New Vid card / Power question

[Ddraig85]

I am thinking about upgrading my video card and I have picked this one out:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814195002

The problem that I am facing is with the power supply. I have the required Watts, but it says that it has to directly connect to the power supply. I assume that this is means that a cord must connect to it like one does to the rom drives, hard drive, motherboard, etc. I looked at all the connectors, and the only different one that I found looks like this:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c135/DragonMaster2385/0904062208.jpg

Is this what I need or is there something else? I only ask because newegg says "Connect directly to the power supply with a 6 pin PCI Express power connector" and I only see 4 holes in the image above. Please help.

 

[pmonett]

Very good choice for upgrading. I do hope you are sure that your motherboard will work with it.

On the other hand, you're out of luck with the connector. The picture you referenced is that of a floppy-drive power connector and it will not work for your video card.

The video card you have chosen is a demanding piece of equipment, and requires a new power connector. It is not enough to see that your power supply states that it is rated for a given level, many power supplies are not capable of functioning at 100% of their rating and fail at 90% or lower (meaning they shut down or burn out depending on how much you paid for them).

You need to ensure that your power supply is of the required quality to indeed power your top-level graphics card as well as the rest of the components. If so, you will only need to purchase a converter for the new connector - they do exist, probably on Newegg. You'll also need to free an existing 4-pin power lead, probably by buying a doubler and putting your optical units on that, leaving the other to connect to the graphics card via the converter.

If not, you'll need to buy a new PSU and ensure that it has that connector. Don't buy cheap - you'd be surprised at how many PC problems are actually caused by low-quality PSUs.

Pascal.

 

[paparazi]

The connector you require is a molex to PCI-e adaptor (as long as your power supply is up to the job) that would be a QUALITY BRANDED 450watt unit or higher, preferably a newer version 2.0 or above (with seperate power rails) although I ran a similar high powered setup on an older version Enermax 470watt unit (also with an adapter for the PCI-e and 20 to 24pin main power plug) with no issues.
Note* newer power supplies have at least 1 of these PCIe connectors in their wiring ready for this purpose.
The thing to remember is give the graphics card a seperate harness on it's own (nothing piggy backed)
This adapter:

http://www.power-on.com/connectors-adapters.html

Are you sure your motherboard supports a PCIe graphics card? does it have the required PCIe slot (NOT JUST PCI!!)

Martin



We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[Ddraig85]

Yes, I currently have a 256mb ATI X800 XL that is also a PCI Express x16.

Thank you for your assistance. I will look for a converter because I have several of the 4 pin connectors that are free. I found this connector on newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812201004

I imagine this will work. Truth be told, I don't know anything about power supplies but I built my rig for gaming and I haven't had any problems with the power supply so far. I might get a new one just for good measure when I get the video card. Thanks for your help.

 

[pmonett]

As far as power supplies are concerned, the rule is simple : you get what you pay for. Buy cheap, and your PSU will not be able to hold the rating it has for any amount of time.

Check out this article for a better idea of the issue.

Pascal

 

[Ddraig85]

What is an appropriate price range that I should expect for a power supply?

 

[pmonett]

If you check out the article I linked to, you will see the models and their performance. By checking their cost on Newegg, I found that the Enermax model is $110, the Silverstone SZ56ZF is $138, the Silverstone ST56F is $119 and the Cooler Master, the better all-round performer, is $120.

You'll agree that this is all in the $110-$140 range, with $120 being the actual value of two of the models (yeah, I discounted the one that comes last all the time - why go for the worst performer ?).

Personally, I think the efficiency in light and full load is important (my CPU is always occupied, but that does not impose the most drain on the PSU until I'm gaming), and it's Cooler Master that tops those two categories without even being the most expensive.

It's up to you, of course, but I think, to answer your question, that it is safe to say that any PSU under $100 is not to be trusted. Not for a high-end machine anyway.

Pascal.

 

[paparazi]

The converter you chose only goes to one molex which means fewer terminals to carry the current load.
I favour the double Y type for this reason, though I guess the singles must work otherwise they wouldn't sell them.

I'm as paranoid about generic power supplies as the next man but I wouldn't necessarily agree with pmonett on the need to spend $120 on a PSU.
This one is just over half his recommended price and I certainly wouldn't say being well under $100 that it was NOT TO BE TRUSTED. (Just plain Jane, no pretty lights or anodized casing but they definately work)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103937

Martin



We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[Ddraig85]

I just got my new video card and I don't know if I should have gotten the power supply or not. What are the symtoms of a non sufficient power supply? When I have a window open (such as windows file explorere) and I try to drag it around, it is sluggish. Minimizing and maximizing looks fine, the mouse is fine, so I don't understand why it would do that. Any ideas?

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

This link is worth a star!!

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

Enter your info on your system and it will tell you what the requirements are, good info to have!

 

[pmonett]

A PSU that is not capable of handling the load is going to shut down, so as long as your PC stays up and functional, it's not your PSU that is the problem.

Certainly not for sluggish GUI reaction. The thing that slows the OS down is almost always an excessive amount of apps hogging the available memory. The solution is either increase the memory, or decrease the number of apps that are running (you know, taskbar stuff).

I know people that think 25 icons in the taskbar is fine. Personally, I am horrified if there are more than 5. I can assure you that the GUI is never sluggish for me - unless I've launched five or six CPU-heavy apps concurrently, but then I know why.

If your PC is running, then your PSU is at least enough to run the configuration. The problem is : how close is it to enough ? PSUs that are running at max capacity have more trouble keeping the current stable, and run hot. In these conditions, something is going to break, and it'll be sooner rather than later. Since we're talking about current, don't forget that it is not necessarily the PSU that is going to go first.

You could have problems with your RAM, or a hard disk could behave erratically, or any number of things that you would not necessarily link with the PSU at first thought. It's even hard to tell if there will be a problem at all. You could be fine for months before a problem crops up.

But I wouldn't really worry about it all. You're probably fine. If you really want to be sure, get an electrician to check the stability of the PSU under load. He should be ale to tell you if the unit is straining or not.

Pascal.

 

[Nelviticus]

Sluggish window-dragging sounds like a driver problem. You get the same kind of behaviour when you first install Windows and before you install your video drivers, because at that point you're using the generic VGA drivers that come with Windows.

Did you by any chance switch from an ATI card to an nVidia one (or vice-versa)? If so, uninstall your old drivers then download and install the latest stable ones from the ATI or nVidia web site.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[Ddraig85]

Ya, it was a driver problem. I guess the drivers that came with the card were for a 32 bit system, so I had to go online to get the correct ones. Thanks for the suggestions. On the back of the PSU, there is a little red switch. What is that for? It is currently set on 150v, but the other option is 230v or something.

 

[Nelviticus]

The red switch is so that the PSU can be used in different countries where the mains voltage is different. In the UK it's 240V but in most of Europe it's 110V (I think).

Whatever you do, DON'T change that switch unless you change country - you could fry your whole system.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[Ddraig85]

Oh, ok. Thanks for the info.