Upgrading Graphics Card

[Carter121]

I currently have a Dell Dimension 8400

Pentium 4 3hz
1024 ram
250gb hard drive
350W psu

And i have a radeon x300

Basically i was looking into buying an X800 or an X850, but my friend tells me that my 350w psu won't be able to cope.

I am a bit of a noobie when it comes to taking computers apart and dont particularly want to replace my psu...

Any suggestions to whether I could upgrade to an X800, 6800, or X850. Or is this just not possible with my PSU?

Thanks

[sawyen]

um... you might want to carry this thread to the 3d graphics section... but what the heck... 350W will heavily depend on how many stuff u stick into ur pc... when u have like 2 optical drives with 2 hdd... another x850 would probably be too much for that tiny psu... but then again, get a more vivid estimate from some pc power supply calculators... google it out.. it shud help.. their accuracy is probably plus/minus 30%..

[Dark Horse]

If you're not overclocking its probably possible. Dells aren't renowned for overclocking so thats probably not the case.

An x800xl might be an option, its pretty cheap ~£180 and has 6800gt performance and as far as i know doesnt need the extra molex power connector like a the more power hungry cards so could work out quite well.

[Carter121]

X800 XL 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-077-AS)
ASUS Extreme AX800 series is equipped with exclusive ASUS innovations and ATI Radeon X800 VPU, a "true" PCI-Express solution. With a powerful combination of the industry's fastest PCI Express architecture and rendering pipeline, Extreme AX800 series incorporates various innovative technologies, such as ASUS GameFace Live, ASUS VideoSecurity Online, ASUS SmartDoctor, ATI's SmartShader, and SmoothVision. ASUS Extreme AX800 series delivers exceptional quality and performance to the most demanding user for 3D games, streaming media, digital video, and office applications.

- 400MHz Core Clock Speed
- 980MHz GDDR 3 Memory Speed running on 256-bit interface
- 16 Pixel Pipelines
- ASUS GameFace Live
- ASUS VideoSecurity Online
- ASUS OnScreenDisplay
- ASUS SmartDoctor
- ASUS SmartCooling
- ASUS HyperDrive
- Asus Games Bundle



Price: £169.95 (£199.69 Including VAT at 17.5%)


Something like that?

[sawyen]

yea... sumthing like dat...

[nez]

I agree, an x800xl doesn't use as much power, and as long as you dont have to many drives, it should cope ok, it you dont overclock your cpu.

nez