Power Supply?

I have a Dell 8200- Pentium 4 2 Gig, 768 RD Mem, with a Nvidea geoforce 2 MX
400 64 MB vid card. I want to upgrade to a 9800pro 128/256 card. My question
is My power supply is at 250w and ATI recommends at least a 300w power
supply for it's 9800pro. Do I need to upgrade my power supply to run this
card? TIA.

"John Smith" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I have a Dell 8200- Pentium 4 2 Gig, 768 RD Mem, with a Nvidea geoforce 2
>MX
> 400 64 MB vid card. I want to upgrade to a 9800pro 128/256 card. My
> question
> is My power supply is at 250w and ATI recommends at least a 300w power
> supply for it's 9800pro. Do I need to upgrade my power supply to run this
> card? TIA.
>
>

Power supply + your entire PC.

"John Smith" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I have a Dell 8200- Pentium 4 2 Gig, 768 RD Mem, with a Nvidea geoforce 2
MX
> 400 64 MB vid card. I want to upgrade to a 9800pro 128/256 card. My
question
> is My power supply is at 250w and ATI recommends at least a 300w power
> supply for it's 9800pro. Do I need to upgrade my power supply to run this
> card?

Is your 250w PSU a 300w? (Hint: 250w is less than 300w)

The 9800 Pro is a power sucker, yes, you need it, and I would do better than
300.

"John Smith" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I have a Dell 8200- Pentium 4 2 Gig, 768 RD Mem, with a Nvidea geoforce 2
>MX
> 400 64 MB vid card. I want to upgrade to a 9800pro 128/256 card. My
> question
> is My power supply is at 250w and ATI recommends at least a 300w power
> supply for it's 9800pro. Do I need to upgrade my power supply to run this
> card? TIA.
>
>

John Smith wrote:
> I have a Dell 8200- Pentium 4 2 Gig, 768 RD Mem, with a Nvidea
> geoforce 2 MX 400 64 MB vid card. I want to upgrade to a 9800pro
> 128/256 card. My question is My power supply is at 250w and ATI
> recommends at least a 300w power supply for it's 9800pro. Do I need
> to upgrade my power supply to run this card? TIA.

yup

John Smith wrote:
> I have a Dell 8200- Pentium 4 2 Gig, 768 RD Mem, with a Nvidea
> geoforce 2 MX 400 64 MB vid card. I want to upgrade to a 9800pro
> 128/256 card. My question is My power supply is at 250w and ATI
> recommends at least a 300w power supply for it's 9800pro. Do I need
> to upgrade my power supply to run this card? TIA.

Actually, it will depend on the quality of your existing 250W power supply
and how many devices you have attached to your power supply. Many cheap 300W
power supplies will be no better than an average 250W power supply.

My opinion: try it and see if it works. In all likelihood it will. Video
card manufacturers tend to overstate the power supply requirements to keep
themselves "safe".

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 21:48:08 -0800, "John Smith"
<> wrote:

>I have a Dell 8200- Pentium 4 2 Gig, 768 RD Mem, with a Nvidea geoforce 2 MX
>400 64 MB vid card. I want to upgrade to a 9800pro 128/256 card. My question
>is My power supply is at 250w and ATI recommends at least a 300w power
>supply for it's 9800pro. Do I need to upgrade my power supply to run this
>card? TIA.
>


Depends on the quality of your existing PSU. A good quality
250W PSU would power the card, but then if you have multiple HDDs, and
CD/DVD drives, it may not be enough. All you can do is try. If not,
then get a larger PSU.

John Smith wrote:
> I have a Dell 8200- Pentium 4 2 Gig, 768 RD Mem, with a Nvidea geoforce 2 MX
> 400 64 MB vid card. I want to upgrade to a 9800pro 128/256 card. My question
> is My power supply is at 250w and ATI recommends at least a 300w power
> supply for it's 9800pro. Do I need to upgrade my power supply to run this
> card? TIA.
>
>
speaking from experience, get a bigger psu, i put an ati 9200 card in my
machine with 2 hd,s and a cd-r/dvd and i had intermittent problems with
random reboot and power offs until i got a 350 watt pus.

it cost me around $60/$70 and was worth the expense.

John Smith wrote:
> I have a Dell 8200- Pentium 4 2 Gig, 768 RD Mem, with a Nvidea geoforce 2 MX
> 400 64 MB vid card. I want to upgrade to a 9800pro 128/256 card. My question
> is My power supply is at 250w and ATI recommends at least a 300w power
> supply for it's 9800pro. Do I need to upgrade my power supply to run this
> card? TIA.
>
>
Dell's psu's are rated according to steady output, where others are
rated according to max output. That Dell psu may be rated at 250w, but
in actuality, it's max output is about 350w. I would still upgrade your
psu anyway for the 9800pro. But you will need a Dell specific psu, as
the power connectors for the Dell mobo won't connect to just any psu.

You can get upgraded Dell psu's here:
http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/pro...lies/selector/

I think you should.
Play safe with that kind of card....


"John Smith" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I have a Dell 8200- Pentium 4 2 Gig, 768 RD Mem, with a Nvidea geoforce 2
>MX
> 400 64 MB vid card. I want to upgrade to a 9800pro 128/256 card. My
> question
> is My power supply is at 250w and ATI recommends at least a 300w power
> supply for it's 9800pro. Do I need to upgrade my power supply to run this
> card? TIA.
>
>