upgrading psu in a Compaq?

[navyac]

I have a compq presario and I am looking to buy a new video card. The card requires a 300 watt power supply and I only have a 200. Is it possible to add a new PSU, such as this? Thank you. Also what is better, and Asus 6800 or an EVGA? THx again for all the help.

 

[Lemodular]

I just recently upgraded the PSU of a HP Pavillion for a friend. I tried to match as closely to the original voltages of each rail but it was of larger wattage. It was a MicroATX form factor and it ran fine. Assuming that the MB power socket on the Presario is universal, it should be ok. Also, look out for any unique plugs on the Presario.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: navyac
I have a compq presario and I am looking to buy a new video card. The card requires a 300 watt power supply and I only have a 200. Is it possible to add a new PSU, such as this? Thank you. Also what is better, and Asus 6800 or an EVGA? THx again for all the help.

what are your other specs? compaq hasnt used a 200 watt psu in the last 4 years. the rest of your pc might be too outdated or slow slow to even fool with a 6800 vid card. i have a presario from summer 2003 and it came with a 250 watt psu.

 

[AzNPinkTuv]

i have a pressario 5333 that i ****** up and i noticed it was 260 or so watts.. mighta been 250...

personally i'd get a 3rd party powersupply and just connect that to the video card and thats it =)

 

[jdkick]

Post the model of your computer. It will depend on the design of the chassis and corresponding form factor.

One of my machines is a Compaq Presario as well. It uses an ATX mid-tower chassis so any ATX PSU is interchangable. I've got it running with a 485W Enermax NoiseTaker so I can support additional memory, a PCI-Express card and some additional drives.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: AzNPinkTuv
i have a pressario 5333 that i ****** up and i noticed it was 260 or so watts.. mighta been 250...

personally i'd get a 3rd party powersupply and just connect that to the video card and thats it =)

yeah you had a 250 watt psu. compaq doesnt use a 260 watt. a 6800 would be a waste of money if has a 1 ghz cpu.

 

[n7]

Most likely yes.

The biggest issue is usually getting it inside the case w/o ripping everything else out, since usually those cases are damn tiny.

 

[navyac]

its a s3300nx and its like 3 yrs old, but I called Compaq and they said without the upgrading option u can only upgrade to another 200 watt psu. Seems kinda stupid, but my specs are an Athlon Xp 2600 with 1 gig of ram and a 120 gig hard drive and im running a 9600 radeon now. The computer originally came with an MX440. I have never upgrade a PSU so I cant say if it looks ATX, but I would assume. Thx for the help

 

[navyac]

Originally posted by: AzNPinkTuv
i have a pressario 5333 that i ****** up and i noticed it was 260 or so watts.. mighta been 250...

personally i'd get a 3rd party powersupply and just connect that to the video card and thats it =)

so u can run 2 psus at the same time????

 

[mwmorph]

which one does it look like?
http://www.hipro.com.tw/product/Desktop_index.htm

 

[navyac]

its ATX, oddly enough made by that company Hipro. It says on the psu that it is 250 max wattage. Model #HP-D2537F3R

 

[AzNPinkTuv]

should work if you get some ****** psu a nd just plug that into the molex ur video acrd requires =)

ive heard of people doing it b4

 

[jdkick]

If the chassis is designed to accept a standard ATX power supply then you're good to go.

Looking to the future, go with a major brand product (Enermax gets my vote) that's rated >400W with dual +12V rails (18A or more on each rail). Also, the chassis used for a boxed desktop system is often small, so you may want to look for a power supply with modular connectors (ie: Enermax "Liberty" series)... otherwise, you'll have to get creative with routing/hiding the unused cables so that you don't block airflow.

As mentioned, i've got a Compaq as well (SR1710NX) and installed a 485W Enermax NoiseTaker to support additional memory, drives and mid-range video card (Sapphire X1600XT at the moment).

 

[navyac]

Originally posted by: jdkick
If the chassis is designed to accept a standard ATX power supply then you're good to go.

Looking to the future, go with a major brand product (Enermax gets my vote) that's rated >400W with dual +12V rails (18A or more on each rail). Also, the chassis used for a boxed desktop system is often small, so you may want to look for a power supply with modular connectors (ie: Enermax "Liberty" series)... otherwise, you'll have to get creative with routing/hiding the unused cables so that you don't block airflow.

As mentioned, i've got a Compaq as well (SR1710NX) and installed a 485W Enermax NoiseTaker to support additional memory, drives and mid-range video card (Sapphire X1600XT at the moment).

did u add a different mobo??

 

[jdkick]

No, motherboard is still the same. I just bought this system a few weeks ago actually - it's the Compaq SR1710NX. It uses a decent board (ASUS A8AE-LE) using the ATI Xpress 200 chipset. I already had the 485W Enermax lying around, so in it went. It was a pain trying to route/hide the spare cabling tho, which is why I mentioned the idea of getting a power supply with modular connectors.

I'm going to run this machine until i'm ready for a new build later this year (X2 for me).