Q: am i able to install this card when i am meeting its bare minimum requirements in power? (other than that i am meting ever other requirement) what are the downfalls to running the card on this amount of power?
A: you will need to know: -cpu (type & speed) -memory (total capacity & how many sticks) -total # hard drives and type (IDE/ATA or SATA) -total # of CD/DVD drives and / or burners -brand & model of graphics card if unsure of all this go to cpuid.com and get pcwizard, it will list all this stuff very nicely http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php then go to http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp and put all that info in the proper places and hit "calculate" it should give you a total wattage. If it is less than 300w (which it will probably be) then you are probably ok, then the real question if your power supply can actually handle the capacity of what is stated on the label reliably particularly the +12v combined power since both the CPU and GPU rely on the +12v juice it is very important. Personally I prefer to have a +12v of around 70% or more of the total calculated wattage (so if your PC is calc'd at 300W the combined +12v should be around 210w or 17.5A capacity).