Hey, im wondering if any can help, i just got a HP pavilion elite bought a Nivia 8600 pny gts to install into it, though im playing direct X 10 smooth on low settings as is,, and i notice the wire that goes to the card a BLK n white double wire, from mother board isnt quite the end on it though theyre both double wire,,, seems to be aux power of some sort, can anyone identify this wire or end types ill need? , also the HP came with power supply 300w and Nivia says it needs 350 minimum,, well b4 i get looking for new power supply prolly a 350w being that iv heared thats all the mother board can handle (hp told me)
im wondering if itrs too low of power could it hurt something or would i simply not be getting max performance?

THNX in advance

the black and white wire you're looking at is probably the video card's fan wires which should be attached to the video card itself, not the motherboard. It should be a 3 or 4 pin wire. The additional power connector is in the back of the card and it should be a PCI-E 6 Pin connector coming straight from your power supply. (Your video card should have a Molex - PCI 6 pin converter if you need it)

As for HP telling you that 300W is all the motherboard can handle is a lie. There's no amount of power a motherboard can handle per say. Try to run he 8600 with your 300W PSU and see what happens. It wont break your computer, but might restart it or freeze and you'll have to restart. If that's the case get a new Power supply.

Firstly i second the advice above, it's all good.

Secondly i would advise you to take back/send back that card and try to get your money back/some voucers. This is because you say you want to play DX10 games, the 8600gts which you have chosen has abysmal performance in DX10 games. I would recommend spending a little more on something like an ATI HD3850.