Mark Twain wrote:
Here's a diagram and pics of the
back of the 8500:

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-produ...nual_en-us.pdf

http://i65.tinypic.com/29qi4h0.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/689ff6.jpg

These were the power supplies I found on Newegg:

https://www.newegg.com/Power-Supplies/SubCategory/ID-58


I'll go with Sparkle and the Platinum
specs but isn't 600W allot? Will these
be available for some time or are they
like the HD's and better get them while
I can?

Also what about the 780?

Here's a diagram and the specs although
not good.

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global...idebook_en.pdf

http://i64.tinypic.com/166yczd.jpg

Robert


With regard to this...

"but isn't 600W allot"

Increasing the max power rating of the supply, doesn't
affect how much it draws from the wall. Not for *small*
changes in capacity (like changing from a 500W to a 600W,
the effect would be minimal).

If the motherboard uses 100W, a high efficiency 600W supply
would draw 110W from the wall, and release 10W of heat
through the PSU cooling fan. So rather than "running up
your electric bill" with the 600W number, it is drawing 110W
at idle. It would only hit 600W, if you bought a couple $1000
video cards and installed them and increased the internal
electrical load.

If you go too far up the curve, you might pay a price on
efficiency and waste heat. Maybe a 1600W supply would release
20W into the room, when suppling 100W. The efficiency at low
load isn't as good as it is half way out. A 1600W supply
might be highly efficient at 800W of loading. And less
efficient at other extremes.

When I pick a power supply for you:

1) It might not look like it, but I'm trying to keep the
price down.

2) I try not to specify "junk" for people. Yes, you can find
a power supply for $20. But, if it only lasts for 3 months,
and it doesn't have OVP or OCP, what would the damage to your
computer cost ? I try to pick supplies where I think there is
a possibility they have a minimal set of protections.

3) The industry wants to raise the prices. To increase their
margin, they want to sell higher capacity supplies. Yet,
if I shopped for a 350W unit, the replacement retail ones
might "all be crap". So I have to adjust my selections,
to the more mainstream units. The ones that maybe I can get
a review rating. Or, enough people are purchasing them, I
can get some idea from the Newegg reviews, as to whether
they're good or not.

The last one I bought here, was an EVGA 650W G2. Do I need
650W ? No! I don't own any $1000 video cards that suck
down 300W. The one in this machine (an Enermax) is
465W, which is plenty. And that was back in the days
when 465W was pretty generous, and that was more the
"sweet spot" at the time.

There are hundreds of supplies on the Newegg site that
would probably nominally meet your requirements. But you
have to make sure you have a laundry list of requirements,
like how many cables do you actually need, do the cables
have to be extra long. So there are refinements of the
search process, which aren't in the handy menu on the left.

You could also use a measuring tape, and see how much room
you have realistically, for a longer supply. Maybe a 5.5"
long one or a 6.5" long one would work. And by keeping
the power rating down, I was hoping to keep the chassis
of the supply short as well. (The 1600W one might be eight
inches long. Generally, when they switch to multiple
transformers for 12V, that makes the unit longer. Such
units with separate transformers aren't all that common
today.)

Paul