I've been wanting to upgrade my Dell's graphics card for a while now (it's a Radeon X300). I was thinking of the Sapphire X1950 Pro (PCIe). Looks to be a good price and with good performance. However, i'm concerned about the power supply in the machine, which is a Dell PSU at 305 Watts.
Apparently the x1950 Pro is only double the current card in Watts (from 33 to 66) used. However the spec for the card recommends a 400-450 Watt PSU.
Fine I thought, I was about to buy a Corsair HX 520W ( http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=823 ). But before I pulled the trigger I did a quick Google for 'changing Dell power supply' or something like that and found some threads saying that some Dell models carry proprietary PSUs that have different connectors to the Motherboard (not industry standard ATX). I know that this was the case from 1996 to 2000, but it is a little ambiguous as to whether this may still be the case for a Dimension 5000 bought in 2005.
I only really want to play Valve games (TF2, HL2) so nothing ultra demanding. I thought the x1950 Pro would be a good choice - but i'm not sure what to do now. Wether I can just put this card in the machine no problems, or whether I have to change the PSU?
My current spec:
Dell Dimension 5000 (purchased 2005)
P4 (Prescott) 3Ghz
2Gb RAM
Radeon X300 graphics card
1 x DVD-ROM
1 x DVD/CD Burner
1 x 160Gb 7200rpm HD
Motherboard: Intel Grantsdale-G i915G
Apparently the x1950 Pro is only double the current card in Watts (from 33 to 66) used. However the spec for the card recommends a 400-450 Watt PSU.
Fine I thought, I was about to buy a Corsair HX 520W ( http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=823 ). But before I pulled the trigger I did a quick Google for 'changing Dell power supply' or something like that and found some threads saying that some Dell models carry proprietary PSUs that have different connectors to the Motherboard (not industry standard ATX). I know that this was the case from 1996 to 2000, but it is a little ambiguous as to whether this may still be the case for a Dimension 5000 bought in 2005.
I only really want to play Valve games (TF2, HL2) so nothing ultra demanding. I thought the x1950 Pro would be a good choice - but i'm not sure what to do now. Wether I can just put this card in the machine no problems, or whether I have to change the PSU?
My current spec:
Dell Dimension 5000 (purchased 2005)
P4 (Prescott) 3Ghz
2Gb RAM
Radeon X300 graphics card
1 x DVD-ROM
1 x DVD/CD Burner
1 x 160Gb 7200rpm HD
Motherboard: Intel Grantsdale-G i915G