Upgrade Power Supply?

[Phantom Spaceman]

Hey everyone so awhile ago I got an Alienware Aurora R2. Not bad, not great, whatever lol. Anyways I'd like to upgrade to a better video card but realized I have too weak of a PSU to do so. My question is will any PSU work or should I stick with the Dell ones pulled from other systems available online? Any input would be great thanks in advance.

Here's the one I'm not sure if I have to buy to fit it or if another will work it'll probably be cheaper.

http://www.txcesssurplus.com/servlet/the-9982/Dell-W299G-Alienware-Aurora/Detail

[farmeunit]

What card are you looking at? A Radeon 6790 only requires a 500-watt PSU. I would look at other brands also. There are plenty in that price range that would do well. Probably get a good modular PSU at that.

I'm partial to Antec. I've never had one die on me.

[yxz]

+12V amperage on your psu?

define "better" video card

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Unless you are gonna go for a quad-Crossfire 6990, or a quad-SLI GTX 590. you should be fine with that PSU

[Phantom Spaceman]

Sorry for the late reply here's what I'm looking at getting.

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Mini-HDMI-Lifetime-Warranty-012-P3-1570-AR/dp/B004EHZD5W/ref=pd_vtp_e_40

Worst case scenario...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GCIZ5A/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=newbc06-2

[Another Canuck]

Unless you are gonna go for a quad-Crossfire 6990, or a quad-SLI GTX 590. you should be fine with that PSU

I think the 875w is the one he's looking at. His system now has a 525w PSU, which should still be good enough for most single GPUs.

Edit: Hm, then again, you might be cutting it a bit close with those cards. It might be worth upgrading to a 700w or 800w unit.

[Phantom Spaceman]

I think the 875w is the one he's looking at. His system now has a 525w PSU, which should still be good enough for any single GPU.

Yeah I'd rather not have to upgrade my PSU ATM but if so I'm just wondering if I have to use Dell or if a regular PSU will work. Honestly though, if I could run the graphics above without upgrading that'd be best.

[yxz]

For this test we measure power consumption of only the graphics card, via PCI-Express power connector(s) and PCI-Express bus slot.

Average: 3DMark03 Nature at 1280x1024, 6xAA, 16xAF. This results in the highest power consumption. Average of all readings (12 per second) while the test was rendering (no title screen).

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_6970_Lightning/21.html

[Another Canuck]

Yeah I'd rather not have to upgrade my PSU ATM but if so I'm just wondering if I have to use Dell or if a regular PSU will work. Honestly though, if I could run the graphics above without upgrading that'd be best.

Sorry, I edited my above post. I think you have a PSU upgrade in your future. While the 525w could likely support those cards, you'll be running very close to 100% load, which isn't good as you'll be generating a lot of heat and putting a lot of stress on the PSU. Power supplies are most efficient around 50%, so thats where you want to aim.

It doesn't have to be a Dell. Any PSU will fit. Have a look at power supplies from SeaSonic, Corsair and Antec.

[Phantom Spaceman]

Sorry, I edited my above post. I think you have a PSU upgrade in your future. While the 525w could likely support those cards, you'll be running very close to 100% load, which isn't good as you'll be generating a lot of heat and putting a lot of stress on the PSU. Power supplies are most efficient around 50%, so thats where you want to aim.

It doesn't have to be a Dell. Any PSU will fit. Have a look at power supplies from SeaSonic, Corsair and Antec.

Thanks man I'll check them out for sure, and thanks to everyone else who has helped.