Power supply issue with video card

[jamess82]

I have a Dell Dimension 3000 and the video card that came with it is terrible. I often get about 10 frames per second on World of Warcraft even after I installed 2G of RAM (the maximum the computer will hold). I want to get a new video card now, but I only have PCI slots. The best video card for a PCI slot is supposedly a Geforce 6200, but it says that it requires a 300W power supply. My computer has a 250W power supply and Dell customer service told me that if I get a higher watt power suppy it would fry the motherboard. In reality, would the Geforce 6200 work with the 250W power supply I currently have, or is that completely out of the question? Would you be able to recommend a different video card instead, perhaps? I appreciate the help. You guys are the best.

 

[Kromis]

Yes, it would, I believe. Dell power supplies are suppose to be "quality" power supplies so you are in good hands. But what the customer service told you is...pretty hard to believe.

 

[happy medium]

Yes it will my system used to be a dell with a 250 watt power supply and it could run a 6800 vanilla. A 6200 takes far less power.

 

[PingSpike]

What the dell support told you...doesn't really make sense. However, I have heard that dell machines don't follow the standard layout for powersupplies and that using a standard PSU will fry the motherboard since they are pinned differently. I can't confirm that from personal experience, but that may be what they meant.

 

[jamess82]

Ok, thanks for all the help! I will buy the Geforce 6200 and use it with my current power supply. Unless anyone thinks I should do differently...

 

[PingSpike]

I think you will be fine myself. Its in Dells best interests to put reasonably good PSUs in their machines.

 

[myocardia]

You might want to consider a Sapphire 9250. They do very well with WoW. My friend has this exact card, and it can play almost everything, some with the quality up pretty high: link

edit: And you definitely can't beat that price.

 

[orangat]

Originally posted by: myocardia
You might want to consider a Sapphire 9250. They do very well with WoW. My friend has this exact card, and it can play almost everything, some with the quality up pretty high: link

edit: And you definitely can't beat that price.

The 9250 is woefully outdated and too slow for any newer games at reasonable settings.
http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?page=6&articleid=576&cid=2

The 6200 is much faster,cost the same and is a very cool running low power consumption card.

 

[Ike0069]

I agree with orangat. The 6200 is a much better card than a 9250. I also agree that it will be fine on that PSU.

As for it frying you MB, not sure about that. But I do know that Dell MB/case/PSU's are different from standard ATX designs. You can't always just mix and match these parts as they are proprietarty.