Hi I want to upgrade my dell 8400 psu in order to install a better graphics card like an ati radeon 1550 512 megabytes. But becuase dell compute's are temperamental when it comes to upgrading im unsure whether i should bother upgrading in the first place.

I have found a psu that does say it is compatible with my dell model and here is the link http://www.pcpower.com/power-supply/silencer-470-dell.html

Please let me know if you think it will work with my dell and if i was to upgrade my graphics card with that 470 watt power supply then would most graphics cards run ok? Thank you

Wait just now it looks like I may have spotted gold....There is a website showcasing a PSU called silencer 470 dell and what looks even better is that the website says it is compatible with my computer the dell dimension 8400. The PSU is 470 watts but I am not sure where to actually buy the PSU and if it really is compatible.

It has a list of online shops of "where to buy products" but I havent yet found a shop that sells the so called PSU for dell computers...if i give you the link could please give me some advice on it?

It could well work with dell computers and there is a range of PSU's for dell, from about 350 watts to the 470 watts PSU i was talking about :)

The link is http://www.pcpower.com/power-supply/silencer-470-dell.html

Oh the specs of my pc are the following;

1 gigabyte of ram, intel pentium 4 HT, ati radeon x300 series graphics card, and its a dell dimension 8400 if that helps at all

Thank you very much for your help, I have never in my life of using the internet come across someone as helpful as you. It was just a thought in my head today about getting a new graphics card, at first i thought you could just buy one, fit and off you go. But obviously its a lot more complicated than that in my case, so maybe i'll just have to stick with an x300 ati lol :)

Finally, is there a low end graphics card that i could fit in computer without hassle or am i asking for to much, with the sort of psu i have...

Thanks again for your help, really appreciated

I have found a psu unit on the internet and its a corsair 450 watt here's the link if you could look at it please would help a lot as i dont know much about the right psu to get.http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/698/905/-/3476846/Corsair-VX-450-PSU-Power-Supply-Unit-450W/Product.html?searchtype=genre

I am pretty sure this will be able to handle the sapphire radeon x1550 card. Tell me what you think :)

Ok thanks very much for the reply, i'm not sure if i would be able to install a power supply myself becuase apparently dell computers like this one which is quite old arent compatible with most psu's so that could be a big problem...

So do you think there would be a compatible psu i could use for my computer or should i just forgot the idea?

Hi I have been using my dell 8400 computer for about 2 years now and I have an old ati radeon x300 graphics card which is awful for a bit of casual gaming or media. Problem is I think my computer only has a 300 watt power supply so i am worried about upgrading to a more powerful graphics card that could damage my computer. The graphics card i'm interested in is a Sapphire Radeon x1550/512mb/pci-e.

Is this suitable at all for my computer or should i buy a less powerful graphics card? Please help as i dont really want to try upgrading my power supply, i have little knowledge of upgrading computers as it is.