Will my PSU be ok for this upgrade?

well i have a compaq thats currently running a X700pro PCI-E video card i was thinking about getting a 8600GT (which pulls 10 more watts then the x700pro) will my 250 psu be enough? I did a few psu calculators online and they all said with the new 8600gt i would be pulling about 236 watts total...

 

ummm.....I think 350 watt is recommended. It really just depends on what all you have in your system when it all boils down to it. I have a 650 watt cause I'm buying another 8800gts. If it were me I'd go with at least a 450 watt to a 500 watt psu. That's just me though.

 

well all i have in my system is

CPU
2 stick ddr2 ram
1 sata hd
dvdrw burner
x700 pro

 

The model of your cpu is the most important specification,I think your really pushing your current psu with with the hardware you have "depending upon cpu" does your computer hot near the psu after playing a game?

 

Celeron D 356 3.33GHZ LGA775
2 sticks DDR2 533 pc4200 ram
16x dvdrw burner
x700 pro (which would be replaced with 8600gt)

heres pic of computer i have will this psu fit in my computer?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817170010

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/83-107-288-12.jpg

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/83-107-288-11.jpg

 

You need to read off the side of the psu thats in to see if its ATX,if so any ATX psu will fit if its a proprietry compaq psu you may have to buy one from them but looking at the screws it looks ATX

I wouldnt recommend spending so little on a psu your gambling all your hardware on a $20 psu,

heres a good deal http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171016

at a psuh this is an ok psu but I'd really wanna spend more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023

 

label on my psu reads

ATX-250-12Z REV

 

Where do you go to do this please? Any links? Sorry to jump in confused

 

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

Thanks, that will be handy soon

 

Good that you've done your homework.

A PSU run that close to its limits will run hot, which will affect its service life. Think of it this way: if you ran your car with your foot planted on the accelerator 95% of the time, how long would the engine last? Not very.

A draw of 236 watts (assuming the calculator was accurate) means that you're running that PSU at 95% of its full capacity. While the engineers that designed the PSU may have built in a margin for error, you shouldn't count on it. It will take very little to push the draw above what the PSU can provide -- then you have rather poor doorstop, and you'll be lucky if the damage stops with the PSU. PSUs that die in action because they are overloaded sometimes take other components with them -- like your motherboard.

And the sizing calculator will have made some assumptions about the draw imposed by the minor peripherals. Were those assumptions reasonably accurate for your system? Again, you have almost no margin for error.

Speaking for myself, I like to have at least a 50% margin for errors of those kinds. For a 236-watt load, I'd like to have a PSU rated at a minimum of 350 watts. And more if I was thinking of adding peripherals that would increase the load on the PSU.

 

Here's some more PSU size calculators:

<http://www.adecy.com/psu/>
<http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/>

 

Your pics look like you have a standard ATX PSU. If that's the case, a standard ATX PSU should fit.

But it looks like you could use a little more information on replacing PSUs. Check out this link: <http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/362>.