Seriously? Could it even take the 7800GT? I was led to believe that 305W couldn't handle most mid-range cards even. Or is the 305 watt label a conservative one for the Dell PSU's?

I think 305w cannot handle the 7800GT, but the X800XL or 6800GT would be good choices of decent midrange cards to get.

No major differences between brands. Only thing that makes a big difference is how fast they are clocked. Some companies overclock their cards and maybe have better cooling methods (better heatsink).

Message Edited by LittleWang99 on 10-06-2005 12:57 PM

Ah I didn't notice this.

PCIe video cards for the following systems: Dimension 4700, 5000, 5100
Radeon X800 XT PE
Radeon X850 XT
Radeon X800 XT
Radeon X850 Pro
Radeon X800 Pro
Radeon X800
GeForce 6600 GT
GeForce 5900 PCX
GeForce 6800
Radeon X600 XT
GeForce 6600
Radeon X600 Pro
GeForce 5750 PCX
GeForce 6200

Any updates to the above? Can you get any of the Nvidia 7800 series on these pcs? ALso no mention of the X800XL. Also, is there no problem with using different manufacturers but the same model. For example, would you see no noticeable required power between say a Sapphire X800 XT and an MSI X800 XT, or Connect3D X800 XT etc?

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@kheb3350 wrote:
Seriously? Could it even take the 7800GT? I was led to believe that 305W couldn't handle most mid-range cards even. Or is the 305 watt label a conservative one for the Dell PSU's?

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Dell rates it power supplies conservatively. You should be able to handle the 7800GT. It draws about the same as the 6800GT.

But it draws more from the 12v rail than the 6800GT. Also many people have said that even the 8400's 350w psu can't handle the 7800GT. So far the only midrange dell computer that handles the 7800GT without many problems is the dim 9100 (375w psu). Also read posts by the user name shorty001, he along with others have trouble with the 6800GT with a 350w psu.

There are a couple but note that they build in headroom. http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

All right thanks. The X800 GTO2 seems to have generated quite a bit of interest. I'm tempted to get that mod it to 16 pipelines, and then eventually overclock. I don't suppose anyone knows whether this would take up too much power? It might be safer to go for the x800 xl or xtpe.

I tried the power consumption websites. The wattage requirements between models don't seem to be as large a difference as I thought it would be. It's difficult to tell from them if Dell use a conservative measure for their PSU's and those websites leave alot of headroom.

Worse case scenario - if I get a card, such as the GTO2 (and overclocked especially) I run into problems, is it pretty easy to change the PSU's in the Dimension 5000s? I think it is BTX format - does this make if more difficult or not? Thanks.

Thanks Rogan.