300 watt power supply enough??

I'm looking to upgrade my video card but many of the Nvidia cards require at
least a 350 watt power supply. In my HP computer it has just a 300 watt
power supply. What would happen if I insalled a card that needed 350 watts
I only have 300? Would the card or computer get fried or blown up? Thanks
very much!!

wrote:
I'm looking to upgrade my video card but many of the Nvidia cards require at
least a 350 watt power supply. In my HP computer it has just a 300 watt
power supply. What would happen if I insalled a card that needed 350 watts
I only have 300? Would the card or computer get fried or blown up? Thanks
very much!!

If you examine the label on the side of the supply, you'll find there
is more to it than some "total power" rating. Each individual DC output
has a rating too.

You can work out, after a fashion, how much 12V your computer uses.
On modern systems, the majority of the loading is on the 12V rail.
So the rating of the 12V rail may be crucial to deciding whether
a new toy can be added to the computer or not.

Xbitlabs has measured a number of actual video cards, and you can get
numbers for the DC current flow of the video card from there.

Since you provide no particulars for your problem, like a complete
hardware inventory, what old and new video card is being used,
it is hard to advise further.

In terms of the consequences of overloading a supply.

1) Cheap supplies and quality supplies may differ in the
degree of protection afforded, in the event of a failure.
2) Supplies have thermal protection. When they get too hot,
they may shut off. Exceeding the total power or individual
ratings, could cause it to overheat.
3) If the DC rating of a rail is exceeded, generally it takes
a 30% overload, before the overcurrent circuit shuts off the
supply. If the supply had 12V @ 10A, and you drew 13A from it,
the overcurrent might decide to trip.

(2) or (3) cause no damage.

If the supply output voltage starts to drop, the computer could crash
in response. So you don't always get a neat and tidy sudden switchoff.
Maybe you see instability instead.

Really cheap supplies can pop, belch smoke, and actually take
out the motherboard when they fail. A cheap supply may not have
the necessary protection features.

A company like HP is probably more concerned about class action
suits, and litigious customers. So maybe their stuff won't
disappear in a cloud of smoke.

Paul

Wolrst that would happen is you get a message telling not enough power or
you'll get freezing.

wrote in message
m...
I'm looking to upgrade my video card but many of the Nvidia cards require
at
least a 350 watt power supply. In my HP computer it has just a 300 watt
power supply. What would happen if I insalled a card that needed 350
watts
I only have 300? Would the card or computer get fried or blown up?
Thanks
very much!!

Adequately sized supplies are inexpensive so spend a couple bucks and get a
supply rated for the task at hand.
Charlie
-ps some PC's do not use standard ATX-type supplies (like some Dells) so
make sure
the new supply is the right configuration for your particular pc's chassis
mounting and AC plug location


"don't look" don't wrote in message
...
Wolrst that would happen is you get a message telling not enough power or
you'll get freezing.

wrote in message
m...
I'm looking to upgrade my video card but many of the Nvidia cards require
at
least a 350 watt power supply. In my HP computer it has just a 300 watt
power supply. What would happen if I insalled a card that needed 350
watts
I only have 300? Would the card or computer get fried or blown up?
Thanks
very much!!

On Wed, 09 May 2007 23:07:23 GMT, "don't look" don't
wrote:

Wolrst that would happen is you get a message telling not enough power or
you'll get freezing.


Even good supplies don't always fail nice.
I overloaded one (400 watts) that was supposed to be good quality and
the only thing left on the motherboard still good was the RAM.

Conversely I had one fail multiple times until I discovered the
problem was one of the fans. I also found in one instance I was
running so near the edge adding one case fan was the difference
between running and not running. The extra load of that one fan
(which aint much) on that rail was enough to prevent the computer
from even starting.

wrote in message
om...
I'm looking to upgrade my video card but many of the Nvidia cards require
at
least a 350 watt power supply. In my HP computer it has just a 300 watt
power supply. What would happen if I insalled a card that needed 350
watts
I only have 300? Would the card or computer get fried or blown up?
Thanks
very much!!

On Wed, 9 May 2007 20:26:16 GMT, wrote:

I'm looking to upgrade my video card but many of the Nvidia cards require at
least a 350 watt power supply. In my HP computer it has just a 300 watt
power supply. What would happen if I insalled a card that needed 350 watts
I only have 300? Would the card or computer get fried or blown up? Thanks
very much!!

Depends which Hp you have. A friend of mine has some gawd awful HP
son of satan product that craps out if you even put in more memory.

It was some kind of art project for an Hp engineer on cocaine.

Hey I guess you don't read the business section, but HP is not the
kind of product you want to buy.

art critic wrote:
On Wed, 9 May 2007 20:26:16 GMT, wrote:


I'm looking to upgrade my video card but many of the Nvidia cards require at
least a 350 watt power supply. In my HP computer it has just a 300 watt
power supply. What would happen if I insalled a card that needed 350 watts
I only have 300? Would the card or computer get fried or blown up? Thanks
very much!!


Depends which Hp you have. A friend of mine has some gawd awful HP
son of satan product that craps out if you even put in more memory.

It was some kind of art project for an Hp engineer on cocaine.

Hey I guess you don't read the business section, but HP is not the
kind of product you want to buy.



But the stock is.

You could very well damage the video card AND many of the other components
in your system due to the unstable voltages that would result from
overstraining your PSU. Not a good idea, as they told you.

--

DaveW

___________
wrote in message
m...
I'm looking to upgrade my video card but many of the Nvidia cards require
at
least a 350 watt power supply. In my HP computer it has just a 300 watt
power supply. What would happen if I insalled a card that needed 350
watts
I only have 300? Would the card or computer get fried or blown up?
Thanks
very much!!

On Thu, 10 May 2007 06:38:44 -0400, No One
wrote:

art critic wrote:
On Wed, 9 May 2007 20:26:16 GMT, wrote:


I'm looking to upgrade my video card but many of the Nvidia cards require at
least a 350 watt power supply. In my HP computer it has just a 300 watt
power supply. What would happen if I insalled a card that needed 350 watts
I only have 300? Would the card or computer get fried or blown up? Thanks
very much!!


Depends which Hp you have. A friend of mine has some gawd awful HP
son of satan product that craps out if you even put in more memory.

It was some kind of art project for an Hp engineer on cocaine.

Hey I guess you don't read the business section, but HP is not the
kind of product you want to buy.



But the stock is.

LOL. You were warned