specified rating.

Now, just because the manufacturer says the recommended wattage of the P/S for card is 500W, does not mean the card is gonna use 500W (no where near that--Maybe 100W tops).

They want to play it safe so that when you take all of the hardware into account, video, processor, HDD, DVD burner, memory, etc, that the P/S will be able to handle all of that hardware.

I have a link to a cool P/S calculator. You can input a lot of parameters, and it will tell you what size (Wattage) P/S you need.

http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/

When I run the calculator with my setup and the Radeon HD 6570, it says I need a 297W power supply, so I guess I am fine according to that (my 325W P/S)

Paul

[Qwertyness]

Even though I couldn't provide correct information for 50-65% of the questions on that calculator it was helpful. It said I need 340w but because I think I missed information I think I will stick with the recommended 500w. At least I know now that I won't fry my computer because I am doing the upgrades myself and am on a 'break it and buy it' kind of term. Thanks for all your help!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Please post back and let us know how all the upgrading went for you.