XPS 420 and 425w power supply

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@ThePug628 wrote:
Dell desktop power supplies are OEMed by Channel Well, I believe. Wattage isn't very important. It is the power on the 12V rails that is important. I would assume that the 8800GT, being biased on a 65nm chip, would be more efficient and use less power.

First, Dell rates their power supplies differently than everyone else.
The industry uses peak output, so a 450W power supply can sustain that
only for a short period of time.
Dell rates theirs using sustained power output, so the 375W power supply
is closer to a 500 or 600W peak power supply. Dell engineers have. no doubt, put a lot of thought into power and cooling.

Personally, I believe Dell builds the system good enough to handle the components installed. If they didn't they would have to replace a lot of power supplies and ,while they have a pretty high repair rate, I don't think they will intentionally cause themselves more trouble by using a power supply that isn't good enough for the system.

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 Wait Wait Wait.

So you're telling me that my 375 watt can handle the 8800 GT, 8800 GTS, and the 8800 GTX no problem? Please, I hope you're right. I really need to upgrade the card. A response from anyone who is sure will be appreciated.

Hello

I only just bought a new XPS 420, with Q6600 (B3 stepping, using more power), 4GB RAM, 750GB Disk, DVD Burner, 8800 GT Video.

I immediately added an additional 1TB disk, and an additional DVD burner.

The power supply is 375 Watt, I just checked inside the casing.

Guess what? The thing doesn't even get really warm, and I've never heard the fan kicking in for real so far.

So I wonder what the fuss is all about?

Regards, Martin

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@winnieB wrote:

right,

 

the GT does not pull as much power as the GTX so you are fine, and the normal quad core can run on the 375 too.

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So can I get the GTS or even the GTX? Or is the GT what i'm limited to?

 

And doesn't the 8800 cards require a direct connection to the PSU?  How would that work with the power supply Dell gave me?

right,

the GT does not pull as much power as the GTX so you are fine, and the normal quad core can run on the 375 too.

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@winnieB wrote:
adding the quad core extreme and gtx will not be allowed.

the 375 watt PS will run a dual core and a GTX.

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But I have a Quad core and 8600 GT on a 375W....

Ok - so this is what I ordered:

Intel Core2 Extreme processor QX6850 (3.0GHz 1333FSB)

512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

The Xcelerator with ATI tuner

Bluetooth

etc

Do you think they woul build that with the 425w psu?

Just getting the Quad Extreme QX 6850 does NOT mean you need the larger supply. I imagine if you had the Extreme and a GT or better card, then you might need the bigger supply.

My 420 with the QX6850 came with the 375watt supply, and is working very nicely along with

8800GTS

4gig ram

X-Fi

card reader w/bluetooth

150gig Raptor

750gig Seagate

1TB Western Digital.

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@nicks-Inspi wrote:
FYI The TDP of the Quad Core CPUs is either 95 or 105 Watts depending on the stepping, and the Extreme versions are 130 Watts. The 8800GT draws 138 Watts, the 8800GTX draws 145 Watts, and the 8800 Ultra draws 175 Watts (manufacturer quoted, so presumably a maximum).

The box for my 8800GT recommends a minimum of a 400 Watt power supply (with a minimum 12V rating of 26 Amps).

Message Edited by Nicks-Inspi on 02-06-2008 09:28 AM

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So what do I do when I've got the 425 W PSU and Nvidia states that the minimum for 88oo GTX configured PC's is 450 W or greater??? I don't believe for a second that my 425W made in China PSU actually performs a lot better than 425 Watts. If it was a 600 W PSU it would say so. Higher specs is a selling point.

http://tinyurl.com/37kp8c

My brand new XPS 420, 3 Ghz dual core, 4 Gb RAM, 640 Gb HD with 8800 GTX (Vista 32) is running Flight Simulator X only a bit better than my old 1,8 Ghz, 1 Gb RAM and a Gforce FX 5700 PC, and it's performance is way below similar spec systems others are using.

My brothers XPS 420 with the same specs as mine keeps crashing even after Dell changed the motherboard and the HDD (twice).

I can't fault the Dell support as they have done their next day support to the letter, but I can't help thinking of the PSU as the reason for my bad performance and his crashes.