Graphics card help

L5

Im going to be getting a card in the not distant future. Thinking of a 9800 SE or something along those lines. Now i have a Dell pc, pretty much brand new with a fx 5200 in it at the minute. Its a p4 2.4 ghz, but the PSU sticker reads 230 v . The question is, if i fork out the cash, will the PSU be able to run the card?

Thanks

bla

if you have 1 spare power plug coming from your psu then it can handle it, i heard somewhere that you can actually run the 9800 series cards and a hard drive off the same power plug with a splitter so if thats true then no matter what you can run it assuming no problems with mobo which their shouldnt as you have an 8x agp card in already

liamo11

well if it can run the 5200 itlll probably manage a 9800- there isn't a massive power consumption difference between the two
however 230 is one seriously skimpy ass psu- i can't believe they don't ship em out with a 350 these days?

secret_squirrel

You do need to be careful about your power supply with the 9800se (and the other 'powered' ATI cards I presume)
I have a 9800se in my shuttle and it seems to take a while to settle down when you first switch it on. Display is slightly garbled when you first boot up. A reboot cures things tho. It doesnt appear to do it once the power supply is warmed up.

Maybe contact dell or ATI tech support and ask them? Unless you get lucky and someone here has the same model dell as you. Even then it might be touch and go. 230 does sound awfully wimpy for a modern psu.

astrofool

thats 230v, the standard plug voltage in ireland, and not the wattage of the psu, which will be labeled elsewhere.

Even if it was 230w, it would "probably" be ok

Sir Random

230v ?? Isn't thats the voltage m8? Check again for the Wattage output.
9800s need a good bit of power, and some 350w PSUs have failed to power them (see overclockers.co.uk).

EDIT: oops, beaten to it.

L5

Just checked the sticker again and it says "DC output = 250W"
I posted Voltage by mistake. Would ya reckon if i bought a 9800 pro it would work? Im seriously pissed off about this btw, the pc is only a month old.

Col_Loki

Ouch 250w is scraping the end of the barrell....... its hard to know, alot depends on the quality of the PSU. Its a dodgy subject, hard to say either way.

One other problem is if you get the card and the PSU cant handle it, you cant just go out and get a new ATX psu as dell normally have there wired differently (such a pain).

On that note, one of my friends built a pc there a couple of weeks back (first timer) and fitted a dell PSU (from one of the newer black tower ones)....... it booted up and seemed to work ok..... is it possible they have standard PSU's on some of there PC's? I know the ones ive had contact were definetly not standard.

Dell............:rolleyes:

L5

what a shower of b*stards. Last time ill buy from them that's for sure. Well i think ill go ahead and give it a try anyway. Sure if it doesn't work ill send it back for a refund.

L5

was looking around on some dell forums there and found this interesting message

"Your 250 watt ps is actually 345 watts Dell just rates their ps on median output while everyone else uses maximum. Your ps is fine for that card. "

Is this true or does it sound like bs?

liamo11

yes it must be- even dell wouldn't ship quite as low as 250, with 345 you should be allright-
what does your pc consist of?

L5

seperate dvd writer, dvd drives, 1 hdd, 512 ram, 2.4 ghz.