Radeon HD 6450 Power Req. Flexible?

[MinorGeek]

Hi. Long time reader, first time poster.

Right, I realize that what I'm about to ask is likely deeply stupid. But allow a man a little unrealistic hope.

I ordered a Dell XPS 8300 last week. It has a 460W power supply, apparently. The card options ranged from the ATI Radeon HD 6450 up the ATI Radeon HD 6870. I opted for the included 6450 as a friend had kindly given me a ASUS Radeon HD 6870 (retail box).

However, I just noticed that AMD lists the power requirements of the 6870 as 500w. More info here:http://www.amd.com/us/products/desk...6870/pages/amd-radeon-hd-6870-overview.aspx#3

Rechecking Dell.com, I see that the card they offer is described as "Single ATI Radeon HD 6870" (my emphasis). I'm guessing it's an OEM variant.

So here's my likely idiotic question. I'm not a gamer. Could I (successfully :sneaky🙂 install the retail 6870 in a PC 40w short of it's power supply requirement?

Thanks for your advice.

 

[LtGoonRush]

The actual power draw of the 6870 is 151W max load, so you should be okay. They put the 500W figure to discourage people with generic crappy power supplies from pushing their luck, but the one in your Dell should be able to cope.

 

[KingFatty]

Also, don't install 10 hard drives, 7 DVD/Blu-ray drives and spin them all up at the same time while running a heavy benchmark like furmark and pluggin in 10 USB devices that pull max current via USB (that might push your total wattage over the limit).

 

[MinorGeek]

Thanks a lot for the help.

I'll be installing a SSD (Intel 320 or 510) and a WD 2TB Caviar Black HDD. I do have four external drives, but they're not connected all of the time.