Radeon 9700 Pro Question

[CorpusBiscuit]

I own a Compaq Presario 5330US and was looking into buying a Radeon 9700 Pro. Unfortunately I just found out today that the recommended power supply for the card is 300w and I think this machine only has a 250w power supply. My question is how big of a problem would/could this cause and should I even bother getting the Radeon 9700 Pro? If not what other video cards would be recommended?

(Machine specs: 1.7 Pentium 4, 512MB ram, dvd drive, cd-rw drive, floppy, Maxtor 80.0GB hard drive)

Thanks.

 

[lwj81]

I would go with the 9500pro and a 350 watt enermax power supply.to take advantage of everthing the 9700pro has,you would need a faster cpu.

 

[CorpusBiscuit]

How difficult is it to swap out the power supply?

 

[Farnobious]

Well its simple to replace a PSU, just a matter of a few screws thats all! I'd go for a 9700 Pro if you can afford one and get a new PSU, say 300/350watt. They only about £12-17 max and you might even get one cheaper on eBay!

 

[CorpusBiscuit]

Another question, does the motherboard have anything to do with the PSU I can use?

 

[AndrewT]

on my old (real old) compaq it was not possible to swipe power supply or motherboard. both were built to compaq's specs and did not match anything standard. I would pull out the power supply and go shop with it, if the new one is a match then buy it, if not then build your own computer next time so you can upgrade.

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[ferrari]

i am sorry that i have to do this. But is anyone even thinking about the question i asked about running another pci gfx card with the 9700 pro to drive 3+ monitors at once? I cant be the first or the last to think of this. Please see my previous postings. Would really appreciate if anyone can help or if anyone has any success doin this or if anyone even have a suggestion or if anyone even give a damn? ;(....

 

[zero9ine]

it says on the ati.com website about the card under specs
"RADEON 9700 PRO requires connection to your PC's internal power supply for operation. Consult your system builder or OEM to ensure your system has an adequate power supply. Otherwise ATI recommends a 300 watt power supply or greater to ensure normal system operation where a number of other internal devices are installed. "

I assume this means that it needs direct power from the powersupply, if you cant do that it recommends a 300watt power supply if you DONT connect direct to it.

-- 09