Would my dell inspiron 531 pc need more than 300 watts power supply to run these specs below:?

Question

1gb system ram
vista home premium
amd athlon X2 dual core processor 5000+
250gb hard drive
Integrated NVIDIA® GeForce® 6150 LE graphic GPU
16X DVD+/-RW drive
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio.
13 in 1 media card reader.
Other things which i use with my pc are webcam, printer, speakers.

So can you please help me with my DELL INSPIRON 531 desktop.
And if i want to upgrade to a better graphics card compatiable with this pc, which one would u recommend and would i have to increase the power supply if i get a really good graphics card. If i want to keep my 300watts power supply then which graphics card would you recommend me. And would adding 2X512 memory ram to my pc increase power consumption.

thanks.

Answer 1

No, you don't.
Still, i would get a bigger one, for future upgrading.

Make sure you get a power supply compatible with your system, there are so many different ones.

Answer 2

What you have now is fine but if you want to upgrade to a better video card, check the manufacturers requirements but 500 watts should do fine.
Keep in mind that just because it says 500 watts doesn't mean it puts out 500 watts all the time, just when required.
My eMachine has a 400 watt power supply and a Nvidia 7900 GS video card but uses only 164 watts total so go figure.
With Nvidia, if you don't have enough juice it automatically switches to low power mode too.

Answer 3

The processor would be the only thing to be cautious of, otherwise a 300w should be just fine. I would still be safe and get something like a 450w-500w. You can find those for pretty cheap ($35-$65). On a 300w PSU, i would suggest the HIS IceQ Radeon X1650Pro 256mb PCI-E. $58 on newegg after a mail-in rebate. Doesnt eat a lot of power, no PCI-E power connector required, but it does take up to slots. And no, adding 2x512mb sticks of ram wont add much more of a load onto your power supply.

Answer 4

You could probably install a GeForce 7600GT without a new power supply. That card doesn't use much, it doesn't even have a PCI-E power connector.

If you want a high-end card like a Radeon X1950 or Geforce 8800, you'll need a stronger power supply.