I want to upgrade my PSU to 450 watts [ Edited ]

[xPHANtastic]

About a year ago I purchased a HP Pavilion Media Center m8724f. I'm planning on buying a Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT so I can start gaming soon, but the problem is that my stock PSU is only 300 watts and the video card needs a minimum of 400 watts. I planning of getting a fairly cheap 450-500 watts PSU. I'm not really good with computers so that's why I'm asking on here. Here is the requirements for the card.

Minimum of a 400 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 26 Amp Amps.)
An available 6 pin PCI-E power connector (hard drive power dongle to PCI-E 6 pin adapter included with card)

My motherboard in my PC is a Asus IPIBL-LB

If anybody could please help me out I would be very thankful. Please email me at [edited] and reply on here. Thanks.

[Big_Dave]

Try this article. 

How to replace a power supply.

Then go to www.newegg.com and search on a ATX modular power supply.  600 watts should be plenty but check the specifications tab as not all power supplies are created equal.  You might find a lesser wattage power supply with a 26 amps 12+ volt rating. Look over the power supply dimensions and then measure your PC's power supply size.

You won't need that dongle with a new power supply as it will have the 6 pin connector.

[Dest]

You should check out the equivalent of a 9800 GT in the ATI 5000 series or NVidia 200 series to see how much lower the wattage requirements are.

[Big_Dave]

Review the ATI and NVIDIA performance specifications. Look at the memory bandwidth specifications and the DirectX level support.

[tigger_jasper]

Can anyone offer any solutions for me? Similar kind of issue,  - just got a HP Compaq dc5750 Small Form Factor PC, 2nd hand on a good deal.  The prob I now have is the micro atx psu appears to be 240W rated.  It has integrated graphics at the moment, and I want to install a low profile pci-e graphics card to facilitate my gaming - however, all the cards I find (even ones I would not particularly associate with gaming) want a minimum 300W supply!  Anyone any experience on upgrading the psu for small form factors (this is my 1st lol), or suggestions on alternate graphics solutions?

[Big_Dave]

trigger_jasper,

Measure the physical size of your power supply.  The standard ATX power supply is 5.5 by 5.9 by 3.4 but there are some slight variances.

[xPHANtastic]

Thank you so much Big Dave for all your help. I'm going to buy a Antec BP550 soon so I can start gaming. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016&cm_re=antec_550-_-17-371-016-_-Produ...

[jamjoy]

Hi,

I purchased a HP p6142p last year.

I wanted to upgrade my psu to at least 450 watts. I did an online chat with hp to find out about the dimensions of the psu I had so I could order one with more wattage.

When I told the hp 'tech' what I was doing, I was told that because of my motherboard, M2N78-LA (Violet), I could not exceed 350 watts. If I did, I would fry it.

So, I setteled for an EVGA GeForce 9500 GT with 512 MB DDR2 that required a minimum of 350 watts. So, I bought a 350 watt psu.

Now, I'm wondering if maybe I could for a faster card and higher wattage psu?

Does anyone know if that is possible or is it true about the motherboard issue.

Thanks

[Big_Dave]

You should not have a problem with a bigger power supply. However, I have seen where some video cards don't seen to work with some of the HP 6xxx model PCs.   Your PC with a 350 watt PSU should be able to handle the EVGA NVIDIA 240 GT 1 gb GDDR5.  Perhaps you want to exchange your video card.  What power supply did you get and does it have a big fan?

[jamjoy]

Hi Dave,

I purchased the Antec Basiq 350 watt.

I was staying within the 350 watt limit of the HP chat-tech.

According to the specs the fan is 1 x 80 mm.

Thanks