Here’s the dilemma… I have a computer with 250 watts, the HP Pavilion 66510F, and I want to upgrade to a new video card. So… do I buy a power supply, and then buy a video card, or buy a video card with less power usage? And suggestions would be nice… because I’m worse than a noob with a dollar store yoyo right now. ;D
If it were I, I would get another power supply, because honestly… there pretty cheap, and it can bork every part and device attached to it… So its definitely not a bad idea… something like 400~-450~watt is what I would go for…
As for video cards, I would not get a low power version (read, baby version ) I would also tend to lean towards nvidia I mean, why bother getting the parts if it not going to be a pretty big improvement?
To hit your budget of $100, look at craigslist (post wanted ads if you don’t see anything in a week or so) or overclocker forums with b/s/t subforums, I’ve gotten some decent deals on yesterdays news gfx cards for cheap (8800gts for $50!) but people upgrade their graphics all the time, and get rid of the parts for cheap, so both psu and gfx should be fairly easy to pick up. Good luck!