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Old October 5th 05, 04:15 PM
Leadfoot
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"Benjamin Gawert" wrote in message
...
schrieb:

I have a HP Pavilion I bought last March. I just upgraded my card to a
GeForce 6800 128mb AGP. I opened the case and discovered that my power
supply is only 250W, and the GeForce needs 300W minimum. I contacted HP
and they tell that I cannot upgrade my power supply because I could
damage some components, and that it is "unsafe" to use the GF 6800 in
this system.
Does this sound right to you??


Yes (at least to some extend), but there are other things to consider...

First, Your Pavilion uses a generic PSU (it uses generic components in all
areas). Your Pavilions PSU has 250W. But this doesn't mean it won't run a
GF6800, because the Geforce doesn*t _need_ a 300W PSU. It's however
recommend by most card manufacturers since most standard PSUs aren't very
efficient. There are 250W PSUs that deliver more power than a 350W
el-cheapo power supply. What's more important than the Wattage rating is
how many amps your PSU can deliver on the single rails (12V, 5V, 3.3V
etc).


One very key factor is to verify the 20 pin motherboard plug is compatible
with a standard power supply



If I were you I'd put the card in the computer and ran a few gfx stress
tests (i.e. 3Dmark 2005 in loop mode). If the computer runs stable
everything is fine, if not just get a better PSU...

Benjamin