xps 420 graphics??

what do you have now?

The 8800Gt is a good choice.

Beware!  If you bought the XPS 420 with a lower end graphics card, Dell will only assemble it with a 375W power supply.  Then if you decide you want to upgrade the card to the nVidia 8800 GT, that card requires a minimum of 425W of power.  It's only if you bought the 8800 GT to begin with (like I did), that Dell assembles your pc with a 425W power supply to begin with.

So make sure your power supply is at least 425W before you upgrade the card.  If it is not, then you need to upgrade your power supply as well. 

I've learned this the hard way.  Just 3 months ago I bought a brand new HP m9000t which only comes with 350W of power.  I upgraded the graphics card to the 8800 GT and at the time I wasn't aware of the 425W minimum power requirement.  It worked at first but occasionally the monitor crashed and reset during graphics intensive games (it worked fine when not playing games).   Eventually after 1 month the firewire ports stopped working.  I called nVidia and they said that putting the card in with not enough power can damage the power supply, components of the motherboard, or the card itself.  There is no other reason why the firewire ports would have stopped working.  I'm absolutely sure it was a hardware problem (even after a Vista system recovery they still weren't working).  So I basically gave that computer to my brother-in-law and bought this Dell XPS 420 with the 8800 GT card included.   That's got to be the shortest time anyone's kept a computer, only 3 months!

What's funny is that if you go to the HP website and try customizing that computer (I believe it's the m9100t now), they still offer the 8800 GT card as a graphics card option but no where on the website does it say that the power supply will be upgraded (on the specs it still says 350W).  At least on Dell's website they specify that the power will be upgraded to 425W depending on your configuration.  This is either an error on their website or more serious error in assembling the pc.

Dave, I agree that the 375W will probably work.  My last pc had 350W and the card still worked most of the time.  I would still be using that computer if I didn't need the firewire ports.  But if you're using alot of devices (or plan to add devices) and thus consuming more power, there may be a risk in something going wrong in the future.  In my case I was using 2 hard drives, 4 GB RAM, 2 DVD-ROM drives (one of them with Blu-Ray), 2 monitors, and 2 firewire ports constantly being used by external devices - alot of pc power consumption.  Anyway, I think it's better to be safe and have too big of a power supply than too low of a power supply.  Why risk damaging your motherboard or the card itself?

By the way, although I believe that you can still run the card with less than 425W, both NVidia and BFG customer support recommended at least 425W for the 8800 GT so I'm more inclined to go with their recommendation if I'm a new user or if I plan to use more devices in the future (and thus use more power on the pc).  Also, like I mentioned, Dell upgrades your power supply to 425W if you purchase the 8800 GT card to begin with but if you get a lower card they only ship it with 375W.  So even Dell probably believes that it is safer to use at least 425W with this card.

Outlier..

i respectfully have to disagree with your assement. The 420 with a 375W supply has more than ample power to run the 8800GT. Dell has been selling the system since inseption with this configuration. Dell power supplies are under rated. One has to look at the power on the 12v rails to see this. Dells are speced on sustained power while most other are spec as peak. There are numerous posters here who in fact have this configuration and are experiencing no issues at all.

That is great to hear and makes me feel even better.  Most new Dell users don't have this kind of inside info.  I'm only going by my own personal experience with my previous HP m9000t.  Like I said, it came with only 350W of power.  I then upgraded the graphics card to the 8800 GT and shortly afterwards (maybe 1 month afterwards) the firewire ports (both front and back) stopped working.  After days of testing and consulting with customer service, it was concluded that this was a hardware problem and most likely set off by a change with the hardware.  And the graphics card change was the only hardware change made to the system.  I only had this computer for 3 months so this was very distressing to hear.  I pledged that I would not take a chance from then on.  It's better to be safe than sorry and it appears that Dell agrees with this philosophy when they automatically upgrade the power to 425W if you buy the 8800 GT card with your computer.  I think everyone would agree that it is better to have too much power than too little. 

Also, like I mentioned, Dell upgrades your power supply to 425W if you purchase the 8800 GT card to begin with but if you get a lower card they only ship it with 375W.

not necessarily - I did get the 425 as well, but the clarification is in the link. In fact most 8800gt systems come/came wtih the 375w...

Packerfan07, that's very interesting information and thanks for referring that thread.  Before I bought this Dell, I asked every customer service rep (I must have talked to over 10 different people) and all of them said that the power would be upgraded to 425W if you ordered the 8800 GT card for any pc package.  After what happened to me with my previous computer, I still wanted to be absolutely sure and that's why I chose the "Ultimate Entertainment Dual DVD and 3D Blazing Graphics" package on the Dell website.  On that package it specifically mentions that it will come with a 425W Power Supply (the other bundles didn't mention it).  I guess I'm lucky I chose this package over any other.  Isn't it amazing the different answers you get from different customer support reps?  If it's true what the other people on the other thread are saying, then I'm glad I didn't take the customer support reps' word for it that it will be automatically upgraded to 425W.   

Anyway, they probably upgrade this package to 425W because it comes with a Blu-Ray/DVD RW/CD RW ROM drive and they assume that people who get this bundle will probably consume alot of power on their pc's.  So I guess the point is, 375W will probably be ok for people who don't use many other power consuming devices on their pc's.  But if you've got Blu-ray, do video capturing/editing, DVD burning, use more than one hard drive, and/or use the firewire or eSata ports for other devices, then it's probably safer to use 425W.  The good thing about Dell is that I've read other threads where a person who had an XPS 420 with 375W actually got a message on his screen saying that there is not enough power and to upgrade his power supply.  So it's good that you will at least be warned.