Video Card Inquiry

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warchief1988

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Hello everybody i am new to this forum, and i noticed that you are answering alot of questions regarding video cards and power supplies, and i notice alot of intelligent answers from knowledgeable people so i thought id run this by you guys for a second opinion. So heres my situation, i am buying a video card and i have one picked out its a EVGA GeForce 8600GTS 256Mb, EVGA recommends a 400W PSU with a 12V current rating of 20 A or more. My PSU (below) is 305 W and a combined current rating of 36 A. Currently i have the below in my system, and if necessary i will take off the 80G HDD and shortly the two drives are being replaced with one. I think that i should be fine with my current PSU once im down to one HDD and one disk drive, despite the fact that i'm under the recommended power rating. So what do you folks think about this? On a side note the card i picked because of the price (197 CDN) and warranty if you have any better recommendations that is around the same price that would be cool too.


*Country is Canada btw.

My System (Dell Dimension 4700)
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.40 Ghz with HT
MEM: 2 x 256MB and 1x 512 MB @ 200MHz
GPU: Radeon x600 256 MB
HDD: 80GB 7200 RPM Sata, and a 250 GB Sata with a 16MB cache
1 16x PCI Express Slot
Power Supply
12V A - 18A
12V B - 18A
Rated Power
305W Max
 
You will probably need a new PSU. I think what you have will probably boot the system up, but you might run into problems gaming. I'm just not sure how much more that PSU can handle.

Having said that, I have an 8800GTS (320) in a C2D 6400, with 2 hard drives, and 2 burners. It uses something like 90-110W from the wall idling, and 240W when I'm really pushing my card in a game. So by that, your PSU should work, but it will probably be stressed a lot. You are probably safer buying a quality 400-450W.
 
I second SNGX's comment. You'd need this PSU since the one in ur PC is probably wired differently from other ATX PSUs.
As for the card, it's for about 162 CAD here. Enjoy. :)
 
Thanks for the information, although i am on a budget since im a student, i probably will have to wait a few months for the power supply.... do you think i could get away with my current PSU for a little while? I am removing one of my drives and my 80GB hdd to lower power consumption. Do you think i might be able to run the card for a few months until i can afford to get a a new PSU, i like the PSU you reccomended though, i have seen it for around 100$ so il probably have to wait for it. Any thoughts?
 
Actually, you might be able to get any ATX PSU for your PC, since the PSU in it seems to be the same type as used in almost all other systems and it uses the same wiring. I looked around a bit and found out that a lot of people have changed their PSU for a more powerful one in order to house a new graphics card. Speaking of which, how much is your total budget? I will recommend a PSU and video card depending on that.
 
Total Budget would probably be 200$ before tax ish (or close), but i have done some research and according to this http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354
my current card (ati x600) uses 42 W of power (peak) and the card i want (8600GTS) uses 47 W of power (peak) this seems like accurate information, and i also have my card overclocked, and i have no power supply problems whatsover. So if the card i want only uses 7W more power under load, why would i pay 50-100$ for a better power supply? If i am wrong on this please correct me, its just this is what my research shows me, but i always spend lots of time researching and asking questions before i buy something to ensure i get the most bang for my buck without any hassle or problems involved. Any more thoughts on this? And by the way you guys have been really informative and i appreciate your feedback on this.

I also might add that my brother has a very comparable system to mine and has an identical power supply, and has a 7900 GT card, and he has no problems (according to above link 7900 GT uses 49 W of power under load).
 
thanks for the info, that is really reaasuring, cause as you can probably tell from the post i really want this card but didnt wanna burn the extra juice for a psu. Thanks for all the help guys
 
sorry i just have one more question, rage pointed out that the card was avail on ncix.com for 164, whats with ncix.com are they reputable, have you bought from them before, i know you probably wouldn't have recommended it if it wasnt but i just wanna make sure....
 
NCIX is a reputable site as far as computer hardware goes. I have friends who've bought from them and faced no problems so far.
 
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