Upgrading - power supply fine?

[ioi1011]

Hello,

I'm trying to upgrade an old radeon x300 128MB to this nvidia 8800 GT 512MB:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318

I'm wondering if my power supply will be able to handle it though - it's rated wattage is 460, but I'm not sure what brand it is (and I'm having a hard time finding out from dell support webpage). The comp is a pre-made dell xps gen3, with a dual core pent4 at 3.4 GH, and 4g ram (it was meant to be a work comp originally...). Looking at the various calculators for power supply it seems like it should be fine - the new card should take another 40 extra watts or so, but it would be kind of close. I also read on the manufacturer's site that the card requires 400 watts... I assume that was meant for a generic system+plus this GPU, not the card itself.

Are there any tools to identify how much power I'm actually currently using so that maybe I can get a good estimate on how much extra I have? Other then these calculators that are estimating?

Alternatively if someone can point me towards a less power-hungry worthwhile card that would be fine too (I only really want to run warhammer online well after all).

Thanks

 

[mactronix]

This will give you an idea http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp Just add what you have in your system to th etabl eand it will give you an estimate of what you are using. Yes it is system +card and not just system. Dell PSU's are pretty robust and should handle a 8800gt but i would try and find out exactly what the +12Vrail ha son it in AMPS.

Mactronix

 

[ioi1011]

I tried that one, and it looks like it should be fine based on it (I think I ended up around ~350 with that tool).

How would I find out how many amps are on the 12v rail?

thanks

 

[lunyone]

Okay I'm seeing about a 30-40 watt difference between the 2 cards. I'm findind it hard to see the actual specs of the PSU too, so don't feel bad. I believe (through my searching) that this PSU also is a server PSU too and is manufactured from Delta PSU, which is a good thing.
Using the Power Calculator, I get a total of 397 watts. That is with Pent D 3.4ghz/8800gt/4x1 gb's DDR/2 DVD drives/1 HDD/2 USB devices/90% system load and 20% capacitor aging (2 years worth of aging).
I think you should be okay with the 8800gt. If you have other GPU power questions, than look at the GPU Power consumption list. I have it in my signature line too.

P.S. I think the 4850 would be your next step up on the GPU level, but would be about 32 watts, which might be okay.

 

[delluser1]

I tried that one, and it looks like it should be fine based on it (I think I ended up around ~350 with that tool).

How would I find out how many amps are on the 12v rail?
thanks

Read the label

You'll be fine with an 8800 GT

 

[lunyone]

Where did you find that link, DellUser1????

 

[delluser1]

Where did you find that link, DellUser1????

I made it, I've got photos of a few Dell psu labels, just hosted the one in question.

 

[ioi1011]

Oh, you mean that label should be the same for my machine? I thought you were just putting up a random one as an example, thanks .

I'll open up my case to double-check in any case a bit later. The power supply is positioned a bit odd along the length of the tower in it's own compartment and you can only see one side of the label clearly so it might be a bit of a pain.

Thanks though, I guess I'll go with it, especially now that there is a rebate until sept 30.

 

[lunyone]

I made it, I've got photos of a few Dell psu labels, just hosted the one in question.

Yeah, it's very difficult to find any information on that PSU, so that is why I asked where you got it. I wish there was a place online to browse through the Dell PSU's somewhere, but I'm sure they don't want everyone having access to their "proprietory" PSU's/mobo's/etc.