Just a question

[ell46]

I'd like to share something I didn't know when I had my PC upgraded last year, sorry I'm not up with the jargon perhaps someone who is can explain better.

 

I only wanted a better graphic card and was told that my power supply wasn't good enough to handle the best card on the market. It seemed at the time that if I replaced X then Y wouldn't cope, then Z wouldn't cope so ended up having the whole thing re-built. I thought you could just replace things and not have to consider other things.

[Sync182]

Not so simple.

 

The output of your power supply is the key thing. 200W, 350W, 400W, etc...

 

The bigger your devices (eg hard drive, DVD drive, graphics card, fans), the more power they consume to run. The more devices you have installed, the more power they consume to run.

 

So...your PC guy could be right. If the graphics card you're getting has its own cooling fan, then it will consume more power...you need to be sure your power supply can cope with the extra demand.

 

 

 

When I upgraded my PC a while back, I wanted to get a new mainboard (my previous one blew up the 12V power rail, so things just didn't work). Turned out that I had to get a new CPU to go in it (new mainboard wouldn't support my old CPU), had to get new RAM to go in it (new mainboard wouldn't support my old RAM), had to replace the video card (no AGP slot in the new mainboard for my old card to go into), and had to buy an ISA card so I could continue to use the IDE devices that work perfectly well. Then had to upgrade the power supply as well so that all of those devices would run in one case.

 

 

 

Hope that clears it up a bit.

Edited August 3, 2012 by Sync182

[ell46]

Thanks Sync182, that is a much better explanation that I could give and it's easily understood. I'm married to my IT guy so don't have to worry about getting ripped off, problem is I sit here looking intelligent while he explains, nod in all the right places and let him get on with it, he wasn't here to ask today.