Video card questions

[Soviet_Genius]

I have two questions:

1. I've been planning to get a video card for some time, and I think I'm going to get a GeForce 8600. I'm probably going to get it from Tiger Direct. Some of the 8600s they have say they need a minimum 300W PSU, some say 325. I have a 300W right now. Do I have to get a more powerful PSU? Or will it run fine?

2. Right now, I've got an integrated GeForce 6150 SE. I also have, in my old computer, a GeForce FX 5200. Will I get better performance with the FX if I put it in?

My computer's specs:
HP Pavilion a6000n
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.2 GHz
1 GB RAM (-200ish MB for video card)
nVidia GeForce 6150 SE
300 W PSU
1 CD/DVD Drive
PCI Modem
Media Card Reader
2 fans- CPU fan, case fan (I think)

[patio]

Here Ya Go...

[Soviet_Genius]

What are SSD Drives and Cold Cathodes? I don't know how many to put.

[patio]

Solid State drives...zero.

[Soviet_Genius]

Great, it says I need 269W

[t_blake07]

Wow, looks like i need to up my psu also. I only have 300w and it says i need at least 480w at 80% load. Oh well for now, i've had no problems yet.

I'd say you will WANT to get a higher wattage psu. I'm not sure if you'll actually need it though. Unless you plan on upgrading something else.

I'm not sure which card is better of the two, but i've heard the FX 5200 is basically a low end card. But the 6150 SE may be even worse. In my book, they are about even. Also, not sure how old the 6150 SE is, but the FX 5200 is about 5 yrs old. Meaning that it can probably get you by on games that have low RECOMMENDED system requirements.

[Calum]

Try and get a better PSU than you absolutely need, then you have headroom for upgrades.
As for your questions . . .
1. The 8600 is a great choice right now, it offers really good performance and DirectX 10 at a decent price.
2. The FX5200, even though it's an old card, will perform better than your onboard graphics*.  It also won;t use your system RAM, so your overall performance may increase too.  But don't expect it to work wonders, it's still an old card (so don't expect to go and play Bioshock or Crysis with it).
* - how do I know?  I'm not 100% sure, but I had integrated SiS graphics (worse than the 6150 by a fair way) and installed an Nvidia Vanta.  I haven't tried 3D games, but the overall performance went up slightly and the system seems more stable.

[Soviet_Genius]

For now I'll have to use the 300W, I don't have any money to get a new one. When I get more upgrades in the future, I'll get a new PSU. I'll try the FX5200, but will there be a problem because the FX5200 is a PCI card and my new computer has a PCI-E slot?

[Calum]

If you have a PCI slot, it'll work fine.
As long as you're not trying to use a PCI-E and PCI card at the same time there should be no issues.