Inspiron 580

 tazny1

The default power supply installed by Dell, in the Inspiron 580 is a 300w unit, for both the i3 and i5 processors

You can find the Inspiron 580 Specifications HERE <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

Bev.

But the specs for the HD 5450 says it needs a minimum of 400W PSU. yet the inspiron 580 has a 300W PSU?  Thats one reason I was asking about this. I wanted to make sure since I thought it might run the new GTS 450 which has minimun 400W requirement on some brands?????

 tazny1

I very much doubt that Dell would install a HD 5450, unless the 300w PSU can support it.

You need to take up your concerns directly with Dell, my experiences have been, that Dell will not change the desktop's default power supply, that's installed.

Sometimes a desktop has an alternate power supply offered, but this will listed in the computer's specifications.

Bev.

The Dell installed HD 5450 is tested to work with the system.  Their video cards are not necessarily the same as retail cards.  The HD 5450 is very low-end anyway and does not need a 400W PSU.  The GTS 450 on the other hand is a much higher-end card compared to the HD 5450.  The GTS 450 requires the additional 6-pin PCIe power cable that will not come on the 300 watt power supply.  It does use more power that an HD 5450 even though you are seeing the same 400W manufacturer recommendation.  You would have to upgrade your power supply with a retail unit if you want to go with the GTS 450 or look at other Dell systems like the Studio XPS models that come with higher wattage power supplies.  

You're welcome.  You might be better off getting the Studio XPS 7100 which is probably pretty close in price to the 580 if you're getting the i5 and you will get more for the money.  The AMD CPU offered is better than the i5's all for just $750.  Plus you're getting a 460W PSU.  

tazny1,

The Inspiron 580 parts page only list 300w power supplies. Those are validated with our video cards -
F834P GeForce GT220 M205
FTGGG GeForce G310 M114N
KP8GM Radeon HD5450 M114A
HWHRN Radeon HD5760 M206

I thought I would chime in, in case others were wondering about using external cards with the Inspiron 580/580S. I had an ATI HD 5770 in a Optiplex 745, but I recently bought a 580S and naturally I wanted to use it for gaming. However, the HD 5770 is a full height card and the 580S (slim) only accommodates half height cards AND the HD 5770 was asking for a MINIMUM power supply of 450 Watts.

I'm happy to say that my HD 5770 running in a Inspiron 580S with an i5 650, 4GB's of RAM, Blu-Ray Optical Drive, 2TB Western Digital WD20EAR, and a 80GB X25-M is running flawlessly. BTW, the power supply in my 580S is rated at 250W, for reference the Optiplex 745 had a 300W power supply.

Now, I wouldn't openly recommend you run a full height card in a half height system but if you take precautions it can be done without issue.

Hope this information helps others who are wondering about using an external card and PSU requirements.

Maybe I'm not reading this correctly, but are you saying that you fitted an HD 5770 in the 580 slim case and have it running on the 250 watt power supply?  So what precautions are you taking?  I can't imagine that the power supply would survive too long under the stress of gaming if you do this often.  How is the card getting additional power since the 250W doesn't have the necessary power cable?  Is it running just from the power provided by the PCIe X16 slot?  

Hey JMichael,

Yup, you read that correctly, I do indeed have an HD 5770 in a 580S. For reference the 580S is used as a HTPC/gaming computer so it sits undisturbed on a shelf in a wire rack (think clean room rack, look up 'metro wire shelf', on Google Images).

The precautions I'm taking are: ample unobstructed ventilation on all sides, dielectric tape on the inside of the lid that rests on top of the HD 5770 as well as keeping on the plastic cover that goes on the crossfire connector, using a Kill A Watt to monitor power usage (wattage) and Everest to monitor voltages and temperatures.

Here are some numbers I saw while stress testing it for an hour (these are all peak number using the stock coolers and letting the BIOS control the fans)

Booting 141W

Idle at desktop 64W, CPU 37C's, GPU 47 C's

Chrome with You Tube 1080P trailer, 85W, CPU 39 C's, GPU 53 C's

VLC running Blu Ray at 1080P 85W, CPU 40 C's, GPU 54 C's

Stress testing with OCCT, Lights Mark 2008, and 1080P VLC video running simultaneously, 160W, CPU 81 C's , GPU 60C's

All in all I think it looks pretty good, the i5 will start to throttle at about 95-100C and the amount of gaming I do is about twice a week for about 2 hrs. (always campaign play). Also the voltage on all of the Rails 3.3V, 5V, 12V look stable. I could always apply Arctic Silver 5 and get a third party CPU fan; it would probably drop about 6-10 C's.

To connect the video card I bought a SATA to Molex Y adapter (since Dell gives you NO spare power connectors when running two HDD's and one optical drive) http://cgi.ebay.com/15-Pin-SATA-Power-Male-Dual-Molex-4-Pin-Female-/150407566011?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2304fd52bb  

and then a Molex to 6 Pin connector for the Hd 5770.  http://cgi.ebay.com/6pin-Power-Lead-Cable-Asus-ATI-Radeon-HD-5870-5770-4770-/400147578862?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item5d2aa77fee

Once I play some games I'll update the post with those numbers.

I think Spock would say, "Fascinating."  Otherwise, he would say; Annihilation.  Total, complete, absolute annihilation.  It would be interesting to know how long it holds up. Keep us updated.  

I did some gaming over the last week and here are my findings:

All temps are max observed and in C’s, computer laying on its side in ‘Metro Wire Shelving’, 1920 x1080 max detail on everything, 5.1 audio.

Played Bioshock for 2 ½ hours, lid was propped open by HD 5770 (remember the 5770 is a full height card and the 580S is only a half-height computer):

Core 1 71

Core 2 71

GPU DisIO 68

GPU MemIO 69

GPU Shader 69

WD TB (Secondary)drive 55

CPU Core Voltage 2.04

3.3V Rail 3.36

Max observed power draw: 165W

Played Bioshock for 1 ½ hours, lid completely removed

Core 1 50

Core 2 49

GPU DisIO 51

GPU MemIO 51

GPU Shader 52

WD TB (Secondary)drive 41

CPU Core Voltage 2.04

3.3V Rail 3.36

Max observed power draw: 165W

Played Modern Warfare 2 for 1 ½ hours, lid propped open

Core 1 67

Core 2 67

GPU DisIO 65

GPU MemIO 66

GPU Shader 66

WD TB (Secondary)drive 50

CPU Core Voltage 2.04

3.3V Rail 3.36

Max observed power draw: 185W

Played Modern Warfare 2 for 1 ½ hours, lid completely removed

Core 1 59

Core 2 60

GPU DisIO 65

GPU MemIO 66

GPU Shader 66

WD TB (Secondary)drive 44

CPU Core Voltage 2.04

3.3V Rail 3.36

Max observed power draw: 185W

Looks like I’m running with the lid OFF when gaming, fortunately it’s typically no more than 8hrs a week, all other times the computer is completely off.

I’m still debating on whether to get a heftier PSU; truth be told I thought it was going to be next to impossible to find anything over 300W in a TFX form factor, fortunately I found this:

 http://www.pointtek.ecrater.com/p/8716434/400w-tfx-replacement-dell-power

Also, as you can see in this Dell forum posting http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/19313746/19624396.aspx, someone used the same PSU in an Inspiron 537st without issue. Furthermore the model number the PSU replaces is the same one the 580S has in it.

The PSU is a standard 300W.  Any graphics cards placed in by Dell are designed with this limitation in mind and are generally not your off the shelf GFX cards