will a generic 300w PSU be able to BOOT an 8800gt?

LOUISSSSS

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 2005
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i'd like to diagnose my friends dell which only has a 300w generic psu. it has a PCI-Ex slot so i can would like to know if i can drop in my 8800gt just to see if i can get into bios and windows to grab some info... will it hurt my video card or his psu?

total on time would be 10mins mad

Kicking over to PSUs

- AmberClad (Video Mod)
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
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300W Dell PSU? Almost certainly. They're very conservatively rated (and, I believe, Delta-made).
 

yh125d

Diamond Member
Dec 23, 2006
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Easily. You're not stressing anything, so you're barely going to be above idle wattages
 

PianoMan

Senior member
Jan 28, 2006
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Confirmed. My Main Rig below draws 170W at idle and 260W while gaming as measured with a Kill-A-Watt at the wall outlet.
 

LOUISSSSS

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 2005
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Originally posted by: PianoMan
Confirmed. My Main Rig below draws 170W at idle and 260W while gaming as measured with a Kill-A-Watt at the wall outlet.

are you confirming that a 300watt delta PSu from a DELL system can boot up an 8800gt and allow me to get into desktop to change some settings?
 

yh125d

Diamond Member
Dec 23, 2006
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Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
Originally posted by: PianoMan
Confirmed. My Main Rig below draws 170W at idle and 260W while gaming as measured with a Kill-A-Watt at the wall outlet.

are you confirming that a 300watt delta PSu from a DELL system can boot up an 8800gt and allow me to get into desktop to change some settings?

Yes, easily so. You're very much overestimating power requirements
 

LOUISSSSS

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 2005
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UPDATE: so i brought in my 8800gt today and plugged it into the pci-ex slot. and i could NOT boot up. i'm aware that i need a 6-pin power adapter and i had one, but there were 0 4-pin molex plugs to put the adapter on. what a retarded design lol.

so when i tried to boot up w/o the 6pin, all i got was no video, no 8800gt fan spinning and a long beep.

dell psu = failure w/o 4-pin plugs, all i saw were some sata power plugs
 

yh125d

Diamond Member
Dec 23, 2006
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Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
Originally posted by: yh125d
http://www.performance-pcs.com...info&products_id=20580 + included molex -> PCI-e adapter?

lol this is such a waste of time for shipping and money for a useless item. all psus SHOULD HAVE 4-pin molex's. but this dell doesn't lol.

Like I've said before, the lengths OEM's go to limit your upgrade options... Makes me really not care too much for them. I mean, do they really have to go out of their way to make it near impossible to work on? sheesh...
 

Gillbot

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
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Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
UPDATE: so i brought in my 8800gt today and plugged it into the pci-ex slot. and i could NOT boot up. i'm aware that i need a 6-pin power adapter and i had one, but there were 0 4-pin molex plugs to put the adapter on. what a retarded design lol.

so when i tried to boot up w/o the 6pin, all i got was no video, no 8800gt fan spinning and a long beep.

dell psu = failure w/o 4-pin plugs, all i saw were some sata power plugs

You need the 6 pin for the card to work IIRC.
 

LOUISSSSS

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 2005
8,771
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Originally posted by: Gillbot
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
UPDATE: so i brought in my 8800gt today and plugged it into the pci-ex slot. and i could NOT boot up. i'm aware that i need a 6-pin power adapter and i had one, but there were 0 4-pin molex plugs to put the adapter on. what a retarded design lol.

so when i tried to boot up w/o the 6pin, all i got was no video, no 8800gt fan spinning and a long beep.

dell psu = failure w/o 4-pin plugs, all i saw were some sata power plugs

You need the 6 pin for the card to work IIRC.

yea i'm aware now... at the time, i didn't have anything to work with so i tried to plug it in and power it on and hope that it would at least boot up under low-power circumstances...
 

themisfit610

Golden Member
Apr 16, 2006
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I had the same problem with a little Inspiron desktop I had lying around. I was able to flash the BIOS to support an X2 4800+ (over the stock Sempron 3000+), and support 4GB of RAM, but the PSU didn't have enough molex connectors to connect my 8800gt :(

I ended up getting a new PSU (which wouldn't fit in the case, wonderfully enough).

After much hymming and hawwing, I decided to just build a whole new box, and give the Dell to a friend :)

-MiSfit