| 1337 Gamer said: 300 watts isnt gonna cut it. You need a 450 Watt supply as a minimum anymore. if your gonna replace your Motherboard you might as well replace the entire computer. |
An Antec Earthwatts 380W or a Corsair 400W is enough for most people, especially with so man companies focusing on making parts that are more enegry-efficient. The only reason for anything more is if you're running a high-end workstation, gaming rig, or server.
That being said, if he wants to run games like Crysis or Gears, especially in high settings, then he's going to need more than that, and I don't mean anything personal by this, Squilliam, but that OEM Compaq PC is bad in virtually every last part.
First of all, it only has two slots for RAM, and that's really going to hinder him when it comes to upgrading as he'll need more RAM for his needs.
He's also going to need a more powerful graphics card, and the processor could be better as well. Once he's done all that, the 250W PSU isn't going to cut it either, not by a long shot. There's also the issue of cooling, and there's nothing there in the way of decent airflow or fans.
That PC is good for a general use like word processing, web browsing, chat, email, listening to music, flash games, and burning CD's and DVD's, but it's way below what's needed for a decent gaming rig.
To the OP: I strongly suggest that you sell the rig you have and build a nice Core i7 or AMD Phenom or X3/X4 setup with Windows 7 Home Premium. I'm assuming that you've probably already got a monitor, speakers, mouse, and keyboard, so you should be able to put one together for 6-700 clams. I can suggest the parts if you'd like.
Consoles owned: Saturn, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, PSP, DS, PS3
