Would I need to upgrade my Power Supply Unit?

Question

Currently running

Intel 2.8
512ram
15g Hard drive
300g Hard drive
Geforce FX 5200 128mb
Asus P4C800 Motherboard
1 DVD player
1 CD/RW
350W Power Supply Unit.

I'm thinking about upgrading to 1g Ram
and getting a Geforce 7600GT 128mb

Now I've been hearing that Geforce 7600GT Runs great with 350W PSUs. Plus doesn't really lack anything to 7800GS.
And I know that psu is not just the watts but all the rails that need attention... which I have no clue..

If I upgrade without upgrading my PSU would my pc run decently?

As you can see my pc is getting pretty old,
I just want to spend maybe like $200 for an upgrade for it to last maybe a year or two longer.
(...or until Microsoft stops supporting windows XP.. which I think they said 3 years from now?)

Answer 1

GeForce 5200 uses about 34 Watts, 7600GT uses about 36 Watts, hence shouldn't be much of a problem.

Answer 2

The RAM sounds good, but a little more won't hurt. Do you have a third party memory manager to keep your RAM clear of information that has been written to it that is no longer needed to run the programs in use?
Now, as far as a power supply is concerned, most of the electronics in your computer run on 5 volts. It isn't the volts that you need to be concerned with, since this is a voltage level to be found for all PC's. Your concern is the number of AMPS that the power supply can provide to run the computer. You need to know what the new cards are going to demand in terms of amps. My best guess, get the highest output, in watts, that you can lay your hands on for your computer. It will have to be designed to fit in the case you are using. Those "watts" are derived from a fairly simple electrical formula. That formula is the number of amps multiplied by the given voltage. 50 amps mutiplied by 5 volts would give an answer of 250 watts. The power supply rating will not be just for the 5 volt supply section. Some of it will be for the 12 volt supply section as well. Leave off the engineering of supply rails and such as that unless you really want to know. All of that is jargon used to confuse and try to make the person using it look smart. Just find the power supply with the highest power rating that you can find, and you should be all right for the time you have specified. Just one point here to reassure. If the total draw from the new stuff is, lets say 400 watts, and you bought a 450 watt supply, there is nothing to be concerned about. You will not get the full 450 watts delivered to your computer. The computer will only draw what it needs in Amps, and no more. Electricity is "lazy", it will onlt do the work required of it and no more. So you do not need to be concerned with any kind of over load from to large of a power supply. You can email me if you have any other questions about power supply issues.

Answer 3

NO Yopur power supply won't change a thing. I am a builder and have upgraded to a 600 watt power supply because I have 4 ide devices plus a sata hard drive plus a built in usb hub that also uses a plug from the power supply. My reccommedation if you want to upgrade inexpensively go to Frys Electronics and they put a ECS board with a p 4 3.0 cpu and fan in retail box for just under $100. Add another 512 of memory to it and see the difference. Memory right now is $29 at tiger direct for 512 meg of ddr.

Answer 4

No, for ram you does no longer ought to fret concerning to the skill grant. i comprehend the ATI X1300XT demands a minimum of a 350 Watt skill grant and that's cautioned to have that's very own individual 12 volt skill rail for stability. A gadget can run on a decrease skill unit like yours yet for how long? Plus if skill pass is volatile it ought to ultimately deliver approximately harm to different considerable factors along with your motherboard, photos card etc. you need to purpose to atleast get a 450 or 500 watt skill grant to be on the secure area and to have a splash room for destiny advancements.

Answer 5

I think your power supply that you have will be fine.I did the same upgrade myself.