upgrading power supply

[oscgee]

Ok so i bought a HP Pavilion a6400f computer a few months ago, now i want to upgrade the video card but it needs a 450W power supply. My computer only has 250W, so i contacted HP and what the guy told was i shouldn't upgrade my power supply to any more than 400W or i could fry my motherboard. That just doesn't sound right to me so i would like to know what anyone else thinks about my situation, would it kill my computer to put in a 450W power supply??

[schmunk]

In a word, no.

[peterb]

Short answer no

Long answer - the power rating is the power the psu will deliver. Power is voltage*current - so for a given voltage, the power supply will deliver more current. Computer PSUs are standard and supply 12v 5v and 3.3v. It is only the current that they can potentially (no pun intended) deliver that varies. Higher currents mean higher rated components, which is why more powerful PSUs are more expensive (and why cheap high power psus should be avoided)

[oscgee]

thanks guys, i really didnt want to settle for a less powerful graphics card

[aidanjt]

It depends on what your new graphics card will be, but 250W doesn't give you much headroom to tinker, really. But you will likely get away with a graphics card that doesn't need a PCIe connector, like the HD3470.