How to get another year from my Dell?

Didihno

Hello and welcome.
On todays show we have a man on death row, actually not death row as such, he's getting married next summer.....

Anyhoo, heres my problem.
I have a Dell 8200. She's a sweet old girl and we all know in the house that she's like granny sitting in the corner in the rocking chair, just playing out the days. I've upgraded the original 64mb geforce to a 128mb Radeon, and bumped the ram from 384(!!!) to 1gb of that ridiculous rambus stuff.
How I got stung into buying that crap is beyond me, actually it's not, I just didn't know any better. So I can't buy a new PC till probably next Christmas and I need to know how to get another year out of this one, playing Q4 and CS online etc is just no fun.

So is there anyone out there who has rebuilt/upgraded this machine or similar to something decent, or how can I get that elusive last year. I know I'll have to get a better card at the very least, but I have to open her up to see if theres an AGP slot or I'm screwed. (old PCI cards are hard to find, even on ebay!)

Please help uber IT people!
Your lesser educmacated cousin needs you!

Khannie

1GB of ram should be fine for playing those games.

Can you be more specific about the graphics card?

What processor is in the box?

Dell don't usually offer much in terms of an upgrade path for your processor.

jor el

If it's AGP capable then getting even a half decent card like a GF6600GT would let you play almost anything at reasonable performance, and for about €150. 1G RAM (even RAMBUS) should be fine. What's the processor? I presume it's P3, in which case it'll probably be OK. Try and get a higher speed P3 if you can, that's about all you can do I'd say.

BigEejit

dell 8100 and 8200 are p4's ... pc800 rambus is the same performance as ddr400

afaik the 8100 was skt423 CPU and the 8200 is skt478 CPU but i dont know for sure ...

go to the dell support website and with a bit of digging you can find a place where you can enter your service tag (stuck to the back of the box) and you can find out what it was originally shipped with (CPU and motherboard) ... post them up here and you may get more help

Most likely only agp 4x too

commited

It'll be a P4 - all rambus were as bigeejit said.

If it's a Socket 478, the upgrade path is clear to 3.2 as long as your motherboard is compatible. If its 423, adapters are available.
You could also get a P-M dothan..

Graphics card wise, you almost certainly have an AGP - a decent upgrade would be an X800GTO or 6600GT..

My 3400+, 1gb with a Radeon 9700 plays Quake 4 fine so a 2.8 with a slightly better graphics card (even 9800pro) would be fine I'd imagine.

hobie

Could this Dell setup realistically be turned into a decent games machine ? .....

this is a printout from Dell after giving them the Service tag (as mentioned by Big E') ......

1 0252P LABEL, BOX, PENTIUM III
1 0441T PROCESSOR MODULE, 80526, 600, 256K, 100FSB, SLT1
1 2053C ASSEMBLY, BRACKET, RTNR MOD, 2.0
1 3338D ASSEMBLY, CHASSIS, DESKTOP, DIMENSION, POWER SUPPLY, EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
1 4377U BADGE, DIMENSION, XPS-T600r, BLACK
1 5613D ASSEMBLY, GASKET, DIMENSION, W/O-SND, KLINGER
1 6725T ASSEMBLY, HEATSINK, SECC2, KLINGER
1 67RYC CARD (CIRCUIT), PLANAR (MOTHERBOARD), NO AUDIO, TXXXr, COPPERMINE, FIX
1 8640T PLACEMAT, GETTING STARTED, B/TXXX, NO SOUND, EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
1 27JRX CAMERA, C200, HEWLETT PACKARD, C7294AA#ABU, UNITED KINGDOM
1 1882E ASSEMBLY, BRACKET, FAN, CLIP, KLINGER, DIMENSION
1 55669 BRACKET, MBD MOUNTING, STADLEDNINGSTONTORET STOCKHOLMS STAD
1 7678C SHROUD, FAN, CLIP, KLINGER
1 98209 BEZEL ASSEMBLY, PLASTIC, DESKTOP, PICASSO, EUROPEAN MANUFACTURING FACILITY
1 26019 PAD, MOUSE, CANADA/CANADIAN
1 0136T SYSTEM INTEGRATION, DELLWARE, CABLE, PRINTER/PRINTER ACCESSORIES, UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS
1 1445T MODULE, PRINTER/PRINTER ACCESSORIES, DJ815C, C6411C#ABU, HEWLETT PACKARD
1 74HUW CARD (CIRCUIT), MULTI-MEDIA, AUDIO, CREATIVE LOW, PCI64V, DIMENSION
1 57589 CABLE, AUDIO, MOLEX TO MOLEX
1 7454T DIGITAL VIDEO DISK DRIVE, 680M, 8X, I, 5.25" FORM FACTOR, SAMSUNG
1 98483 CABLE, DORADO/ATHENS/TUALATIN/ALMODOR, COMPACT DISK DRIVE, ENHANCED INTEGRATED DRIVE ELECTRONICS, DUAL, KLINGER
1 3862X MODEM, V90, INTERNAL, DATA FAX VOICE MODEMS, AZT, REST OF WORLD, DIMENSION, RE-SPIN
1 5740C CABLE, AUXILIARY, INTERNAL, MODEM, 4C
1 69MFG KIT, MODEM, V90, DATA FAX VOICE MODEMS, IRE/SPN/LUX, RE-SPIN
1 2715T MODULE, PRINTER/PRINTER ACCESSORIES, HEWLETT PACKARD, SJ4200, C7177A#ABU
1 25515 DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 128, 100M, 16X64, 4K, 168
1 3884D FLOPPY DRIVE, 1.44M, 3.5" FORM FACTOR, NO BEZEL, SONY
1 98480 CABLE, DORADO/ATHENS/TUALATIN/ALMODOR, FLOPPY DRIVE, KLINGER
1 6833T INFORMATION, OFFICE 2000 UPGRADE
1 7418T KIT, SOFTWARE, OFFICE SBE 2000, ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MFGR., UNITED STATES, REVB
1 0040U CARD (CIRCUIT), VIDEO, 32MB, NVIDIA, M64, DIMENSION
1 8801T KIT, DOCUMENTATON ON FLOPPY DISK, WINDOWS 98, OSR1, ENGLAND/ENGLISH
1 50XFR HARD DRIVE, 15G, I, 1N, NO CONTROLLER/NO CABLES, QTM-EAG10, GENERIC
1 5828D CBL ASSY, ATA66, 2DROP, KLINGER
1 16583 CORD, POWER, 2 METERS, IRE/UK
1 29670 LABEL, MADE IN EUR, CLEAR, SMALL DESK TOP
1 55XMT TECHNICAL SHEET, DIM-NWSLTR, REGIONAL, EUROPE/EUROPEAN, ENGLAND/ENGLISH
1 6003P KIT, DOCUMENTATION, TXXX, ENGLAND/ENGLISH, EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
1 7657U KIT, COMPACT DISKETTE, SOFTWARE, DIGITAL VIDEO DISK DRIVE, 4X, DIMENSION
1 16583 CORD, POWER, 2 METERS, IRE/UK
1 6950R MODULE, DISPLAY, MULTISCAN, 17, M770, IRE/UK
1 1377P COMPACT DISKETTE, BLANK, COMPACT DISKETTE WRITER, 1X/4X
1 139DJ KIT, COMPACT DISKETTE, COMPACT DISK READ WRITE, ADAPTEC, SOFTWARE, V3.5C
1 40NPY COMPACT DISK DRIVE, COMPACT DISK READ WRITE, 680M, I, 5.25" FORM FACTOR, 8/4/32X, SONY
1 4377P COMPACT DISKETTE, BLANK, COMPACT DISK RECORDABLE, 1-PK
1 45YVC MOUSE, PERSONAL SYSTEM 2, 6P, 2BTN/WHL, CAP-FIX, MICROSOFT
1 7051P KIT, MOUSE, DRIVER, V2.2C, MULTIPLE
1 5340D KEYBOARD, 105, 6P, UNITED KINGDOM, NMB, RUBBERDOME
1 9886P MODULE, SPEAKER, MULTI-MEDIA, 240V, ACS340, UNITED KINGDOM

What would I need to do and how much (approx) ....

commited

Care to put that into english?

From what i can make out its a P3 600 with a 32mb graphics card.

Dont even bother trying to make it into a "games machine" - its about 6 years old and worth about €50

Didihno

OK lads, thanks for the help so far.
So I got home and opened her up.
I nearly **** my eyeballs out.
Not only is the card a 256mb radeon 9250, but its in an agp slot.
I thought I knew my own machine.
Very embarrasing.

Ahyhoo, yes its a P4 2ghz with 1 gb rambus.
And now a 256 radeon (with the latest catalyst drivers as of last week) to boot.
So why the hell am I getting jittery performance in Q4?

Someone mentioned a couple of cards above I might invest in, can you clarify on those mate before i head over to ebay? also what does the path being open to 3.2 mean?

commited

That radeon is an awful card - depending on what 64mb card you had in there before, it might not have even been an upgrade.
Its not the amount of video mem that matters, but the chip you have.

You should deffo change that card - make that a priority. A 128mb Ati 9800pro can be picked up cheap enough on ebay or on the FS forum. Also look at the nvidia 6600GT if you're feeling flush. Avoid the nvidia FX5xxx series of cards.
Any idea what socket your chip is? http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpu-z-131.zip - download that and find out..
If it is socket 478 - they made P4s up to 3.2ghz that will fit, but whether or not your motherboard will support them is another issue.

Didihno

Here it is (and ive edited out some stuff already)

Microprocessor

Intel® Pentium® 4 microprocessor

2.00(400 MHz)

L1 cache
8 KB first-level

L2 cache
256-KB or 512-KB (displayed in the system setup program) pipelined-burst, eight-way set associative, write-back SRAM



System Information

System chip set
Intel 850 or 850E

DMA channels
eight

Interrupt levels
15

System BIOS chip
4 Mb (512 KB)

System clock
400- or 533- MHz data rate



Expansion Bus

Bus types
PCI and AGP

Bus speed
PCI: 33 MHz; AGP: 66 MHz

AGP connector
one

AGP connector size
172 pins

AGP connector data width (maximum)
32 bits

AGP bus protocols
4x/2x modes at 1.5 V

PCI connectors
four

PCI connector size
120 pins

PCI connector data width
(maximum)
32 bits



Memory

Architecture
RDRAM

Memory connectors
four

Memory capacities
64-, 128-, 256-, and 512-MB non-ECC RDRAM

Minimum memory
128 MB

Maximum memory
2 GB with Microsoft® Windows® 2000 and Windows XP; 512 MB with Windows Millennium Edition (Me)

Memory type
PC800 (non-ECC)

Memory speed
40 ns or faster

BIOS address
F8000h




Ports and Connectors

Externally accessible:

Serial
9-pin connector; 16550C-compatible

Parallel
25-hole connector (bidirectional)

Video
15-hole connector

Keyboard
6-pin mini-DIN connector or USB connector

Mouse
6-pin mini-DIN connector or USB connector

Internally accessible:

Primary IDE channel
40-pin connector on PCI local bus

Secondary IDE channel
40-pin connector on PCI local bus

Video

Video controller
AGP 4X



Power

DC power supply:

Wattage
250 W

Heat dissipation
534 BTU (fully-loaded computer without monitor)

Voltage (switch-selectable
on back panel)
90 to 135 V at 60 Hz; 180 to 265 V at 50 Hz;
100 V at 50 to 60 Hz for Japanese computers

Backup battery
3-V CR2032 coin cell

commited

Install that CPU-Z program - it'll give you the socket number..

commited

You could do worse then an upgrade to one of the 2.8ghz Celeron D's (the 335)

Didihno

commited wrote:

That radeon is an awful card - depending on what 64mb card you had in there before, it might not have even been an upgrade.
Its not the amount of video mem that matters, but the chip you have.

You should deffo change that card - make that a priority. A 128mb Ati 9800pro can be picked up cheap enough on ebay or on the FS forum. Also look at the nvidia 6600GT if you're feeling flush. Avoid the nvidia FX5xxx series of cards.
Any idea what socket your chip is? http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpu-z-131.zip - download that and find out..
If it is socket 478 - they made P4s up to 3.2ghz that will fit, but whether or not your motherboard will support them is another issue.

Great stuff - it is a 478 socket.
I hear you on the card, consider it scrapped, it was a 64mb gforce card that I dumped, but the performance difference was incredible so i think it was a step up at the time.

Endurance Man

Get a new GFX card and you will be fine to play Quake and Cs . What budget do you have for it?

commited

Quake 4 is fairly processor intensive from what I hear..

http://cgi.ebay.ie/INTEL-CELERON-D-2-8-GHZ-256-533-SL7NW-skt-478_W0QQitemZ6829537687QQcategoryZ14293QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Something along those lines is worth a sniff - you'll be able to sell your existing P4 too..
And this:
http://cgi.ebay.ie/SAPPHIRE-RADEON-9800-PRO-128MB-DDR-Complete-Package_W0QQitemZ8733289695QQcategoryZ27387QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Those two will have you sorted I'd say.

Should give you 60fps on 800x600

commited

Quake 4 minimum specs

Minimum system requirements:
-English version of Microsoft Windows 2000/XP
-Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or Athlon XP 2000+ processor
-512MB RAM
-8x Speed CD-ROM drive and latest drivers
-2.8GB of uncompressed hard disk space (plus 400MB for Windows swap file)
-100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 16-bit soundcard and latest drivers
-100% Windows 2000/XP compatible mouse, keyboard and latest drivers
-DirectX 9.0c (included)
-3D hardware accelerator card required
-100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 64MB
-Hardware accelerated video card and the latest drivers

-ATI Radeon 9700
-ATI Radeon 9800
-ATI Radeon X300 series
-ATI Radeon X550 series
-ATI Radeon X600 series
-ATI Radeon X700 series
-ATI Radeon X800 series
-ATI Radeon X850 series
-Nvidia GeForce 3/Ti Series

Multiplayer requirements:
-Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported
-Internet play requires broadband connection and latest drivers
-LAN play requires network interface card and latest drivers

2.4Ghz & a gig of ram is the recommended "min" spec however

Endurance Man

commited wrote:

Quake 4 is fairly processor intensive from what I hear..

http://cgi.ebay.ie/INTEL-CELERON-D-2-8-GHZ-256-533-SL7NW-skt-478_W0QQitemZ6829537687QQcategoryZ14293QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Something along those lines is worth a sniff - you'll be able to sell your existing P4 too..
And this:
http://cgi.ebay.ie/SAPPHIRE-RADEON-9800-PRO-128MB-DDR-Complete-Package_W0QQitemZ8733289695QQcategoryZ27387QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Those two will have you sorted I'd say.

Nooooo, are you crazy :eek: , dont buy a bloody celeron, taking 2 steps back there. Didnt realise you wanted Q4, i would say just a standard P4 3.0 chip will do you if you can afford it .
What kind of money are we talking here? 200?300?

Didihno

How doe these sound? ati is €60 at the moment on ebay.

ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro 128MB DDR, AGP 8X Video Card

Gigabyte AGP G-Force 6600 256mb silent pipe

eVGA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB DDR3 AGP DVI TV Video Card

commited

Endurance Man wrote:

Nooooo, are you crazy :eek: , dont buy a bloody celeron, taking 2 steps back there. Didnt realise you wanted Q4, i would say just a standard P4 3.0 chip will do you if you can afford it .
What kind of money are we talking here? 200?300?

First of all.. he said he's broke... (the 478 high end p4s are going for mad money)
Second of all - the new cellys have 256kb cache - their more then up to the job. It'll beat his 2.0ghz p4 into the ground as they are fundamentally rebadged P4s..
http://images.tomshardware.com/2005/11/21/the_mother_of_all_cpu_charts_2005/cpu_table_intel_big.gif - see here


Didihno - the 6600GT would be the best out of them I'd say... Just buy the best you can afford..
P.S - run CPU-Z and tell us your cache sizes

Didihno

Actually I hadn't thought about upgrading the chip, but if it means good gaming for another year then I can look out for a bargain, once I know what I'm looking for!

Endurance Man

commited wrote:

First of all.. he said he's broke... (the 478 high end p4s are going for mad money)
Second of all - the new cellys have 256kb cache - their more then up to the job. It'll beat his 2.0ghz p4 into the ground as they are fundamentally rebadged P4s..
http://images.tomshardware.com/2005/11/21/the_mother_of_all_cpu_charts_2005/cpu_table_intel_big.gif - see here


Didihno - the 6600GT would be the best out of them I'd say... Just buy the best you can afford..
P.S - run CPU-Z and tell us your cache sizes

Im getting new 3.0ghz P4 for a little over 100euro, hardly crazy money.
The 6600Gt is your best bet there Didhno, good card .
You best check what power PSU you have, those dell things are really crap and are usually just powerful enough to power what they put in the machine. I was chatting to a guy last nite who added 3 fans to his dell psu and it wouldnt start :v:

hobie

Dont even bother trying to make it into a "games machine" - its about 6 years old and worth about €50

yep, 5 years and 10 months to be exact ..... and it only cost me 2,405 punts and 48 pence ..... what's that in funny money? ..... about three thousand euro or so

Didihno

L1 data cache 8kb
L2 cache (on chip) 512kb

Does that sound right, that program gives a shedload other info too.

commited

Endurance Man wrote:

Im getting new 3.0ghz P4 for a little over 100euro, hardly crazy money.
The 6600Gt is your best bet there Didhno, good card .
You best check what power PSU you have, those dell things are really crap and are usually just powerful enough to power what they put in the machine. I was chatting to a guy last nite who added 3 fans to his dell psu and it wouldnt start :v:

Is the P4 you're getting Skt 478, cos if so you're getting a bargain from what I've been seeing.
If you see a cheap 2.8/3ghz p4 on ebay obviously go for it..

As Endurance man says power supply could be an issue, best check that.

Endurance Man

commited wrote:

Is the P4 you're getting Skt 478, cos if so you're getting a bargain from what I've been seeing.
If you see a cheap 2.8/3ghz p4 on ebay obviously go for it..

As Endurance man says power supply could be an issue, best check that.

Iv got 6 of them on the shelf behind me , they are socket 478. The reason these punks are charging so much is they are stopping the production of the 478 chip so they are gonna be in demand.

Didihno any idea what power PSU is in that thing?

commited

Sell this dude one of them then
Are P1s worth anything then - they arent producing them anymore & I have a load of them

Didihno

According to that dell site the spec for this pc was to include a 250w psu.
I'm guessing thats really really poor.

Hey I don't suppose youre selling one of those chips cough cough season of goodwill etc etc.

If not the celeron d seems to be dirt cheap on ebay.

Endurance Man

Wish i could m8, ill have a chat with my dad and maybe i can get you a 2.8 chip cheap cheap .
I dont think that psu is going to do though , not if you put a 6600gt in.

commited

Thats fairly poor yes - if its a high quality 250w psu then you might be ok.

If powers an issue the "Nvidia GeForce 3/Ti Series" might be easier on the PSU

Didihno

OK so am I looking at a new psu?

hows this chip:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6831160514&fromMakeTrack=true

Endurance Man

Didihno wrote:

OK so am I looking at a new psu?

hows this chip:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6831160514&fromMakeTrack=true

That would be perfect if the bidding doesnt go to crazy. I will get you a price on a 2.8 shortly and see if i can get it for you .
You will need a new psu, doenst have to be anything fancy though, can pick up something cheap off komplett .

Endurance Man

Hey, theres a guy selling a 2.4 chip in the For Sale section, he's looking for 85 but you could get him to 60-70

Didihno

OK get me a price please.

Is there any restrictions on a psu for me?

And one more thing (starting to sound like Columbo!) when looking at those new chips, does the fsb of 800 matter, even though my present one is slower?

Thanks a lot you guys, I've learned a lot this past few hours, you've been an education!!!

Endurance Man

Didihno wrote:

OK get me a price please.

Is there any restrictions on a psu for me?

And one more thing (starting to sound like Columbo!) when looking at those new chips, does the fsb of 800 matter, even though my present one is slower?

Thanks a lot you guys, I've learned a lot this past few hours, you've been an education!!!

Not really sure about that, the board might have a limit on the FSB. Anyone no how we could check this?

commited

Your motherboard only supports 400/533 fsb, so limit yourself to these processors.
PSU wise - Dell generally dont use bespoke connections so buying a PSU might be a nightmare.

I personally wouldnt bother upgrading from 2.0ghz to 2.4, upgrade to 2.8 as a minimum...

Didihno

Then theres this one?
Time running out though!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6830568342&fromMakeTrack=true

Endurance Man

Didihno wrote:

Then theres this one?
Time running out though!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6830568342&fromMakeTrack=true

That would work fine .

commited

Yeah as long as it doesnt go about £70-75

Obelisk29

I've also got an 8200 and if you're ever willing to sell the RAM give me a shout!

sorry for being o/t

Didihno

Will putting an 8x agp card into the machine work, but work at only 4x speed, or will there be a nuclear explosion similar to mixing beef madras and Guinness?

Didihno

Bump, I'm buying tonight hopefully:

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8733289695&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

Also possibly this:

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6830023964&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1
Suitable?

Khannie

That's a good graphics card. Very solid. Had one myself for about a year.

On the processor front: Make sure your machine's bios will support a 2.8GHz processor (phone dell and ask them what your machine will support, or check for bios upgrades).

If it does, then a 2.8GHz P4 with a gig of ram and a 9800 pro will run most games reasonably nicely. If you don't get the 9800 pro in the end, I'd try and get a 6600GT if you could. It's noticeably better for most games than the 9800 pro. (Not knocking the 9800 pro mind you).

Khannie

Oh, or you could check the for sale boards here. Usually a fair few AGP cards for sale because of people upgrading.

Edit: The 6600GT may be limited by the 4X AGP, but the 9800 pro probably wont be (noticeably).

Didihno

Khannie wrote:

Oh, or you could check the for sale boards here. Usually a fair few AGP cards for sale because of people upgrading.

Edit: The 6600GT may be limited by the 4X AGP, but the 9800 pro probably wont be (noticeably).

Thanks Khannie,
Yeah I'm just worried about buying the 8x cards in case they won't work or arent worth it because of my 4x limitation.

This upgrade is snowballing!!! Am I looking at a new motherboard??!!!
I'm already going to buy a new psu to deal with the extra power needed.
A 305w one from another dell machine seems a safe bet. Got one lined up for £15stg, is this a good price?

Oh well, if nothing else, i've learned a load of stuff from you lot.

Khannie

The 4x limit probably wont noticeably affect performance. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong there).

If you're looking at a full on upgrade, then do it properly...not in bits and pieces, and not in your dell box.

Good luck!

jor el

The AGP 8x card should work fine at 4x, they're normally (always?) backward compatable, usually to 2x.

A 305w one from another dell machine seems a safe bet. Got one lined up for £15stg, is this a good price?

If that's a typo and you mean to say 350W then that should do. If it really is 305W then no, you'll want 350W or greater. The graphics card will have a molex connector on it thet you'll need to plug power into.

Khannie

The dell PSU's are reportedly pretty decent. Check the power calculator (link is in the useful websites sticky) to make sure.

Didihno

jor el wrote:

The AGP 8x card should work fine at 4x, they're normally (always?) backward compatable, usually to 2x.

If that's a typo and you mean to say 350W then that should do. If it really is 305W then no, you'll want 350W or greater. The graphics card will have a molex connector on it thet you'll need to plug power into.

Nope, not a typo.
So I've got to find a 350w.
Anybody know how much I can expect to pay for one?
Also why can't I buy any old psu, someone said yesterday that the dell would only take a certain type.
If anyone knows which type this is that would be a help!

Didihno

Khannie wrote:

The dell PSU's are reportedly pretty decent. Check the power calculator (link is in the useful websites sticky) to make sure.

Its a 250w psu Khannie, is this sufficient to run the card, pc(80gb hd) and probably a new 160 hd also?

Khannie

Didihno wrote:

Also why can't I buy any old psu, someone said yesterday that the dell would only take a certain type.
If anyone knows which type this is that would be a help!

AFAIK, Dell computers only take Dell PSU's. I'd google that though. I'm sure you can get non-dell replacements.

I'll have a quick look at the power calc for you.

Khannie

ok...I come out at 273W. Check it out yourself though. You'd know more about your own computer than me.

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp