anyone have experience w/Dell PSUs?

[kamper]

I'm a little concerned about overloading my psu. My box came with a 250W from Dell and since then I've added another disk drive, dvd-rom and 512megs of ram. I'm no expert but by my guesses I'm pretty close to the limit. Check it out.

So far no problems but this summer I'd like to add another drive (thinking WD xxxxJB) and upgrade the video card (probably something higher up in the ATI line).

Should I be thinking about adding more power first? Has anyone had problems with Dell PSUs or have you been able to push them farther than their ratings?

 

[mechBgon]

The general opinion is that the Dell PSU's are well-made (Dell obviously has a vested interest in producing reliable systems). But two hard drives, two optical drives, four memory modules and a top-end video card could be asking too much of it, yeah

Many Dell power supplies are non-standard, so you can't necessarily buy an off-the-shelf Antec or Enermax and upgrade. PC Power & Cooling does have some Dell-specific PSU's available here. Hope that helps... welcome to the Forums kamper

 

[Ryan]

I'm running my system on a Gateway 235w PSU and I have never had a problem. My link is in my sig. I think that Gateway and Dell have some of the best power supplies in the industry. My previous system, 950mhz Athlon Classic, 512mb RAM, 2 HDs, CDRW, DVD, Radeon 7500, TV Tuner, 6 USB devices, sound card, network card, and floppy, ran on a Gateway 200w PSU and it was ROCK SOLID!

 

[ElFenix]

dell rates at RMS while most others rate at peak... dell 250s are closer to 330s...

i had 3 hard drives, 2 opticals, 3 sticks of ram, and a GF256 (which ate tons of juice) along with a p3 700 on a dell 200 without a hiccup.

 

[kamper]

Thanks for the advice, think I'll push it a little farther and then decide, especially if ElFenix is right.

I'm planning to build from scratch soon so if it blows up then I can just start a new one sooner.

 

[snidy1]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
The general opinion is that the Dell PSU's are well-made (Dell obviously has a vested interest in producing reliable systems). But two hard drives, two optical drives, four memory modules and a top-end video card could be asking too much of it, yeah

Many Dell power supplies are non-standard, so you can't necessarily buy an off-the-shelf Antec or Enermax and upgrade. PC Power & Cooling does have some Dell-specific PSU's available here. Hope that helps... welcome to the Forums kamper

Don't plug in a regular power supply unless you know for sure it's not a Dell non standard or you'll fry your MB and PS, I think from 1996 to 2000 is when they made them this way. You can tell because Pin one is red instead of orange.

 

[kamper]

Ok, just checked and I think it's not standard. There's a 16 pin connector with 9 wires running into it and a 24 pin connector with 22 wires. I bought in late 2001 but the motherboard is completely Dell's own make, I don't think there's anything standard about it. :disgust: Let's just hope it can hold out!

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: kamper
Ok, just checked and I think it's not standard. There's a 16 pin connector with 9 wires running into it and a 24 pin connector with 22 wires. I bought in late 2001 but the motherboard is completely Dell's own make, I don't think there's anything standard about it. :disgust: Let's just hope it can hold out!

You CANNOT put your own PSU in that machine. It will have to come from DELL.

Ive had my experiences with dell pcs and i went through the roof when i blew one of mine up :|

Read here

Regards
Dan

EDIT : ALL dell pcs from 1998 onwards are non-industry-compliant.

 

[AtomicDude512]

Dell PSU's are custom made, wont hold too much more...

 

[kamper]

Can anyone tell me how to calculate exactly how much power I need (well not exactly but ...)? I've come across some pretty conflicting numbers.

Also, is there a non-destructive way to find out just how far my ps will go?

I've been following some of the other threads and reading articles (through mrfitty's post). I'm getting kinda ticked with the way these clone makers make you bend over and take it their way when you buy one of their machines. Never again!

Anyways, has anyone bought from PC Power and Cooling? Is their stuff good? It certainly should be for what they charge.


ps. mechBgon: I was cruisin' around your site (mechbgone.tripod.com) and noticed that you designed a bunch of the little icons for the forums. How'd you get into that and is there anyway to get a custom icon? (well, not that custom, I want a canadian flag)

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: kamper
Can anyone tell me how to calculate exactly how much power I need (well not exactly but ...)? I've come across some pretty conflicting numbers.

Also, is there a non-destructive way to find out just how far my ps will go?

I've been following some of the other threads and reading articles (through mrfitty's post). I'm getting kinda ticked with the way these clone makers make you bend over and take it their way when you buy one of their machines. Never again!

Anyways, has anyone bought from PC Power and Cooling? Is their stuff good? It certainly should be for what they charge.


ps. mechBgon: I was cruisin' around your site (mechbgone.tripod.com) and noticed that you designed a bunch of the little icons for the forums. How'd you get into that and is there anyway to get a custom icon? (well, not that custom, I want a canadian flag)

PC Power & Cooling is very high quality, to start with

I don't know of a risk-free method of seeing how far your PSU will go, and enumerating the precise power load is not as straightforward as it may seem. Some devices draw on the 12V line, some on the 5V line, some on the 3.3V line, some on several at once. A typical PSU uses one transformer to generate both the 3.3V and 5V lines, which have a combined peak output to stay within (you will often find this 3.3V + 5V combined output on the PSU's label). So to really do the job right, you'd need to know all your components' power draws and total them on a per-line basis, then compare it to the PSU's ratings

Not only that, but most PSUs can surge to about 140% capacity for a limited time, so it might seem fine but be under a fair amount of stress.

All things considered, maybe you should use this as your excuse to start your self-built computer you mentioned.

About the author icons: quite a while ago, I made the Feline avatar just for the heck of it and Zuni added it, so gradually I made more, some better than others. Zuni is Canadian himself, so maybe he will add a Canadian flag sometime, but custom ones are probably Not Going To Happen due to the impossibility of screening 100000+ members' custom icons for inappropriate material I do have another author icon in the works, maybe it'll be finished and added within a week or so

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: AtomicDude512
Dell PSU's are custom made, wont hold too much more...

FUD!

heck, tom's did a review and most of the "regular" power supplies couldn't even touch their rated power. a high quality dell 250 is going to take way more than a generic 300.


should be an intel board, btw, customized a little bit for dell though. some dells had asus boards in them, i think it was the 8100...