ATI 5670 and Dell Inspiron 530

[dhaus]

Thinking of upgrading from my pos geforce 7300s to a Radeon HD 5670 (PCI Exp. 2.0) for my Dell Inspiron 530.  Core2 Duo, 2.33 ghz and the g35/g31/p35 chipset.  I have a 300 watt psu from Dell, but several folks on Tom's Hardware forums swear it can handle that card.  As an aside, the 5670 appears to draw less than 30w at peak draw.  My X52 and pedals are on a powered usb hub, if that makes a difference.  Should I upgrade the psu or just get the 5670?  Is there more information needed?  Thanks for any advice you can throw my way.

[gyrene81]

That Dell power supply is rated at 300 watts peak power and most likely somewhere around 260 watts nominal. All of the 5670 1GB cards on Newegg show 400-450 watts minimum required. Either way, if you're going to push a performance card into a retail system, replace the factory power supply. Pretty much goes hand in hand because they are using the cheapest power supplies they can get.

[guncrasher]

300w can handle the card, but u can't play games with it.  My gateway had a 350w ps and it couldn't fully handle an nvidia 8400.  When I upgraded the ps to a 450w it was like night and day.


Semp

[kilz]

here is a 650w for under a 100 bucks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817255056&cm_re=power_supply-_-17-255-056-_-Product

[Masherbrum]

Running that VC on your current PSU is akin to Russian Roulette.