OT:Computer upgrade questions video/power supply

Perhaps this is a bit off topic...my puter stats are in my sig file....

I have two questions for any certified computer guys:

1.) I currently have a 300w power supply I run a Kore controler, Akai MPK 49, and my mouse and keyboard all the time....especially when running sonar....should I get a more powerful power supply...and if so, what kind and what wattage? And would a larger power supply increase overally system performance with Sonar?

2.) Currently, I have an onboard NVIDIA grafics chip....built into the mb....should i get a dedicated video card?...or will it choke my cardbus? as I have a firewire card in there too for my audio interface. If it's recommend...what kind is recommended...

I looked on the forum and on cake walk support...but the only video card info I could find on the cakewalk site was for Pro Audio 9! ...might be time to update that :D

Thanks, in advance for any help!

backplain type? don't think i've ever heard that before...what do you mean (sorry for the ingnorance)

ORIGINAL: John

What is your backplain type? PCI ,PCIe, or AGP? 300 watts seems very low these days.

Or "backplane".


A 300W power supply is probably adequate (has it ever overheated or caused a reboot?) However, the principle advantage of a higher-powered power supply, even one that's more than you really need, is that it'll have better cooling. That'll be a consideration if you put your computer into an iso box.

But you also need to choose your power supply based on how quiet it runs. A high-powered supply may also have a noisier fan.

I wouldn't worry about the video interface. The last thing you want to do is get a high-end video card that's marketed to gamers.

If you only have one disk drive, your best investment for upgrading your computer would be a second drive that you can dedicate to audio files.

Wow, your running a quad core on a 300w power supply. I haven't kept up on all the stats lately but that alone seems a little low.

Quick google search returned http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157735

I know the new graphics cards can be power hogs. So if you plan on adding a new graphics card the card should tell you the minimum requirements. I'd just get a 600w power supply and be done with it.

My guess is your mother board has a PCI-e slot for a graphics card but you should double check to make sure. Is there any reason to get a new graphics card. The only reason I could think of is if you want dual monitor support. A graphics card should not interfer with your firewire audio.

wow, thanks guys...lots of info

i have 1 pci-e x16 and one pci-e available...no agp ....and the 1 pci slot is taken...i have 1 500gb system drive....and 1 1,000gb drive partitioned for my sample libraries and audio recording...

I've never over heated....but, i think i read somewhere that since i've got the 2 hd's going and a few usb devices drawing power....that that could negatively impact processor performance and overall system stability