XPS 420 and 425w power supply

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@Omaniac wrote:

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.

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I'm sorry winnieB, but I don't think you have read what I wrote. I'm not fine and neither is my brother.

At the moment I have paid 2600 USD for a machine that can't do what I bought it for.

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@Omaniac wrote:

I'm sorry winnieB, but I don't think you have read what I wrote. I'm not fine and neither is my brother.

At the moment I have paid 2600 USD for a machine that can't do what I bought it for.

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Tech support is busy talking with my brother. His XPS 420 just crashed. Again!

At least I can surf the net with mine.

I'm sure they have tested the configuration, but still it's less than the minimum spesified by Nvidia. My problems only show up when I ask the PC to perform. FSX is a demanding game for any computer, but I have plenty of other players I can compare with. My system is high in specs and low in performance. It's worse than other PC's with lower specs.

I don't know if it's PSU related, but Nvidia says it's a possible.

I would like to give two thumbs up for Dell support, though. My brother lives in a small town in North Norway, and Dell have to send the serviceman by commercial plane from a place 600 miles away. They have done this twice now. That's impressive!

Omaniac

Looking at the link you provided, shows the follows specs as listed by nVidia

The 8800GTX requires a PS with 12v rating of 30A

The 8800GTS requires a PS with 12v rating of 26A

Reading the label on the side of the 375watt supply in my 420, it has two 12v rails, each of them are rated at 18A for a total of 36A

But....

In the end it doesn't really matter how many of us assure you that the Dell 375watt supply is underrated and will work just fine.

It's YOUR comfort factor with the system that matters. If you stick with a 420 with the 375watt supply, you'll allways be wondering in the back of your mind, if your system is about to fail, even though it might run fine today.

In the end, if it makes you feel better/safer, then do what ever you need to do to install a bigger supply. Either get a 420 with the bigger supply, or if yous already has the 375, see if somehow you can get a 425watt supply from Dell, or as a last resort, buy a bigger supply and install it yourself.

If you feel that you're un-satisfied with your system possibly in part because you feel that Dell is under-powering their systems, feel free to send it back and buy a system from somewhere else.

Hi Tim,

Again, I have the 420 W PSU.

Are you an official Dell rep? By Norwegian law, I could return the system (if I was not happy with the purchase) within two weeks of receiving it. That period passed as I thought it was my settings that caused the poor performance in FSX.

I'm glad to inform you all that it seems like my brothers problems have been resolved. Support asked him to change the RAM (the half they didn't change the last time) and now his PC runs great. So he is happy.

I'm still firmly on the fence. The system works fine with everything else. It's just when I ask for max that if doesn't perform. Unfortunately, I bought it for max performance.

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@Omaniac wrote:

Hi Tim,

 

Again, I have the 420 W PSU.

 

Are you an official Dell rep? By Norwegian law, I could return the system (if I was not happy with the purchase) within two weeks of receiving it. That period passed as I thought it was my settings that caused the poor performance in FSX.

 

I'm glad to inform you all that it seems like my brothers problems have been resolved. Support asked him to change the RAM (the half they didn't change the last time) and now his PC runs great. So he is happy.

 

I'm still firmly on the fence. The system works fine with everything else. It's just when I ask for max that if doesn't perform. Unfortunately, I bought it for max performance.

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Omaniac

No, I am not an official Dell rep. Like most of us here, I'm just another long time Dell user that try's to help others when we can.

This was not fun to read, and ofcourse I got one of those 375W PSU too when I look inside my rig now.

When using eXtrem power supply calculator i got 434W as minimum needed for my Q6600 with 8800GT and SB Xi-F card with 2 GB RAM and a raid setup. And there are several hardware sites that hade made reviews, and did check power consuming on 8800GT against the ati 3870, the higest figures I have seen is 245W peakload on a pure 8800GT card.

Now I know why my PSU fan had suddenly starting to give all buzz and even vibrations, after being deadly quite 3 weeks ago when i got it, it always buzz from the PSU fan now. And all starting when i did some heavy gaming on it some hours in a row.

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@H_P wrote:

This was not fun to read, and ofcourse I got one of those 375W PSU too when I look inside my rig now.

When using eXtrem power supply calculator i got 434W as minimum needed for my Q6600 with 8800GT and SB Xi-F card with 2 GB RAM and a raid setup. And there are several hardware sites that hade made reviews, and did check power consuming on 8800GT against the ati 3870, the higest figures I have seen is 245W peakload on a pure 8800GT card.

Now I know why my PSU fan had suddenly starting to give all buzz and even vibrations, after being deadly quite 3 weeks ago when i got it, it always buzz from the PSU fan now. And all starting when i did some heavy gaming on it some hours in a row.

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I suggest that you call dell and explain to them exactly what you posted here, and they should without any hesitation send out the 425W to you. This is exactly what I have been trying to explain, but there are many people here that just don't get it. I was starting to beleive they are Dell employees that pretend to be users, to defend and make excuses about how the 375w is underatted. I'm glad you posted your issues, as now we have some evidence. I hope you can get the new PSU and get your problems resloved.

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@winnieB wrote:

everyone, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE 375 PS.  My system is the xps 410 which used the same powersupply.  I have 4 hard drives and 5 extra fans in my case and I have never had problems the fact remains dell unrates thier powersupplies.

 

Take each your systems into consideration before you stare worrying about things you really dont' have to.

 

What else is there to condsider, the user has the 375W, on a loaded system. Was gamming hard for a couple of hours in a row and now his PSU is buzzing.. Hmm, sounds like the PSU is failing. As mentioned before, some of the components on my system worked intermittently, called dell tech and they "AGREED" with me that it was my "so called underatted" 375w psu was not enought to suffieciently power my entire system. They were pretty quick at sending me the 425W, because i know eventually under load my whole system could have been destoyed and dell would have had to replace my entire 420.

 

 

 

 

XPS 410
Intel C2D E6700 2.66
@2 GB @ 667mzh (2 dimms)
@dual 80GB Raptors @ 10,000 RPM in RAID 0 (silenced)
320GB hdd
160GB hdd
NVIDIA 7900GS Zalman VF-900cu
ATI TV Wonder 650 HD
Diamond 24-bit 7.1 surround, w/ dolby digital live
2407 Monitor
LG 42" 1080p
logitech G7 mouse, G15 keyboard

----------------------------------"GAME ON"-------------------------------

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everyone, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE 375 PS.  My system is the xps 410 which used the same powersupply.  I have 4 hard drives and 5 extra fans in my case and I have never had problems the fact remains dell unrates thier powersupplies.

Take each your systems into consideration before you stare worrying about things you really dont' have to.

XPS 410
Intel C2D E6700 2.66
2 GB @ 667mzh (2 dimms)
Dual 80GB Raptors @ 10,000 RPM in RAID 0 (silenced)
320GB hdd
160GB hdd
NVIDIA 7900GS Zalman VF-900cu
ATI TV Wonder 650 HD
Diamond 24-bit 7.1 surround, w/ dolby digital live
2407 Monitor
LG 42" 1080p
logitech G7 mouse, G15 keyboard

----------------------------------"GAME ON"-------------------------------