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Got my brother a new vid card for his bday...
Wezoin
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It's an Asus 8600GT 256mb. He only has a 300W power supply, but I saw online that alot of the 8600s will run on that, and thats including some ridiculous "Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme" processor on the system. I can't seem to find any recommended power supply for this card, but the guy at the store said it'd probably run on a 300W and that there was no chance of any damage coming from it.
I guess I should probably explain here that a couple years back my cousin got a videocard installed by futureshop. Apparently he didn't have a big enough power supply in his system and it destroyed the whole computer. That is why i'm so paranoid about this (I actually have no proof that this was the reason, but this futureshop had to replace his machine, im assuming it was at least semi-truth)
He said the "worst case scenario" is that the machine won't turn on at all, in which case just remove the card and go back to the old one (integrated 6100) until he can get a new power supply. I realise it depends alot on what he has in his machine, but it's not that much. Athlon 64X2, 1 hard drive, 1 wireless network card. The hard drive I believe is a 5400rpm. I also got him a gb of ram (pc3200, if it matters) that will bring him up to 2gb, is there any real risk of breaking anything?
I guess I should probably explain here that a couple years back my cousin got a videocard installed by futureshop. Apparently he didn't have a big enough power supply in his system and it destroyed the whole computer. That is why i'm so paranoid about this (I actually have no proof that this was the reason, but this futureshop had to replace his machine, im assuming it was at least semi-truth)
He said the "worst case scenario" is that the machine won't turn on at all, in which case just remove the card and go back to the old one (integrated 6100) until he can get a new power supply. I realise it depends alot on what he has in his machine, but it's not that much. Athlon 64X2, 1 hard drive, 1 wireless network card. The hard drive I believe is a 5400rpm. I also got him a gb of ram (pc3200, if it matters) that will bring him up to 2gb, is there any real risk of breaking anything?
Wezoin on
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Chances are it won't destroy the computer. It will probably run, but you won't know if he's getting the full benefit of the card unless it's at least a 450 watt.
A PCI-express video card sucks a lot of power, and you must must MUST make sure that you plug the power cords and the PCI-E power cable into the card itself, providing that the card IS pci-e. I did not look up that card, so I wouldn't know.
But take it from someone with experience in this issue - PCI-E cards must have their special power cords plugged into them. Also, 300w is pretty weak for an upper-end vid card.
PSN:TheRockingM
300W should be enough to supply power to a good GPU, a good processor, and the rest of the computer. I myself am using a 500W on the computer I'm building, but only because it was free with rebates. But you could have 1kW and have a GPU not working if it's not getting enough current.
Simplified way too much: Power amount is important for running everything. Current amount within specific voltages is important for specific items.
Now, power is determinable with current, but it's the specific voltage of the current that determines what it'll do with a specific part. So you could not have a PSU that's 20 Watts with 28 amps along the 12 volt rail. But you could either have a 12V rail at 28 amps and a 8V rail at 12 amps or 36 amps along the 12v rail and no 8V rail for 432 Watts.
So if the PSU can't supply enough power for everything, it'll just not work, and if it can't supply enough current, then the GPU just won't work, so you'll get a blank screen most likely. You won't break anything if this is the case though. Just make sure you check the current(Amperage)
Anyway, it's a Compaq computer, fairly new (about a year old, I'd guess) I realise Compaq are a "value brand" of computer, so im expecting the power supply isn't all that impressive, but I'll see. Just glad it's confirmed I can try it out without risking screwing anything up.