C521 & XFX GeForce 8400GS, is 280W big enough?

Hi traifin, Your ok with that card. Although your PSU says 280w, Dell PSU are under stated , where manufactors always over state the power needed for their cards. My PSU is 250w, but i can run the ATI HD 4550 which according to ATI needs 300w.

Hi,

I've been running the Galaxy 9600 GT 512MB DDR3 low profile in my C521 for the last few months no problem. I did check everything through, inside and out with a multi-meter.

All ok :-)

Runs all the latest games on max settings.

Hi,

I have been thinking of updating my C521 with a 9600 GT. Was most interested in your comments. Is the card still working OK?

hi I dont know if anyone will see this cause these posts look pretty old, but im having the same problem I have a dell 200 SLIM and Im looking for a graphics card for gaming. Im not serious gamer but i wanna play Fallout 3 at least medium or without crazy lag. The only thing ive found is the 8400gs 256mb card can anyone tell me if that would be any good? and if not what card should i purchase. (Slim case, dell states its a 250w power supply)

The 8400GS is not a very good gaming card especially if you are looking to play a newer game like Fallout 3.  I would suggest you get the 9500GT shown HERE.  Your total system power consumption with the card will only be around 150 watts. 

Like I said above, I've gone with the Galaxy low profile 9600GT, fits inside a Dell slim line case.

After a lot more research in this area, I've also upgraded my PSU from the 280W stock unit supplied with the slim DELL C521, to an Arctic 700W unit. If I could be bothered to trawl the internet for a week, I'd probably find a higher rated PSU that fitted inside.

The power cables on the arctic unit are very long, long enough for me to sit the PSU behind the base unit on the floor, with all the cables looping up to the new gap and then route inside to all the connector sockets. I completely removed the DELL 280W unit from the base unit. This has also worked wonders for the air flow and temperature management.

Air flow is very restricted inside a slim case, and a 9600GT graphics card will generate a lot of heat that needs to be dumped somewhere.

You aslo have to consider the maximum wattage that your PCIe interface will transfer, I read on another thread that this was only 25 Watts on this particular dell mother board which is quite low. The Galaxy 9600GT takes its power from a seperate 6-pin connector directly from the PSU and not through the mother board.

If I was buying one today I'd probably look at the new low profile 9800GT unit from Sparkle, launched earlier this year.

thanks so then its safe to run the 9500GT with my 250psu in my slim case and is it a decent card ? for fallout 3 and left 4 dead

How did you hook up the 6-pin power connector?  my C521 has the X1300 in it but it fried out last night, so looking to replace.  Want the GeForce you talk about but my current graphics card does not have the 6 pin....

No the X1300 does not have its own 6-pin PCIe power connector, but most new decent 9600/9800 series do.