My brother has a Nvidia card, and when he bought it he never looked into the PSU stuff. His computer never had any problems.... I think it doesn't matter, like p5bdkw said. I also used that Thermaltke calculator and it gave me the result of 276Watts....
$200???
Changing a PSU does seem quite tricky, but it's really just a few screws and some large cables. Well, at least it'll be straightforward if your case is a standard size.
Who said anything about a $200.00 PSU. Something like this,
Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts Green EA-430D Green 430W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS 12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
would be more than enough for what you have and is a far cry from $200.00.
Well his computer is def. older than mine. It's a HP Pavillion that originally came with Windows Vista when that offer of Windows 7 when it comes out was on. So it's pretty old. The graphics card is a Nvidia 9500GT, and I just now looked at the box and it requires even more Watts than mine, 30 more. So, it looks like he is also having this problem, but like I said, he's never had any REAL problems, like overheating or suddenly shutting down. BTW, WHAT kind of problems could occur with my current setup? I mean, the 300Watt PSU with a 400 Watt video card... What could happen? So far he's been fine ever since he bought that card at Best Buy.
Well, when I had an underpowered PSU the fan didn't spin at all, the card overheated and it was stuck in an awful resolution. That is kindof worst case scenario though. How long have you been using this card for? If quite a while and if it's coping fine, then there hopefully shouldn't be any problems. If you do want to overclock it or play games to the card's highest potential, I recommend you get a new psu just to be on the safe side.
Dell computers are often speced to the very very minimum, especially the power supply - there is little margin for upgrade. In addition, the space for the power supply is often not as standard as you would like. That and all the other propitiatory case design, etc. I had DELLs until I got fed up and built my own.
But you can often, with or without modification to the case, upgrade the power supply. Get a good one and you can use it for a later build. You should be able to get a very good one for about $80 or so. Do some research: Seasonics, Antec, OCZ.
You don;t have to get the driers from XFX, they are quite generic and the latest drivers from ATI/AMD will work on your XFX. XFX keeps pretty current though (they really don't customize AMD's drivers as far as I have seen).
Good luck
The recommendations on the box are system total, not what the card requires. On the reference specs the 4650 is actually 2W less than the 9500,
Video Card Comparison - GPUReview.com
Unexpected shutdowns, slowdowns, all round general instability, are all possibilities when running an under powered PSU.WHAT kind of problems could occur with my current setup? I mean, the 300Watt PSU with a 400 Watt video card... What could happen?
Which leaves zero breathing space for the power supply, because the 300W total for it is not only the 12V rail (which is what most things run off of), but also includes the 3.3V and 5V rails as well.I also used that Thermaltke calculator and it gave me the result of 276Watts....
As for how hard it is to change one, as someone mentioned it is four screws and removing/replacing the various connectors. Here is an easy to follow tutorial,
How To Replace Your Power Supply | Hardware Secrets
About the only thing I would add to that for the first timer is to label each connector as you disconnect them, and then just match up the labels with the corresponding connector from the new power supply. Makes it a bit easier to make sure that everything is plugged back in the way it should be.
You know what? I'm going with Biggles. My brother's been using his video card, overclocking it all the time, and having no problems. I think that I will be completely fine. If I DO see any of the symptoms stormy said, then I will definitely look into a new PSU. But until now, I'm so happy with my purchase (screw what I said before! lol). Thanks guys for all your help!
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