Dell 4550 new vid card

comphollic

Golden Member
Dec 1, 2003
1,751
0
0
ok, my system
2.66ghz P4
768MB ram
2 hard drives (120GB/40GB)
a cd-burner
dvd drive
tv tuner
sound blaster sound card
and the AGP Geforce4 MX 420

My system is 3 years old, when i bought it, i upgraded to a Geforce TI 4200, died out on me... a year later (2003) bought an ATi 9800.. also died on me.. both cards mainly died on me cause i overclocked them (i little to much i say)... after i killed 2 cards, im now wanna buy a new card and leave it at stock speeds lol... I've been looking at newegg and found the EVGA 6600GT and 6800NU.. 6600GT priced at $160ish and the 6800NU at $190ish...
Seeing that i have added more components to the dell system (extra hard drive, ram, and tv tuner) do i have to worry about power supply requirement on both cards? If not, which is the best choice between those two cards? the same if yes...
I wanna play new games such as HL2 and BF2.. i would aprreciate all the help..
thank-you
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
126
Your system is allmost the same as mine. I think a hard drive adds like 20 watts I believe. So that puts you out of 6800 gt range, but a 6800 nu should be ok according to dell. This is with stock systems: Read this hope it helps .

Dimension R, T, B (AGP video cards) =
GeForce FX 5900
GeForce FX 5700
GeForce FX 5200
GeForce 4 Ti 4200 (dx8)
Radeon 9600 SE
Radeon 9200 Pro (dx8)

Dimension V, L, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2350, 2400, 3000 (PCI video cards) =
These systems were never tested by Dell with added video cards. You must choose a PCI video card and disable the onboard video card in either the bios or the device manager

Dell doesn't recommend adding video cards to the following small form factor systems =
Dimension 4300S, 4500S, 4600C, 4700C
Optiplex 260, 270, 280

Dimension 4100, 4200, 4300, 4400 (AGP video cards) =
Radeon 9700
Radeon 9600
GeForce 4 Ti 4200 (dx8)
GeForce FX 5750
GeForce FX 5700

Dimension 4500, 4550, 4600, 8100, 8200, 8250 (AGP video cards) =
PNY Verto GeForce FX 6800 GT
Leadtek GeForce FX 6800 GT
GeForce FX 6800
Radeon X800 SE
Radeon 9800 XT
GeForce FX 5950
Radeon 9800 Pro
GeForce FX 5900
Radeon 9700
Radeon 9600 XT
Radeon 9600 Pro
GeForce FX 5750
GeForce FX 5700
Radeon 9600 SE

Dimension 8300, XPS Gen 1, Gen 2 (AGP video cards) =
GeForce FX 6800 Ultra Extreme Edition (you must upgrade the power supply from the 250w)
GeForce FX 6800 Ultra (you must upgrade the power supply from the 250w)
Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition (Excalibur X800XT PE)
GeForce FX 6800 GT (you might need to move the hard disk drive cage due to the card length)
Radeon X800 XT
Radeon X800 Pro
GeForce FX 6800

Dimension 4700 305w power supply (PCIe video cards) =
GeForce 6800 GT
GeForce 6800
Radeon X800 SE

Dimension 8400 350w power supply, XPS Gen 3 460w power supply (PCIe video cards) =
GeForce FX 6800 Ultra Extreme Edition
GeForce 6800 Ultra
Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition
GeForce 6800 GT
Radeon X800 XT
Radeon X800 Pro
GeForce 6800
Radeon X800 SE
Error while adding PCIe video card, "Alert! additional card cage fan needed for PCI Express card over 75 watts". You need to call Spare Parts (800-372-3355) and purchase this part number:
H3840 Auxilary Blower Fan for PCIe video cards
Message Edited by DELL-ChrisM on 10-29-2004 10:36 AM

 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,204
45
91
Both would be good choices. There's also this deal on 6800s at newegg. I'm not sure if the deal is permanently dead or not.

If you can afford to bump up to the 6800, go ahead.