Looking to upgrade Dell Video Card

[haroldthesage]

I am looking to upgrade the graphics card my Dell Dimension 8400 (3.4 Ghz P4 w/HT, 2.5 GB DDR2 sdram, PCI-E slot,Windows XP) and i was wondering if anyone would have recommendations that preferably cost around $115. Links would be greatly appreciated, also i was looking at buying an nVIDIA 8600GT 1GB would that be a wise decision?

 

[Trotter]

Your computer has a 350W PSU. That will be your limiting factor.

 

[stevei48]

almost any pci card will be way better than the on board video i put a 19.95 on closeout ati card in my compaq and it made a world of difference i can play some games on it as trotter said don't go overboard the power supply in your dell won't take much

 

[Trotter]

The new 9600GT requires a 400W PSU. The 8600GT requires 300W, and the 8600GTS needs 350W.

 

[B.S.O.D.]

Before you make any upgrade that would be worth the money, i would reccomend you to upgrade your PSU to a modest 500 watts. Then i would look at something like a Nvidia 7600GT or a similiar offering from ATI.

 

[veg1992]

wattage doesn't mean as much as Amperage on the 12V rails, and since its a POS Dell PSU, its probably got the 12v Amperage of a lesser wattage PSU because most of its amperage is coming from unnecessary rails

but first thats the core part for you to upgrade before you upgrade your Video Card, with the new Video card, the PSU could crap out and take your whole system with it just because it didn't have enough juice for the video card

 

[Jorsoft]

You couldn't post the specs of your power supply, could ya? or at least post a picture of the sticker on the side that shows everything. That would make this part easier. Unfortunately, as it has been said, Dells usually come with lack luster power supplies and it likely won't support much of a video card.