I am researching, for a friend to purchase, a Gateway 4320-45. It has a ATI Radeon HD5750 1gig video card. The specs also include AMD Phenom II X6, 8gig DDR3 memory, 1 TB Hard Drive and a 300 watt power supply. Now I looked up the power requirements for the graphics card at the AMD site and it stated that it required a 450Watt power supply. I had also read a review by a person that had purchased this same pc with the same model number and instead of the 450watt it came with a 300watt power supply. The reviewer said that the unit that he purchased came with a 300watt power supply and an ATi HD4200 IGP, so he changed the power supply to a 500watt and put a more powerfull graphics card in it. My question is the unit that I saw at Amazon came with a 300watt power supply and a ATI Radeon HD5750 1gig video card. How can that be considering the power supply requirements. Hope I explained it well enough. All replies and opinions are greatly respected and appreciated.
Loretta
A power supply unit (PSU) should NOT be judged solely on wattage though. ALL the specs (wattage, amperage, efficiency, hold-up time, PFC, etc) need to be considered, along with the reliability & reputation of the manufacturer. There are decent 300W PSUs that are much better than low end 450W PSUs. Without knowing the make/model of your 300W PSU, it’s impossible to make a judgement. If you want to play it safe, go ahead & upgrade the PSU, just make sure to get a good one. I don’t know when this 48 hr sale expires, but here’s a good deal on a 500W Corsair:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ…
FYI, the HD 5750 is rated at 16W idle & 86W under full load. Scroll down to the specs chart:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article…