I am inexperienced with video cards. [SOLVED]

Rear Admiral Choco

So with my little experience in upgrading computers, I've decided to get a new video card, a small step over my 256MB card. My coworker, awesome guy that he is, tells me he's got a spare he'll bring in, I can take it home, switch them out, see if it works, and since he ended up also getting a free PSU with the last computer order he made he'll give me that as well since it's the same he uses with his setup.

I agree to this, thinking this sounds awesome. Today, I bring home the video card and PSU when I realize: these are the two parts I've never touched inside my computer. Of course I gave a bit of consideration first, but I figured it'd be about as easy as popping in a new hard drive. I realize this was a dumb expectation, but now I've got a video card and PSU sitting around, and I'm trying to figure out how to switch them out. On the bright side, I cleaned out my old card and it's no longer shitting itself so horribly, but it still tears occasionally.

Essentially my problem is that once I took out the old video card, I unplugged the power cables and called it good. I inserted the new card, everything fit nicely, until I get to the power cables. It doesn't look like there's any slot for them whatsoever. I took it out again, inspected it, looked at the new PSU just to see if there was a way to connect them that I was missing that I could see, but from the looks of it there's just no way to connect them. What am I missing here?

The old card is an nVidia Quadro FX 3400/4400 card, while the new one is a GeForce 8600 GT, just for reference.

tl;dr: I'm trying to replace a slowly dying video card and the new one doesn't seem to have anywhere I can plug the power cables unlike the first one.

Old: nVidia Quadro FX 3400/4400
New: GeForce 8600 GT


EDIT: After some fiddling around, I've ultimately found that all I needed to do was switch the card and install the drivers, and that I should probably be a little more bold testing things. Thanks!

Invisible

IIRC only the 8600 GTS requires a power cable connection, the 8600 GT shouldn't require a power cable. Since you presumably don't see a cable connection on it, I should be right (If I'm not when you turn on the computer you'll get a screen telling you that your GPU doesn't have necessary power, nothing bad will happen).

TychoCelchuuu

8600 GT probably doesn't take any power cables.

edit: I HATH BEEN BEATEN

Rear Admiral Choco

Ah, is that so? I had a couple other coworkers who seemed to know their stuff a little better than I tell me to be careful that the PSU was powerful enough to run it. I assume they just mean the power will run through the slot, or... well, something. I'll test it again, then. As I had it set up before I chickened out and put everything back the way it was, it was just fitted into the slot as the normal video card with the cable just left out of it.

I imagine I might need to change out the PSU, as well. Any idea whether the GeForce card would be taking significantly more power than the Quadro? And how might I go about doing it? It looks like a much more daunting task than switching out... well, just about anything else in there.

Nova_C

What's the wattage rating on the PSU already installed VS. the new one?

Rear Admiral Choco

The trouble with that is that I'm not entirely sure how to check. Inside the main tower the PSU is encased by a black casing and it looks tricky to get around. If there's no way for me to check from the computer itself, though, I'll have a crack at it.

Invisible

Do you have the model number of the computer?
Like a Gateway Whatever 555 or HP Pavilion 8500?

If you have that, the manufacturer usually lists all of the info, including PSU, online.

Rear Admiral Choco

It's a Dell Precision 670. Looking on the site, it just gives me directions on how to open up the enclosure, so I'll just do that and have a peek. Once I've figured out that much, it shouldn't be too hard, but better to be safe than sorry and just keep this thread open until the switch is made.

Rear Admiral Choco

Well, I think I may have my problem solved. The PSU my coworker gave me is a 450 watt unit, but some more rooting around in Dell's site after my efforts trying to get at the power supply proving fruitless (my screwdriver is missing! :P) shows that it's a 650 watt unit. I guess all that's left to do is switch the cards and see how it works.

Dixon

I'm confused why there was a quadro in there in the first place. That's a workstation card, meant for rendering and such, they don't perform so well in games. So it may of have actually drawn more power as it may have been a more powerful card for what it was doing.

The 8600gt should be quite a step up for you though which is sweet, I'm not to sure what that model of quadro benches at I don't really follow though cards that much.