ATI 5870 with 475 W power supply

I think Dells are decent quality (though get a long warranty if you are worried). Without knowing the amperage on the 12V rail it would be hard to say how stressed or unstressed the PSU is. A 5870 does need a decent bit of power.

You would probably be o.k if you didn't have your CPU overclocked or anything. When gaming, the PSU would be rather stressed though so it would have a shorter life span than a more capable unit. It's up to you, but if I wanted it to last for 7 years I sure as hell would invest in the best PSU I could.

Dell has changed their PSU OEM's a few times over the years and they are currently using a pretty good supplier. I do agree with EXT64 that knowing your 12v rails would allow us to provide a more definitive answer but on the whole it should be OK.

Those 600 watters that we've been railing on are junk PSU's that probably put out 450 watts continuous on a good day with maybe 25 amps on their 12v rails and without Active PFC.

If Dell sold it to you that way, that means they're covering it under a warranty like that... and if it has a warranty, I'm sure plenty of bean counters have gone over your system's specs to make sure it was able to operate with that PSU. However, overclocking your CPU/GPU obviously would be a stretch for your PSU.

In 7 years an i7-920 will be worthless. I wouldn't worry about ANY electronics lasting that long.

Ok. I talked with Dell costomer support. They said they have no information on the supplier or model, but they gave me this information.
Heat dissipation 1621 Btu/h
Voltage 115/240 Vac, 50/60 Hz, 10A
Backup battery 3 V CR2032 lithium coin-cell
I'm not going to do any overclocking, but I will use the PC for gaming

I hope that 10A isn't the 12v rails. If it is, don't run any GPU on it.

No, I would guess that is the maximum that can come from the wall, though that would be a very high wattage, so perhaps it is the rating of the power cord/socket. Either way, I don't think it tells us much.

Ok. I specifically asked about the amperage from the 12V rails. Why they gave me irrelevent info instead of the stuff that matters, I don't know. I'm not sure how else I would be able to get that info if the tech support is not able to give it. I got 8 years out of a Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop! Its gonna be cruddy towards the end of its lifespan, but atleast having the potential of a long life is important to me with this new computer.

Well, I looked long and hard for your PSU, but it appears its specs are a well guarded secret. I think I found its Dell Part Number, Brand, Dimensions, etc; but no important specs. Here are what I think they are, though like i said I couldn't glean any useful info out of them. And it was already difficult to get them in the first place.

Dell Part number F217J and Flextronics part number VP-09500073-000

3 7/8 in (H) x 5 7/8 in (W) x 6 1/4 in (L)

Dell Part number F217J and Flextronics part number VP-09500073-000

3 7/8 in (H) x 5 7/8 in (W) x 6 1/4 in (L)

If the dimensions provided by EXT64 (good work) are true then at least knowing the size of their PSU will give you an idea of type of PSU you should buy. That is if you choose to replace the original dell PSU with a more powerful one so u can run Higher end cards without being concerned power shortage (overload).

I saw in the dell forum that some people replaced the original PSU with a corsair PSU

I looked at the 650W corsair model and the size is

5.9" x 3.38" x 5.9" (sounds like it's a bit tight width wise) However the poster said it still slots in (a little push)

this one will run your system with any single high graphic card or dual medium graph card (ie: 2 ati 5770)

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The dimension for 750W model is:

5.9"(W) x 3.4"(H) X 6.3"(L)

This will run dual high graph card.

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If your dell pc doesn't support crossfire or SLI then you really don't need 650W and probably will be good with a 500W or 550W. However if I remember right, I think you are able to dual card.

Anyways check the dell forum or google dell XPS 8000 or 9000 PSU upgrade, you'll find more about it.

Yeah, that just came off of a Dell forum with someone who measured what i think is his PSU. I believe it also comes with 1 6 pin PCI-E power and 1 6+2 PCI-E power.

Thanks again. I've been searching for info and haven't found much of anything. To EXT64, Nice find with the dimensions and connectors for the PSU! That will come in hand if i do have a problem and need to switch out the PSU.

I'll stick with Dells PSU as long as it doesn't give any problems. Chances are it won't under warrenty. But if it starts to after that, upgrading the power supply would probably be the best thing to do. I found a few posts saying Dell PSUs tend to be better than they are rated for. Though I also found a few people saying they have been cutting corners on PSU quality lately. So I still dont have a better idea what to expect.

From what I could find, it looks like the XPS 9000 does not support multiple video cards, so the only reason i would want to upgrade the PSU is for longevity of the system. I'm gonna bug the Dell support again and ask about that, and try asking about the 12v rails again. They should be able to give that info.

From what i could tell, the ATI 5870 has great idle power consumption, but I think it draws 350 watts at max load. No matter how good of a 475 watts the PSU is, that would probably strain it. Oh well, still 3 weeks till i get it. I'll know better then.

Even i agree that 475W may not be enough for the HD5870. Go for the one that viper mentioned.

Thanks viper. Good brand and great price for that corasir PSU. Only $60 would definently be worth a more reliable system. Ill still have to decide if i want to void the warranty or wait it out.

So the PSU info found makes it sound decent, but lacking under max load. Which when gaming it will be...Uggghh, I think this is the last time i buy Dell. I really wanted longevity and reliability, but whether the PSU cuts it or not, I would not call that a reliable and stable build. Thanks for the help.

You're welcome, Jjdomino.

The system as it is probably would be stable and reliable but not very upgradable.

That's why you'll find most people who've spent some time learning about computers eventually build their own. Aside from it being much cheaper (at least for med to high end systems) you get to ensure how upgradable it is as well as reliable and stable.

I don't know where you got your info on the HD5870, according to the specs on the ATI site the maximum board power for the 5870 is 188 watts.

I got that 350 watt max load stat for the HD5870 from a couple of different places. I just realized that was the benchmark score for entire systems, not just the card though! So yeah, the PSU should be fine (190 + 145 = 335) but maybe not ideal if im looking to get 5 to 7 years out of it. I'm getting the computer in a few days, i'll put it under some stress and see how it runs and post the results.

Well, finally got my XPS. It is very nice, especially since its been 8 years since my last upgrade. Only had it a day, so its not been under load during gaming, which is the one time I might be concerned. But so far it is working great. The only problem i had was installing Catalyst control center twice somehow, instead of updating like i wanted to. Whats the best way to update, it sounds like ATI has had years of problems with this

Get Drive Sweeper and use it to remove all traces of the old driver.

Download the latest driver from ATi and follow the on screen prompts.

Dell 475watts means that it can run on constant load at 475watts day in and day out. If you buy the three year extended warranty with your configuration it will still come with that same 475watt PSU.

i think the psu is a flextronics 475w

u can see it in a dell image of the dell xps 9000 in the galery

Yeah, that PSU is fine for an HD5870. Dell wouldn't sell the system with that card otherwise.

Hi jjdomino, i got a question for you, i was about to buy the same xps 9000 with the hd 5870 card, i was just wondering if the system is quite noisy as i saw on the web a couple comments saying that xps 9000 is noisy. Thanks Mike