Video Card Compatibility?

Hey guys! I'm ordering an HP 360z. It uses an AMD chipset, and has a 450-485 watt power supply.



My question is, seeing as the cards they offer aren't really... good... what can I replace it with? It's an Asus motherboard, compatible with both nVidia and ATI, but being an AMD chipset, it's supposedly best to use the Radeon card. The one they offer as their best card for this setup is the 2gb 5570. It *does* have a second PCIE slot, and a second 5570 should be able to fit inside comfortably. Will I be abusing my power supply if I go SLI, (if so, how do I make my computer compatible?) and what kind of card can I upgrade to safely. Thanks!|||does the motherboard support crossfire? if not, then your second card wont do anything, see about getting a 5770, the 5570 will be a bit of a let down i think.|||it will not be sli capable, amd chips don't have that capability. Also, it only has 1 pcie x16 slot meaning only 1 high performance graphics card will be able to be used. there are grapihcs cards for 1x slots which this model has 3 of, but they are low end chips. so no sli or crossfire capability at all and you shouldn't do anyway with the power supply it comes with. you could get a mid range graphics card, a radeon 5770 might be about the highest end i would go, if you get one, make sure it will fit in the case, they can be rather large, check the card dimensions in specs but it would probably be ok.



It has 4 total pcie slots, but there are different classes. 4 of them actually. x16, x8, x4, and x1. x16 is for high end graphics cards and not much else. x8 is also able to handle high end cards but it usually is only seen on boards with sli or crossfire capabilities, x4 is for lower end stuff and i haven't seen much that uses it specifically, and x1 is for low end things like sound cards, ethernet cards, tv tuners, and low end graphics chips.



This computer's specs page says it has 1 x16 slot and 3 x1 slots. meaning no crossfire or sli. your power supply should be able to handle the 5770, it seems to recommend a 450w power supply.