I have a Dell Inspiron 530 which unfortunately comes with only a 300W power supply (wish they listed this on the site, but anyway.) I just got an EVGA Geforce 8800GS which recommends a minimum 400W supply. Do you think it would be a bad idea to try to use it?
However I've heard that Dell often "underestimates" their power supplies and they can handle more than what's listed. I also read some reviews of the 8800GS which seem to show that it barely uses more power than an 8600GT (which this computer came with, and which worked perfectly for me.) There's an extremely detailed review of this 8800GS at http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GeForce_8800_GS/21.htmlBTW here's what's drawing power from my 300W power supply: core 2 e6550 processor, one sata hard drive, DVDRW drive, usb mouse and keyboard, usb wireless network adapter, usb tv tuner, usb gamepad. Obviously the last two can be unplugged if it makes a difference.
So... any chance the 8800GS will work without damaging anything here? Or is this just not a good idea at all?
Also, I'd like to know if running near the maximum of a power supply's ability stresses it and does harm to it somehow. I assume that if the 8800GS worked, this would be running close to the 300W max at times. Is that harmful?
Looks like I might have teo go back to the 8600GT, just hoping there might be a way to use the new card. Any help would be much appreciated.
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