Current and Past Owners of Dell 8300-4600- or 8400 READ!!!!

[Mtyson8]

I have a discrepantcy.

I want to upgrade my dell power supply. Its currently a dell supplied 305w. Everyone says its alright to upgrade higher, even if it isnt a DELL part#, because a mobo will only takes what pwr it needs.
However, Dell Techs tell me that you CANNOT add a higher power supply to this system because it might damage the mobo.

So what I want is for anyone to post with info on them upgrading to off the shelf pwr splys and how it has worked or not worked with their DELL 8300 or 8400. Mine is a 8300, but info on a 4600 would be helpful as well. Let me know!!!

Thanxs guys in advance......

 

[MetalX]

I would bet lots of money that the dell people just say that because they want you to have to buy a dell replacement Power Supply. . . i would say ignore it and if it does by some microscopic chance fry the mobo, just get a new one. But make sure the newone (if you need one) is the same socket type (obviously).

 

[howard_hopkinso]

The situation as far as I understand it is this.

Older Dell`s can`t use ordinary of the shelf psu`s, because the power supply, and the mobo are wired differently. If you try to use an ordinary psu, you will in all probability damage your system.

Only the newer Dell computers, can use off the shelf psu`s.

Regards Howard

 

[swker98]

Only the newer Dell computers, can use off the shelf psu`s.

im jsut wondering, i dont own a dell or anything, what do you mean by new


dell is very mean to do this to coustomers

 

[howard_hopkinso]

What I mean is the current crop of Dell computers, can be upgaded to a standard psu, as far as I`m aware. Whereas the older Dells cannot.

I agree with you that it is a stupid state of affairs, but that`s Dell for you.

Regards Howard

 

[Tedster]

Sounds like a lot of marketing/ sales BS to me. You can put as big a power supply as you want in your system. More power is better. Less power is dangerous - (you can hurt your system.) Each component will draw what they need. If you have too much of a power supply in your system, you're just creating heat (bad) and wasting electricity (also bad)... likewise an underpowered system will create big time heat as the PS will heat up trying to do more work than its capable of, also your components will be under-voltaged and stress out (lives will be shortened) and/or not work. For most modern systems I recommend about 450W PSU. Bear in mind your actual wattage will be FAR less than what it's rated as - that's because a lot of wattage gets wasted as heat.

For gamers, I recommend no less than 550W. Modern high end graphics cards suck a lot of juice and some require their own power connection. If you have an el cheapo budget system just to surf and do work, than you might get away with 300W.... older systems with SDRAM can go as low as 250W, but that's really pushing it.