Can a GeForce 8600 GT fit a dell dimension 5150?

Not an easy one. In the first case the DELL 5150 certainly has a PCI x16 slot. Thus, the actual physical connection to the motherboard is fine and possible. The DELL 5150's shipped with an ati x600 card in, if memory serves me. The issue with the machine is the power supply. As I remember the 5150 has a 305w power supply in. Depending on what is inside this is more than fine. If you have added extra memory or hard disks these natrually will take up further power. The next issue is that the DELL 305w power supply does not have an additional graphics card power supply cable. Many new power supply units have dedicated power cables so that the graphics card uses no or little power from the motherboard and is powered on its own 'rail' independenly. As I understand it all 8800 require this.

This is not to say you can't have a go and take some of the spare connectors, but to do so you will need to add cables and swap ends, or at least buy a 'x end cable to a y end cable'. This stuff is well documented around the net.

The reason I know about this is I own the same machine and found myslef in the same predicament a few months ago. I settled on a 8600gt, the last nvidia card that did not require additional power supply. The version I am using is the Fatality Geforce 8600gt profressional job that is a factory overclocked version - core from 540mhz to 620mhz. This has given me nio hastle on thel DELL stock 305w power supply, despite requring a 350w one. Something in this region works well for 85% of things. It is worth noting that the 8600gts does require additiona power support.

If you are good at such things, replace the power unit and by all means add the 8800. If you are unsure I might suggest settling on a 8600gt (rather cheaper too) and cutting the performance losses against cost.

Sorry to be so long winded

RDE

BUY THE 8800GT. As RDE was saying, the power supply is a bit feeble, but the 8800GT comes with an external power supply lead. You then just have to buy an extension which plugs into the powersupply. It's awesome. Now I play Call of Duty: World at War maxed out.

I recommend that you also buy some more RAM. 2GB should be enough.

Taymiester