Dell Power Supplies

[Kadence]

Dell 4550's have 250 watt power supplies. If I get one I'll be getting a P4 2.66 gig with a Radeon 9700 Pro. The 9700 Pro minimum power supply is 300 watts, but Dell says that there should be no problem. Also, people say Dell underestimates their power supplies.

So will the 250W supply cause problems, either with the video card or the system as a whole? Here's the overview of the Dell power supply:

Output Voltage___Regulation___Minimum Current (A)___Maximum Current (A)
+12 VDC________+/–5%______0____________________14.0
+5 VDC_________+/–5%______1.0/0.2_______________22
+3.3 VDC_______+/–5%_______0.1/0.0______________18
–12 VDC________+/–10%_____0_____________________1
+5 VFP_________+/–5%_______0____________________2

Dell Notes:
*Outputs meet and do not exceed SELV requirements per electrical standards (UL 1950, IEC 950, or EN60950 Par. 2.3).
*Maximum continuous combined load on +5 VDC and +3.3 VDC outputs do not exceed 150 W.
*Peak +12 VDC output power (up to 15.0 A) does not exceed 15 seconds in duration. Under this condition, tolerance on the +12 VDC output is allowed to be +–10%.
*+5 VDC minimum load is 0.2 A when there is a minimum load of 0.3 A on the +12 VDC and 0.42 A on the +3.3 VDC outputs simultaneously. +5 V minimum load is 1 A for load transient tests.
*In system configurations where +3.3 VDC is not used, all other outputs stay within regulation while the +3.3 VDC output is in a zero load condition.

 

[Crashman]

I seriously doubt you'll have any problems. And those numbers can't accurately be compared to numbers from other companies, as other companies products often start dropping voltages before "maximum" cutout, making peoples system unstable. I've never seen a dell supply do that.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[ejsmith2]

The power supplies are very proprietary.

And everything depends on what else you have in that system. If you've got 2 other hard drives, a gig of ram, and two cdrom drives going at the same time, you may very well have some power problems.

Need to know more about the system.

"I personally think filesystems should be rewritten from scratch every 5 years..." --- Hans Reiser

 

[Kadence]

I'll probably have 1024MB RAM, a CD-RW and a DVD drive. Only one hard drive for now, though I might add one later. Sound card, network card, unused 56K modem, and a joystick too. Dell says that there shouldn't be any problems, and people at the Dell message board also agree--they say that the Dell PS has a maximum output of 345 watts, and that most manufacturers advertise their power supplies according to the maximum wattage rather than the normal wattage; thus, the Dell PS is really a 345W. Any truth to this?

 

[LumberJack]

"Dell" sorry I am unfamiliar with such noncence... i say through it out and get a real computer.

To err is human... to really screw things up you need a computer!

 

[ejsmith2]

Give it a twirl, man.

Let's say they are all smoking crack, and you start having power problems.

Swap out a mainboard and a power supply. That's your worse case scenario.

"I personally think filesystems should be rewritten from scratch every 5 years..." --- Hans Reiser

 

[Teq]

Check first about returns and upgrades.

So long as you can return it... If it doesn't work out, just send it back and either get the better one or get your money back.



<b>(</b>It ain't better if it don't work.<b>)</b>