Complete n00b question about Motherboards and Power Supplies

[EZ_Sillis Spineslicer]

Hi. Just wanted to say I love the show. First time caller.

With that out of the way, I have (probably) a very simple question to answer. I am sick to death of the power supply in this machine and would love to upgrade it. Yeah, yeah, I know I will invalidate the warranty and all that, but this is all hypothetical *cough*

It is a Dell (gasp) Dimension 4550 and currently has a 250w powersupply. I know, how does it even run? I would like to be able to plop in a bigger video card eventually (TI4200 right now, will start to show its age really soon I am sure as it already is a bit long in the tooth).

Sandra says the MoBo is a 82845G/GL/GV Brookdale for you tech info needing types.

When I go to

www.pcpowercooling.com/pr.../index.htm

it recommends a 400w supply. Ok, that is the ballpark I am talking about. Of course Dell informed me that the MoBo is only rated for a 250w supply.

Now, my question is, can this thing handle a bigger powersupply or am I out of luck for upgrading the supply?

As you can tell I am completely clueless when it comes to the nuts and bolts of the machine (aka the MoBo, powersupply, processor etc) and I do not want to fry my machine. Frankly I just do not trust Dell for an answer, as I am sure they just read from a script anyway. I have a feeling when they put me on hold to ask, they found out at that time all the Dells used 250w supplies and came back with that is all the MoBo could handle.

Maybe the fact they had to put me on hold to ask is a clue enough to if they were jerking my chain (aka the "tech" didn't know).

Thanks for any help anyone can give. Ruccus is slowly becoming my hero even though I do not know where to begin to get the information he has on half this stuff. Another question is there a good site to find benchmarks and such? I know Tom's Hardware, but I have looked much there recently. I am sure I will once/if I get serious about a new vid card and all that.

Thanks.

Sillis

[Ruccus]

Last I heard Dells have a proprietary power supply, and not only that they use the same plug as a standard ATX12V power supply except that it's wired differently (meaning you can plug a standard power supply into a dell motherboard or a dell power supply into a standard motherboard, but you're going to fry something).

Don't go by the 'guide' at PC Power & Cooling; it looks like a joke (doesn't ask about graphics, processor, media drives, etc.). Looking at the specs it looks like they are recommending an ATX power supply though, so you should contact Dell and ask them whether your computer uses an ATX power supply or the Dell proprietary power supply.

But to be perfectly honest, unless you're running a 3.4Ghz P4 and GeForceFX 5950 along with a raid array, the 250w power supply should be adequate. You should be able to run even something like a Radeon 9800 in your system (though ATi 'recommends' a 300w power supply, I've read posts from guys with shuttle boxes using a 3Ghz or so P4 and Radeon 9800 Pro. The Shuttle boxes usually use 220w or 250w power supplies).

As for places I like to read up on information:

The Tech Report
AnandTech
[H]ardOCP
Tom's Hardware
Overclockers.com
Ace's Hardware
X-Bit Labs
Digit-Life
Adrian's Rojak Pot
FiringSquad
Beyond3D
ExtremeTech

Though don't treat the above links as gospel; I've disagreed with review, article, and opinion pieces from some of the links above.

[EZ_Sillis Spineslicer]

Ok, thanks a bunch Ruccus.

I am not running anything super high end like that, just a P4 2.4 GhZ with nothing special in it really.

I was looking at the 9600XT (from a different site than amazon, pricegrabber has one for $165 or so) that Casterrealm mentioned and it just had me thinking about potential upgrades.

I think I can dig up the link to the power supply specs if you do not mind looking. Here we go. No worries if you decide not to

docs.us.dell.com/docs/sys...tm#1101836

Otherwise assuming the power supply would work, it would be ok with the MoBo? No frying issues?

Thanks again

[Ruccus]

A P4 2.4 and 9600XT shouldn't be much of a problem at all for a 250w power supply; the 9600XT doesn't even require the extra connector that the Radeon 9500 Pro and Radeon 9700 and higher require, because it doesn't need the extra juice (its .13 micron architecture requires less power than ATi's .15 micron cards).

150w on the +3.3 and +5v lines are standard for that size power supply. Searching Dell's site I found that the 4550 does use a standard ATX power supply, so you can replace it with an aftermarket ATX12V power supply if you choose to do so.

[EZ_Sillis Spineslicer]

Ok great news then. I may go ahead and get the video card and see how it holds up, and as long as it doesn't give me problems, I will pass on the power supply for now.

Next machine though will have at least a 450w power supply, just in case.

Thanks a ton.

[deuce]

Quality in powersupplys are > how big it is. I haven't seen a gamer that really ever needed a 450w powersupply.

I'd take whatever money you save for the 450w and downsize it and aquire a higher quality version, unless of course you buy a high quality 450w ps then well my comments is the suck tonight

[EZ_InvisiBill]

I've also read that the PSU's that Dell uses are underrated. In other words, your 250W might be more comparable to a common 300W PSU. -------------------------
Invissibill
Llibisivni