I just bought a 512mb 8600gts evga card on newegg, evga's website says it needs a min of a 400 watt power supply. My dell has a 375 watt.
It's a dell XPS 410, 6 months old
2.13 core duo
2 gig ram
2 250 gig hard drives
TV tuner ect...
Any input? I'm afraid to fry my $1,300 baby!
2007-09-21 12:26:01 · 5 answers · asked by uhgoo 3 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Add-ons
Agree with Karz!
Videocard manufacturers put inflated power requirement because of low quality power supplies that boast high power rating but actually provide little current on important +12V rail. Also a lot of low quality PSUs can fry themselves even under 80% load.
I have a device called Kill-A-Watt that measures power consumption of devices connected to it. My overclocked Opteron 165 (dual core, 2.7GHz) with 2 GB RAM, 2 harddrives, 2 DVD burners, AMD HD2600 XT videocard and liquid cooling system eats less than 250W in games and less than 150W idle... My old Enermax 365W power supply survives 3rd major computer upgrades and still got enough headroom for the next one :)
P.S.: Power supplies usually fry themself first. Actually, I had particulary bad experience with Dell power supplies - 6 out of 10 powersupplies in Dell Optiplexes 620 died within 18 months of use. None of other hardware was damaged though.
2007-09-21 13:15:52 · answer #1 · answered by Aleks 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
8600GTS draws up to about 4 amps on the +12V rail. Your processor is just a 65 watter. If your current power supply has 18 amps output on the +12V rail, it should have no problem running your rig all day long. However, with a weaker +12V rail, the card may not run at all or the power supply's +12V rail could run HOT at or near FULL load.
2007-09-21 12:35:25 · answer #2 · answered by Karz 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
its good i have that pc also but how did u pay 1300 i payed 300 less
2007-09-21 15:41:04 · answer #3 · answered by pdc5200 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Should have thought about that before you bought the card.
2007-09-21 12:38:19 · answer #4 · answered by Retired and Glad 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
you will not hurt anything by upgrading your power supply
2007-09-21 12:29:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋