PSU for a Radeon 8500?

[Slychilde]

My girlfriend has been asking me about video cards lately. She decided on either a gf 4 4400 or a radeon 8500. I looked at the specs for the 4400 (PNY) and it said it requires a 300W PSU. I knew she didn't have that big of a psu, but I checked and lo and behold she has a 200W PSU! Go Gateway. Anyways, I was wondering, do you think a radeon 8500 would work? I looked all over their website and dl'd the manual for the 8500 and I found no documentation on PSU requirements.

I don't think I'll be able to put in a different PSU either without putting in a new mobo and cpu, because it's using a PIII 750 slot whatevah, not socket 370. The Heatsink is attached right onto the cpu, but the fan is attached to the PSU and vented onto the cpu...

Yes, I know these vid cards are a bit much for a 750, but she wants to see how the card works out before she spends more money! She's using a tnt 2 right now.

 

[Silversinksam]

I really don't know, but I can tell you this:

You have 102 posts and there are several Enermax 300w+ PSU's for sale in the classified section

 

[Slychilde]

I really don't know, but I can tell you this:

You have 102 posts and there are several Enermax 300w+ PSU's for sale in the classified section

LOL! That would be good! How would I cool her heatsink then, though? The fan is 120mm I think, and screwed right into the PSU. The air is then vented onto the CPU by a plastic vent (/boggle). There is no actual fan on the heatsink, and it is hot! I touched it and it was really warm.

Sooo, my 2nd question is: Would it be really hard to mod the 120mm fan onto an enermax PSU?

If she can run the radeon without a new psu that would be preferrable, however.

 

[deez]

Just attach one or more fans to the heatsink directly with screws and yank out all that plastic junk. I think a 300W PSU will definitely be necessary for any new AGP card

 

[#18]

.

Don't waste money on good video cards IF you are not going to upgrade that PIII 750MHZ CPU.

I've tested before. A a radeon 8500 with a PIII 733 MHZ CPU ONLY get a score of 4900 points on 3DMark2001, 5200 points on PIII 800MHZ, And the score went up to 8000+ on other systems with xp or P4 processors. (That's all with the SAME ONE radeon 8500 retail 275/275). and on that PIII800MHZ system, I've overclocked 8500 to 300/310, score on 3DMark2001 only went up to 5400.

SO, you MUST upgrade to a XP or P4 processor at the same time you get a radeon 8500 or something else like that. It is waste of money to use those kind of top line video card on PIII 750MHZ system!

 

[Warlord2]

I agree with #18 you need a faster cpu to take advantage of the card. See if she likes the Radeon 7500 only $70 on pricewatch and it would fit her cpu better. Its supposed to be a little better thin my gf2 ultra and this thing can handle any game out there so she should have not problem with it.