my power supply in my e-machine is Bestec ATX-300W. Can it handle ATI-RADEON X1650? power requirements seem to be 350W. Will it help to unplug my disk drive since I play games off hard drive anyway. Do I risk frying my board or something?
Another post about this one eh?
To be honest, I wouldn't be happy running that power supply no matter what Graphics card you have, not only is it low wattage, it's low budget, therefore low quality, and it has a reasonable chance of frying whatever graphics card you put in.
Since you were initially aiming for an 8800, you must have a reasonable amount to spend. Buy a proper Power supply, like a Hiper 480W or above, then buy the fastest Graphics card you can with what you have left.
ALWAYS make sure you have a good power supply before making any upgrades
I think you might possibly be needing a tiny bit more power but I think you can manage... (If you dont do overclocking or something that requires more power)
I would like to give it a go. My machine is E-machine T5048. I'm not running multiple drives BTW. What are symptoms of insufficient power problems? Can I damage more than just the video card? I won't overclock as advised. I don't think these ATI cards overclock anyways. Any other suguestions?
The symptoms of insufficient power are crashes and shutdowns. The symptoms of having a cheap power supply, and having insufficient power are crashes, graphical distortion, odd noises, smoke and fire, not to mention blowing some fuses. A 300W PSU when it goes up can easily trip a 13A fuse. That gives you some idea of the force involved when a cheap PSU goes.
This, needless to say, could potentially damage every component in your PC.
I agree with sammorris you really need a plus 400 watt power supply.
I have also have the x1650pro and I have noticed a slight decrease in quality (brightness, etc) on my monitor using a 450 watt poer supply.
Break down a buy a new power suply it is worth it.
The brightness is irrelevant, you'll soon know if the card has enough power. The data's sent digitally, low power doesn't mean lower brightness (it's probably because the drivers for it have a lower Gamma setting, adjust it in Catalyst control panel, if there's low power, you'll get crashes or defects in the image, such as things being the wrong colour.
