Power Supply for Video Card

[wirm]

Hi folks,

After reading through this forum for a couple of days, I settled down and ordered a PNY FX 5500 PCI card for my cheap Dell 2400 (celeron 2.4 ghz 512 mb RAM). I figured the 5500 can't be any worse than the integrated chipset.

Anyway, I understand the minimum power requirement for the 5500 is 250 watts, and I believe that is what my computer has.

My question is this. Does "minimum requirements" mean the same thing with PSU's as with games? With games, the minimum requirement is just to get you chugging along at a crawl. I hope this isn't going to happen with a video card.

Also, if I decided to upgrade to a much higher wattage PSU, would that effect my electricity bill very much? :angel:

Any replies are appreciated.

 

[SOcRatEs]

Hello! Welcome to TechSpot

No the power usage should be a negligible difference.
Unless you were to get a 1500 watt psu. (which I'm not sure exist)

The differences will be the video and stability of whole system.
Min. req. tends to mean," just enuff to get by on lowest settings."

There are lots of good PSU's around, high to mid range in price.
plus allow you to add additional cooling should want.

How many devices do you have?
cdrom's
hdd's etc.
G'Luck

 

[wirm]

I have:

80 Gb HD
CD-RW
3.5" Floppy
10/100 Ethernet card

Of course, I was hoping to add another 40 GB hard drive and possibly a DVD drive into the mix.

I didn't realize that all of this stuff added up like that.

Do you suppose a 300 watt PSU would be enough?

I'd like to scrape by with the bare minimum that doesn't cause the system to be unstable or slow.

Thanks again

 

[SOcRatEs]

80 Gb HD
CD-RW
3.5" Floppy
10/100 Ethernet card
I didn't realize that all of this stuff added up like that.
Do you suppose a 300 watt PSU would be enough? Maybe

Check this LINK
to a power calculator that will help you determine "how much is enuff".

G'Luck :wave: