Dell Dimension E510/5150 Power Supply Upgrade??

[ket820]

All,
I have a Dell E510 which I've upgrade a ton of stuff to. It's a P4 3.2Mhz / 4 GB of mem / 2x 250GB SATA HDD / Hauppauge Tuner Card / e-GeForce 7900 GT KO Video card.
The video card is something that I just added yesterday but from what I can tell the Power supply isn't pushing it enough. I would like to upgrade the power supply but have heard that Dell has a bunch of proprietary junk as far as the ATX adapter is concerned.
My question(s) to anyone that wouldn't mind helping is..."drum role"
A) Can I buy any ATX power supply for this machine? I was looking at like a 500 Watt power supply but I don't want to fry anything?
B) Is the PCI-e power cable that comes out of the power supply cable of powering my video card.
C) Do they make a PCI-e power cable extenstion? The cable that came with the video card is a PCI-e -> (2) Molex connectors.

Thank you in advance to anyone that has any input and I greatly appreciate it.

[Lasher13]

A)No and Yes, Just make sure whatever power supply you buy you get one that has a 24 pin connecter for your motherboard(or you can use a 20 pin with a seperate 4 pin connector to make 24, your choice) Basically if you buy a new ATX do not get one with only a 20 pin connector. It has to say it supports a 24 pin connector regardless. If the new Atx says it supports both 24 pins and 20 pins than your in the clear
B)Could you Rephase that statement, I didnt understand it.
C)I dont see why they wouldn't. They; Are you talking about EVGA? The manufacturer of the video card? Give them a call and see. You need a 6 pin connector for your video card, why would you need to extend that? Im just curious.

[ket820]

Thank you for your quick reply !

For question A regarding the PSU, I was thinking of using a product from Thermaltake (Thermaltake Mini ITX Drive Bay PSU) instead of going through the whole PSU replacement.

For questions B...I don't even understand what I said. A note to proof read so I apologize. What I was trying to ask was "Does the PCI-e power cable that comes out of the PSU powerful enough to power the Video card as well as everything else" The machine is putting out a lot of heat as it now and I am lead to believe that the video card is not receiving the optimal power that it needs.

C) The cable that came with the video card is short and I need another.

[Lasher13]

Lets see, well that drive bay PSU your talking about puts out 250 watts on average. Your video card requires 400 watts minimum. Your current PSU puts out about 300 watts or more I believe, but not much more than 300. I'm gonna go with EVGA on this one and get something that puts out more watts for my PSU in the PSU bay. If your looking for installing a PSU for an easy install, well installing a Drive Bay PSU is just as easy as installing a new PSU for the PSU bay. There wouldn't be a way to combine the two PSU's to come up with 550 watts.
As for your system putting out alot of heat, that is extremely dangerous for not only your new video card, but your CPU as well. We're going to have to mod some cooling into your system if you want your CPU and Video card to last.

(yes I am considering video card manufacturers set a high bar for PSU usage, but its like this, better safe than sorry, why else would they put those requirements on the box.)

For the cable, I would buy just a regular male to female PSU extender and connect the male/female to the cables male or female connector, thus longer cable.

For example heres the PSU cable and below it is the PSU extension and below that is your cable.


PSU>O------------Female <PSU Ends as Female*********************
***************+ <connect these****************************
***************Male <extension ending in male*************** ********
****************l ***********************************************
****************l********************************* ***************
****************l<extension cable***********************************
****************l ************************************************
****************l********************************* ****************
**************Female****************************** ***************
****************+********************************* ***************
**********Female Male*******************************************
***************Y <PCI-E connector Cable ********
****************************+
**********************PCI-E Connecter
****************************+
************************Video card


Now if you wanted to do it the other way around your PSU would end in male and you would flip the extension cord over in the diagram and use the female connetor of the PCI-E cable.

[JPMiller]

Lasher, when you know nothing about the topic, simply decide not to offer advice, saves everyone from spending time correcting you..
I could take the time to dissect your statements, but its easier just to say disregard all of the above...

Ket....
The PSU's used in most, if not all retail builds, use almost exclusively, power supplies that are either proprietary or JUST enough power for the configuration they are shipped with...
Your idea of adding a drive bay Add-On PSU is actually a good one...
All it is, is a supplemental PSU, specifically for powering the video card separately from the rest of the computer...
It takes the burden from the Main PSU and allows for stable clean power directly to the video card...
It is linked to the main PSU and turns on when the rest of the computer does, but is independent of the rest of the system in terms of power...
It has its own PCI-E connector coming from it to power the video card, and its own independant power cord going to the outlet...

So more specifically....
A. Yes, you can replace the PSU in that particular Dell with no compatibility issues, however it may be easier to simply add the Bay PSU to power the VC

B. No, the PCI-E cable coming from the current PSU is most likely NOT enough to power the addition of a decent video card...
Its not really the cable that is in question, but the overall power capability of the PSU to handle more additions...

C. Not sure exactly what your asking there...

[EXreaction]

Friggin expensive though...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153037

Firstly, the only thing proprietary in a Dell system these days are the front panel connectors, but IMHO they are doing what should already be in place as standards.

Secondly, you may have a problem upgrading the power supply. Personally I have never worked with any BTX style Dell system before(my dell is a generation or two older the first BTX styles Dell started using) so I do not know how exactly it is setup.

For those interested:
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1354645


What do you mean by "from what I can tell the Power supply isn't pushing it enough." What exactly is it doing?

[rwkolo@gmail.com]

I researched and bought a new power supply unit from OCZ here is a link. Remove four screws and unplug power supply leads, really easy. Have some zip cords to tie up the additional power leads. http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...dia_sli_ready_
Video card from Newegg.com
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102732
This card is a single slot. SAPPHIRE 100225TXSR Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

[jjkmx]

Do you want to sell your original supply as I have an E510 that the supply just died ?

Thanks ,

[osprey4]

Joe:

First, this thread is two years old. Second, posting your phone number on a public message board is a REALLY bad idea.