power supply and graphics card

[handyandy]

First of all wow , so many posts asking about graphics cards. They all however seem to be focused around AGP cards. I have just revamed my computer including a new procsers ram and motherboard. I have an intergrated graphics card at the min but i have a free PCI-E slot. So suggest a card , prefrably from a site in the UK. Also i have heard that allot of new cards need an aditinal powersupply , ie they card get all the power from the slot. Is that true? and if true what sort of levels or wattage would you lot suggest? Thanks a lot you guys.

 

[Grisu]

i'm not sure, but I thought that graphic cards that need additional power are exclusively AGP since the AGP-Slot can't deliver the needed power. PCI-E should be able to.

But for modern systems you should make sure that your power supply is able to deliver. IIRC 400-450 Watts should be enough for now.

 

[dannyevilcat]

High end PCI-e video cards have an additional 6-pin connector for more power in addition to what it gets from the slot. You don't need a new power supply neccessarily, since the video card should include an adapter for converting two molex connectors into the 6-pin connection it needs.

However, the molex connections on can't be shared with other devices along the wire, and many people might have problems finding available connectors to use.
New power supplies will have a dedicated 6-pin connector.

Individual cards will have their own power requirements, but keep in mind that the listed requirement is in regards to no name power supplies. A high quality 350w is better than a crap 450w.

I don't know any UK places to buy, but I have heard of http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ which may or may not be a good place to start.

 

[handyandy]

Thanks , i knew that quality is important on the powersupply but at the min i have only a 280 wat supply that came with by case. so i should be looking for around a 350-400 supply?

 

[Zakharov]

280W seems a bit low, but it depends on what components you have in your machine. The best thing to do is to try a new graphics card and then upgrade the PSU only if you have problems.

What cpu/mobo/RAM do you have and what sort of apps are you planning to use this rig for? It helps to know these things as there is no point suggesting a powerful graphics card if you aren't going to need it.

Along with the site that dannyevilcat suggested, I find that there are some good prices at these two sites:

komplett.co.uk

lowestonweb.com

 

[Strontium_Dog]

Go for a 'truepower' type of power supply, if you can stretch to it. These use a seperate supply for each of the cables, and are much more stable than cheap ones, which can start to mess about when you drag a lot of power from them.

My comp' is built almost entierly of parts I bought at Overclockers, and has been running sweet as a nut for over 3 years now. They don't sell the cheap stuff you find at comp fairs, but they do good prices on high end stuff.

Look in their 'this week only' page, on the site. They're doing an Antec 430W TruePower psu for £52.82, inc. vat. Great price, if you get in quick, and it has a PCI-E power connector too.

 

[Speedo]

If you are planning on getting a higher end card (then we can assume you'll have a higher end system to go with it) I would get a 450W minimum PSU. The Antec Neopower 480W is a great choice from the people I've talked to that have one.

 

[handyandy]

What cpu/mobo/RAM do you have and what sort of apps are you planning to use this rig for? It helps to know these things as there is no point suggesting a powerful graphics card if you aren't going to need it.

I have a gigabyte motherboard , with 1gb of ddr2 4300 ram with space for 3 more gb, a p4 3.2gh hyperthreading, and a SATA 80gb harddrive. Oh and a system fan .
I am building a rig to last.
So idealy in a few years the system will still be respectable, and hopfully the same for my graphics card. i have found www.dabs.co.uk to be a good supplier in the past. Have any of you had experiance with it?

 

[GrandAdmiral]

If you are planning on getting a higher end card (then we can assume you'll have a higher end system to go with it) I would get a 450W minimum PSU. The Antec Neopower 480W is a great choice from the people I've talked to that have one.

Yes Antec power supplies are great as well as Enermax. PC Power & Cooling makes the best and beefiest supplies but they are expensive overkill. You could get the 850 watt for $470.

A better supply with lower wattage is a lot better then a crappy 550 watts. So for something good like Antec, 430 watts would be better then a 550watts mediorce PSU. If you want it to last and I would go with at least 500 watts, more doesn't hurt anything except your electric bill. I would ditch that 280w that came with the case in a heartbeat.

 

[Zelig]

An 850 watt power supply would be useless, you wouldn't be able to balance the load properly across the rails unless you had way more power usage than the typical user has.
A 500 watt PSU will not add anything to your electric bill over a 200 watt PSU, watts specified are *maximum*, if you're worried about power consumption, you have to look at efficiency, power supplies always draw more power than they output, anyhow.

OCZ, Enermax, Antec, Sparkle and Fortron all make awesome power supplies.
Any mid-range gaming computer I build now I give minimum 500W power supplies. The OCZ Powerstream 520, the 535 watt Enermax and the 500W Fortron are all nice. For any rig used for gaming, I'd look at something in that range.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

unless you had way more power usage than the typical user has.

Yep I'm assuming thats what expensive overkill is made for.

 

[Speedo]

An 850 watt power supply would be useless, you wouldn't be able to balance the load properly across the rails unless you had way more power usage than the typical user has.

Tell that to PCP&C... I just read today that they're releasing a kilowatt PSU - that's 1000 watts, boys and girls With that, you should be able to run quad dual-core CPUs, quad GPUs (yes, Gigabyte has a board out with 4 PCIe x16 slots ) about 100 gigs of ram, 50 optical drives, 20 HDDs, and throw a couple dozen of those USB coffee mug heaters. It boggles the mind

Personally I'm using a Seasonic S12-600 (600W) because I have dual-core and plan to do SLI in the not so distant future. It's rock solid, and in the reviews I read before buying it had some of the highest effeciency ratings I've seen. Very quiet also. For $150, I love it

 

[CruddyLeper]

First of all wow , so many posts asking about graphics cards. They all however seem to be focused around AGP cards. I have just revamed my computer including a new procsers ram and motherboard. I have an intergrated graphics card at the min but i have a free PCI-E slot. So suggest a card , prefrably from a site in the UK. Also i have heard that allot of new cards need an aditinal powersupply , ie they card get all the power from the slot. Is that true? and if true what sort of levels or wattage would you lot suggest? Thanks a lot you guys.

Mate, you get what you pay for. Most people are more than happy with a 6800GT.

Technically the new ATI XL1800s (?) are the dog's danglies but most people more than happy with a single 6800GT.

ATI X850 PEs are really good. X800 XT's nearly as good (can be modded to 850 speed).

I got a second hand 6800Ultra - because the price was right.

How much you got to spend? Try these sites;-

http://www.dabs.com/productlist.asp...Key=40844&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Graphics_and_Video_56.html

http://www.misco.co.uk/categories/~376~/PCI Express Cards.htm

US posters might be interested in seeing how expensive the UK is. Although I understand that newegg is now shipping to the UK - is that true?

 

[Zelig]

Expensive overkill won't work if your rig isn't sucking enough juice though, power supplies with too much extra juice simply will not work to even boot a machine if not enough power is being pulled.

The 1000W beasts look pretty lame to me, you're better off getting a nice case and sticking dual 600 watt power supplies in if you actually need that much power.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Expensive overkill won't work if your rig isn't sucking enough juice though, power supplies with too much extra juice simply will not work to even boot a machine if not enough power is being pulled.

Well the benchmarks I've seen show no problem with loads that aren't that extreme and there were no stability or booting problems. It was some high end stuff but its actually less then what I am running off a 480 watt Antec PSU. Here is the load. I'm not saying its the most logical thing to do but what your describing doesn't seem to be that much of a problem with this PSU and obviously they can upgrade until their case can't hold any more.

• CPU: Athlon 64 FX-57
• Motherboard: ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 SLI
• Memory: Corsair TwinX XMS 3500 Pro DDR400
• Graphics: BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB Water Cooled
• Sound Card and Speakers: Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty
• Keyboard and Mouse: Avant Prime and Logitech G5 Mouse
• Hard Drive: Western Digital WD4000YR
• Optical and Floppy Drives: Sony DRU-810A Universal and Mitsumi FA404A
• Cooling: Koolance Exos-2 Liquid Cooling System

 

[Speedo]

Expensive overkill won't work if your rig isn't sucking enough juice though, power supplies with too much extra juice simply will not work to even boot a machine if not enough power is being pulled.

Where did you get that idea?

 

[CruddyLeper]

I've got to agree Speedo. Putting a big PSU in a box will work.

The wattage rating of a PSU is the MAXIMUM power that can be drawn from it. Pulling less than the maximum is desirable (because then the PSU isn't overstrained).