A Few Questions

[someone153]

My dad freaked out beacuse when I told him the video card I was gettting needed 300w and our power supply only has 350ish.

A) What will happen if the video card won't get enough power?

B) Could doing this damage any part of the computer?

C) How many watts will I need for it to bet safe?

O ya this stuff:

1 CD/DVD drive
1 Floppy drive
2 Hard drives (1 internal, 1 external)

I need to know this kind of fast because the time on ebay only last for a few more days.

 

[satchmo]

If there isn't enough power to the graphics card, the game would crash and the computer reboots.

It won't hurt another computer component, but why would you want a graphics card when you don't have enough power for it?

 

[blue_dragon]

If there isn't enough power to the graphics card, the game would crash and the computer reboots.

It won't hurt another computer component, but why would you want a graphics card when you don't have enough power for it?

Wrong, there can be damage to the hard drive or cause a lot of errors
My question is what video card?
Another thing,if you are getting a high end video card (conclusion based on the wattage required) I personally would not recommend it, your system might be a huge bottleneck

 

[LipsOfVenom]

when the box says 300 watts minumum, they take into account that your going to be hooking up the power supply to other components...so the video card itself is not going to take 300 watts. you should be fine with 350 Watts although there are risks to everything we do in life.

 

[truflip]

ur harddrive might get corrupted and then ud have to reinstall xp. ur computer will have random reboots when peak usage occurs also.

if u have 350watt QUALITY psu.. then ur totally fine, u dont need to worry. but if u have a generic never-heard-of-it PSU... then it might cause u some problems.

 

[someone153]

Its a dell psu but I think im going to get an fsp 520W psu.

The vcard is an evga geforce 6800 AGP.

 

[oxeyereed]

When a card says u need a 300w psu which is a conservative rating usually, it means for the whole system not just the video card. Not even the fastest video card to date can use 300 w by itsself . you should have no problem with a 350w psu.