8600GTS - 305W psu...Can or Can't?

No that is not even close to being enough. I would recommend at least 400watts dual 12+ rails, and 22-30amps.
You should have gotten at 2600xt for it consumes less power. but all you have to do now is change ur psu. Heres one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Just remember that changing your psu for dells violates the warranty so if your computer is ever messed up and you want to fix it by the warranty, switch the psu back to the original one.

ok, that sucks. I have no problem shelling out some bucks for a new psu, esp. as it seems quite reasonable. Also don't care about warranty. Keep in mind, tho that I haven't the faintest idea how to change out the psu. If it is easy to moderately complicated, I'm game. If it is fairly complicated to hard, no thanks. Any quick ratings on ease?

A 8600 GTS takes 47 watts of power 47 / 12 = 3.93 Amps
A 2600XT takes 49 watts of power 49 / 12 = 4.09 Amps

Now that that is straightened out.

Did you forget to plug in the PCI-E power plug? Sounds like the card is running off the board only.


Did you plug into the connector on the right of the card?

If you did try to re plug it....maybe its not connected properly even a dell 305 watt psu has as much 12 volt power as many 400 watt psu's. Dell does this by not putting much power on the 5 and 3.3 volt rails since they know that they systems they build do not need it....I am gonna have to say those little bastards are tough....

List the full specs of your PC
CPU
HDD
ECT

Keep us posted

You psu can run that card (with the pcie connector) I had the same psu.
Here's your psu

http://www.centrix-intl.com/showpix.asp?pixsource=0d503...

ok, I did try to connect the pcie, but I couldn't figure out where to connect the other two ends (says 6 pin, but looked like two 3 pins to me)

as far as my specs...

PROCESSOR..., 524, 3.06, 1MB, PENTIUM 4
DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE..., 512, 533M, 64X64, 8, 240, 1RX8
HARD DRIVE..., 250G, S2, 7.2K, 3.5,

I don't know what ECT is...

Would love to get this thing running, just a bit short of the technical ability. Thanks for your help.

ok look on the psu for a connector like this....it has to be exactly this...



If not you use this


This connects to the video card and then 2 molix (CD/Hard drive plugs)

Your card should not even need the damn thing(the PCI-E slot should deliver 75 watts) i don't know why they put it there...but without it you get that under powered thing....

PSU's are not that hard to swap out.
Here's a great place to get a replacement.
http://www.pcpower.com/products/power_supplies/dell/

If you only have 1 available molex connector you can use this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Why get a new psu when a $3 part will work?

You have to be (at least from my experience) very careful when swapping out Dell power supplies. I don't know if the policy has changed, but for a long time Dell mobos and PSUs were proprietary and plugging in a regular off-the-shelf ATX PSU wouldn't work.

The policy changed several years ago, for most* "modern" Dells you can now use any standard ATX power supply, but as kpo pointed out , there's no need for a new psu when a $3 adaptor will work.

* Their 7xx series still uses a proprietary unit with both a 20 and 24 pin motherboard connector.

For $3, hell yeah, get that....after all there is not gonna be much power going through it....just enough to shut the warning off  

thanks all-

Got the connector, installed the 8600gts...graphics look great! However, now when I plug in my 360 controller (which I use for some games on my pc)....all the sound goes out. Comes back a few seconds after I unplug the controller, goes out again when I plug it back in. I have unplugged all other usb peripherals, and still no sound with 360 controller. Question: could this be a power issue (since Im running an overpowered graphics card on my underpowered psu)?

thanks again!

the fish

You don't know what you're talking about: A single-rail power supply with 22-30 amps would be better than a dual-rail with a combined 22-30 amps. Even though per-rail limits won't affect such a lightly loaded system, the fact that they exist means the single-rail will always be the better choice.

It might be a power issue, check to see if your unit uses a standard-sized power supply. Some people might mention an electrical compatibility issue, but that went away with P4-erra Dells so long as the plugs were the same.

an AcBell 300w will run that 8600GTS absolutely fine so check that you have that 6 pin power plugged in with the adapter (BOTH molex plugs)

I have a sneaking suspicion your Xbox controller has a build in sound card for X-box Live!   (don't quote me yet   )

Plug it in and go look to make sure it does not....tell windows to use default audio device only.....


Under control panel -> Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices -> Sounds and Audio Devices