SG Broadband Community

I am doing some upgrades on my computer and decided that my 250w power supply aint going to cut it.

I'm looking at probably 500w range, but I don't know anything about them.

Questions:

1. If I order a power supply, do all of the cables come with?

2. Is there anything that I should be looking for, in a power supply.

3. What is your preference in power supplies, and will I get into any trouble going for the cheapest.

4. What about fans, do I need to worry about fan placement or number or type.


I'm upgrading an old Dell 8100, P4 2.0. I think it just uses the standard hookups w/ four pin plugs.

I would probably been OK but my new video card needs power to it as well.

OH YEAH (What could happen if I tried to hookup my vid card w/o good enough power supply?

kalbster wrote:I am doing some upgrades on my computer and decided that my 250w power supply aint going to cut it.

I'm looking at probably 500w range, but I don't know anything about them.

Questions:

1. If I order a power supply, do all of the cables come with?

2. Is there anything that I should be looking for, in a power supply.

3. What is your preference in power supplies, and will I get into any trouble going for the cheapest.

4. What about fans, do I need to worry about fan placement or number or type.


I'm upgrading an old Dell 8100, P4 2.0. I think it just uses the standard hookups w/ four pin plugs.

I would probably been OK but my new video card needs power to it as well.

OH YEAH (What could happen if I tried to hookup my vid card w/o good enough power supply?

should come with everything you need.....finding one to fit the dell case might be tricky.....Antec i guess would be the most common store brand you'd see...i own 2 and they've held up nicely

For that dell your looking at a issue with the case.. most ATX power supplys have the on/off button in the back at which Dells case won't allow it to fit so you will either have to cut a hole in the back to put a normal ATX PS in it or do like I did with my 8200 and get a Pcpower and cooling PS and put in it..they make some models that fit perfect in these dell computers.

http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/ ... lies/dell/

Now if you try to run a video card without enough power it just won't work or will give all kinds of errors and junk.. I wouldn't recommend under powering your computer parts this will hurt them..always best to have one that has more power than what you need since they regulate themselves.

Thanks, I'm glad I asked. I found some great deals on P/S some less than $30.

I don't mind modding my case a bit but this link sure looks like the easy way out.

kalbster wrote:Thanks, I'm glad I asked. I found some great deals on P/S some less than $30.

I don't mind modding my case a bit but this link sure looks like the easy way out.

ohh yeah very easy.. just unplug your old cables from everything(remember what was plugged in where---- picture helps if you take one to look at)

Then unscrew the screws holding old one in.. pull it out and push new one in.. attach cables back to same places your other one is.. your new one will have better lookin cables and routed better so take your time with putting them in certain spots so as to not hurt airflow in the case. Double check everything to be hooked up right and your done.

Thanks for your time.

The picture idea is a great one, I'm always tearing apart stuff and fixing it and there has been a time or two when a good digital photo would have saved me a lot of time.

I'm doing my semi-anual upgrade on my old 8100. Just topped off the memory(Rambus is way too spendy). Got a PNY GeForce 6800 GT. and a Plextor px-716a. I'm sure that's all I can get away with for a while.

just thought i'd put my 2cents worth in-i just yesterday put a 550watt power box in my unit reason was it was freezing up all the time 'cause the lad was using it flat out-now the unit is working perfectly, it has a monster of a fan but surprisingly it is quiet-everything is running as it should with the temp now running at 38deg cel-i was told by the tech that the higher wattage willnot harm added cards etc.
bega

Yeah examine the back of your Dell case carefully...many of their models use an oddball power supply with the power cable plug in a different corner than standard ATX power supplies. Note in the picture Save linked above...where you'd plug the power cord into the supply is in the lower right corner..or upper left corner depending on how your mount it in the case. Well...more standard ATX power supplies would have it in the upper right corner in the picture, which would have it in the lower left corner in most mountings. On many standard ATX cases it wouldn't matter since the cutout allows most of the power supply to stick through...but many Dell cases have cutouts only for the fan, and the power in jack.