Will my power supply unit or motherboard fry up?

first of all, dell has so many tricks to dupe their buyers, change machine and compute

The wattage of a power supply is the maximum wattage it can provide. It will not fry a motherboard by having too many watts available, as that's just it's maximum load. As for the motherboard, there are several things to consider: What socket it uses (this is what decides whether you use Intel or AMD chips, and also decides which Intel or AMD chips you can use (as there are different sockets by each manufacturer). What speeds of CPUs it supports. Since some processors run faster than others in the same family (like newer chips run faster than older chips that came out with older motherboards) the motherboard may not support the speed of processor that you want to put in, even if the sockets match. What type of RAM it uses. Usually this is either DDR or DDR2 nowadays. Whether you want to use two graphics cards or not. Whether you want integrated graphics or not (or what other integrated features you want). For power supplies, a 500 W power supply is generally more than enough for a standard system. Maybe even overkill, but that way you have room to expand.

It is only a matter of time before your power supply burns up under that load. When it does, it can also take out your motherboard, processor and video card. Is the $40 for a new power supply worth the ri$k?

You better invest in a new power supply before you fry the motherboard, your new graphics card, or the CPU. Underpowering your computer can lead to horrendous physical damage to your hardware, not smart.

A 450 W PSU costs about 50$, invest in one.

I'd say you should get another power supply...they're pretty cheap these days. For under $75-100 ish you should be able to find one more than ample for your needs. I'd suggest you look on a website like newegg.com, as stores like bestbuy usually don't stock a decent assortment of them, but, if you must, you can probably find one or two at them, albeit overpriced.

Hope this helped.

-Joe

Yeah... over time your power supply will burn out and your video card could become damaged from being power starved.

get a 500w power supply. if you manage to get in with 160w then put a cd in it will start and then have to reset because there is not enough power. Usually your computer will just reset

Why don't you just buy a 300w or higher power supply?

Why, when you are obviously aware of the poissibilities, do you try something as nonsensical as this???

I suggest you take a look at Ohms law.