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| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 |  Posted - Jul 25 2008 : 1:05AMHi folks. The computer I ordered a few weeks back showed up today and I am very pleased. My question is how rigid power supply recommendations are. I am using a 430watt PSU and my Nvidia 8800GT thinks it should have a minimum of 500watts. (You should know i have a 550 watt PSU that I can swap in if necessary but I like the 430 watt one because it is very quiet). I haven't tried playing any games yet but Crysis is installing as I type this. So anyway, my question is if i should be worried about using an underpowered power supply along with if you folks think i would notice a graphics performance difference with more power. Or if i should just go with an attitude of "if it works it works". There have been no signs the card is underpowered. Got a 3dMark score of 10836. I may just be being paranoid but this is one of those things where i feel like being safe over sorry, remember my last graphics board caught fire. Thanks for the help tech talk readers (all 5 of you). [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Jul 25 2008 : 4:41AM [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Jul 25 2008 : 4:45AM [Link] |
| Zoid Senior Member Boobies and Anal 2004 Posts 5/04 | Posted - Jul 25 2008 : 10:32AM [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Jul 25 2008 : 10:38AM Non-SLI 500watt or greater SLI:600 watt or greater. I played Crysis on high settings for about an hour earlier and things are totally stable. I will look into switching PSUs when I add the 3 other hard drives I have sitting here and the 2 other DVD RW drives, and a multi card reader. For now i am just thrilled to be able to compute from the privacy of my own house. [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Jul 25 2008 : 1:47PM As noted, your graphics card isn't the only thing that needs power. Just about everything in your PC needs some portion of the power at a given time. A hard drive is going to be a constant drain on power. A DVD drive will suck as much as it needs when it's used. I just think it's better to have a comfortable margin of unused capacity with any given component. [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Jul 25 2008 : 4:07PM Just so you know right now I am running just these things. 1 x Western Digital SE16 500GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB Cache 8.9MS NCQ Hard Drive OEM 3YR MFR Warranty 1 x Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Dual Core Processor LGA775 2.53GHZ 1066FSB 3MB Retail Box 1 x ASUS P5Q ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 3PCI SATA2 Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard 1 x Liteon LH-20A1L DVD+RW 2 hex 8X16 DVD-RW 2 hex 6X16 DL 8X SATA Lightscribe Black DVD Writer OEM 1 x OCZ Titanium XTC PC2-8500 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-1066 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit 1 x XFX GeForce 8800GT 512MB 625MHZ 1.8GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out DIRECTX10 Video Card So for the moment 430 watts is probably going to be just fine. [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Jul 25 2008 : 7:48PM If you do add 3 more hard drives, I would say you probably will want more power available. Don't take my word as gospel because I know nothing about power supplies. I am just guessing. I don't know where Bob is but I suspect he would know for sure. Or maybe Drew would. [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Jul 26 2008 : 1:36AM Ever look inside one? I've taken a few apart (caution: electric shock hazard; risk of great bodily injury or death; no user-serviceable parts inside; refer all repairs to a qualified service person; there is no more important safety rule than to wear these: safety glasses; etc.), and the quality of the components varies amazingly from one to the next. Some of them look like the innards of the shittiest imaginable early 60's made-in-Japan 49 cent toy car or something; others (like an Antec one I opened up) are quite substantial looking. It's hard to see how a 300 or 400 watt rating for one of the crap ones means the same as a similar rating for a good one. [Link] |
| PL Senior Member God hates us all, you know it's true, God hates this place. - Slayer 1726 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Jul 26 2008 : 3:59AM Anyway, going by [url=http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2008&p_created=1168273396&p_sid=L6X6pI9j&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=2160&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J hex 2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NCw0JnBfcHJvZHM9MiZwX2NhdHM9MCZwX3B2PTEuMiZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT hex JnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9ODgwMCBwb3dlcg**&p_li=&p_topview=1]link[/url], I'd be willing to bet you need to be around the 25 amp on a rail area. World Class Adult Reviews Edited by - PL on 7/26/2008 4:00:41 AM [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Jul 26 2008 : 4:25AM [Link] |
jayo  All-Star Member 2117 Posts 7/04 | Posted - Jul 26 2008 : 1:09PM Just sitting here in pure ignorance of your situation, I think a 500w p/s is fine. You're running any of that neon light crap, are you? By all means check up on it, but I wouldn't lose sleep over it while you do. [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Jul 27 2008 : 8:35PM Yes. In the old days, we got by with 200 watt power supplies. But how many people left their computers running 24/7 in those days? I'm assuming you're talking about the days before Windows even came along. Hard, continuous use puts more strain on the hardware. Especially if it is already being pushed. I do think 500 watts should be enough for CQ's application but I don't want to give him bad advice not knowing for sure. [Link] |
| Bob All-Star Member 5516 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Jul 27 2008 : 9:44PM Those 8800GTs are power-hungry. It should take you 20 minutes max to effect the switch. [Link] |
| jayo All-Star Member 2117 Posts 7/04 | Posted - Jul 27 2008 : 11:38PM I'm not an engineer, I'm just sayin' as an interested hobbyist. Used to be the p/s ran a motherboard, several daughter cards, at large floppy and a large hard drive, and sometimes the monitor too. Now the monitor is separate, there are fewer daughter cards, if any, there's often only one HDD and one DVD or CD-ROM, if any. There are serial devices but they sometimes use powered hubs. I just wonder if the demand is really there unless you're running a file server with lots of HDDS, or you've got all those pretty neon lights, et al. [Link] |
| jayo All-Star Member 2117 Posts 7/04 | Posted - Jul 28 2008 : 9:38PM In the future I'll try to limit my opinions to lesbian porn. [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Jul 28 2008 : 9:45PM Or leave them be. The antec 430 doesn't not seem to be under performing compared to an antec 550. My geforce 8800gt is performing fine under the conditions it has been given. [Link] |
| jayo All-Star Member 2117 Posts 7/04 | Posted - Jul 28 2008 : 9:56PM I was looking at cards recently and saw where one said he needed a certain number of amps on a particular line, and p/s's typically call out the amp loads on each line. I bought a lesser card that didn't have a power requirement. I'm out of my depth on this. I'll defer to others for advice on what you should do, but my guess is that if your card wants 500w, you should put the 550w p/s in and find a way to muffle the sound w/o blocking airflow. [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Jul 28 2008 : 10:03PM [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Jul 28 2008 : 10:03PM [Link] |
| Bob All-Star Member 5516 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 18 2008 : 3:44AM They also have an online PSU Buying Guide. Using your posted specs and their calculator (note their disclaimers), your power needs fall into the range of 430 watts assuming that your +12V rails have at least 24 amps combined. According to them, for each additional 7200 RPM hard drive, your power needs would increase by about 30 watts, and each additional GB of RAM would require an additional 16 watts. If you added another graphics card in SLI, your power needs would increase by about 170 watts and the amperage on your +12V rails would need to be at least 34A combined. [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 18 2008 : 4:27AM [Link] |
| jayo All-Star Member 2117 Posts 7/04 | Posted - Aug 18 2008 : 9:45PM I had been wondering, so now I'm resting easy. [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 18 2008 : 9:48PM [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 18 2008 : 9:51PM Sometimes I forget about these things. [Link] |
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| Bob All-Star Member 5516 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 19 2008 : 2:19AM [Link] |
| Bob All-Star Member 5516 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Sep 6 2008 : 4:10PM This engine attempts to factor in more hardware parameters than Newegg's engine and seems better updated as to the newest available components. On the whole, its recommended wattages appear to be lower (less conservative?) than NewEgg's recommendations. As with Newegg, the big disclaimer is to focus primarily on the amperage of a PSU's +12V, +5V, and +3.3V rails rather than on its total wattage. [Link] |
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