$100 is more than enough for a desktop PSU. Must have been a lemon.
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$100 is more than enough for a desktop PSU. Must have been a lemon.
So it is really important to have a psu that measures up to what the card says it needs? Or would a bad psu be a bad psu and smurf up whether or not it's trying to power too much? @_@
not sure, I have heard otherwise at least when purchasing higher end PSU's from multiple people and coupled with personal experience. Plus the fact that to get a 700w ranking, that just has to be met in intervals of peak power, not constant ampage, which means that you can get a high variance in your psu output, which is never good for a computer to have.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yamaneko
Might I add, that if your case supports multiple PSUs, do it! Put your drive string on one of its own.
I do agree that a hundo is fine to spend, a good ball park range, but look at the stats on the psu, and make sure the company has a good reputable name. I gave you two that I have loved. I personally end up spending between 150 and 230 (us dollars) on my PSUs.
Meca, from the evidence that I have observed and been told time and time again, the rating on a PSU is nothing to simply go by. I believe the rest of your answer lies above. In short, you want to be able to power your video card to its threshold, but you want to make sure that the power isn't just peaking at the card threshold. You want the power needs of the card to be met through and through.
Maybe if you're going to power a workstation with a bunch of HDDs and optical drives. Two PSUs is overkill and a waste of power. Omecle just wants to game so a decent wattage with good amperage on the 12V rail (24A or more) will be fine. Just use the filters on newegg and read the reviews for different brands.
You'll hate me for this, but .... it depends.
What you have to do is look up the actually usage(not the requirements, the usage) of what equipment you have in your PC, then you add it up. If it is less than what your power supply gives out you are good. If it is more, you need a bigger PSU.
Anyways I haven't had any luck finding the exact what usage of this nVidia 7800GS card. But I have seen a benchmark test shows it to use less than 300 watts[though higher than 250] even in system with some decent equipment. However, the system was not decked out with hard-drives, optical drives, etc...
It really depends on all that you have in the system. The manufactures post those large requirements(recommendations) to protect themselves. This is because not all PSU's work the same(even if at the same watts). And this can cause all sorts of weird things concerning the card. The recommendation is basically, "Yeah with this much 'power' it is unlikely that anything bad could happen even if the power supply isn't very high quality and has lower output than what the watts would suggest."
yeah, I was mainly, saying instead of throwing out his other psu, throw the drives on it. Puts a bit of an ease on the other. Less jolting on the demand of the PSU just getting the HDDs off it. And yes, your summed sentance basically agrees with what I was saying.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yamaneko
No consumer card out now uses that much wattage. The box and manual quote refers to all combined components, so a 250 or 300 watt power supply is the bare minimum to power your entire machine including the 7800GS. This of course doesn't take into consideration more than one HDD and more than one optical drive. Processor consumption is also averaged by the GPU manufacturer by speculating what kind of processor people in their GPU's range will probably have.
This will give a good comparison of actual power consumption for the 7900GS and it's respective competitors.
EDIT: In response to ShunNakamura.
Very true Yams. I must also clarify, that I am generally buy enough power to run SLI, regaurdless of whether the computer has it set up now, or will in the future. For a single card system, I tend to go 500w to be safe. So yeah, a hundred bucks (and I just queried new egg) will serve you quite well.
My PSU.
Powers my nForce2 board, two Seagate drives, two optical drives and my 6600GT, a GPU notorious for its ridiculous power consumption. The 7 series remedied a lot of the power problems with the 6 series.
I've had no crashes or lock ups and speedfan doesn't report any dramatic power surges on any of the rails. It's been good.
I'd also look at getting a dual rail PSU as each rail has it's own amperage and can be dedicated to certain components inside you machine. My GPU has a dedicated 12V rail with 18amps.
It is getting a lot of short life expectancy reviews :mog:Quote:
Originally Posted by Yamaneko
Haha, yeah I noticed, but I've had mine for more than two years, so I'm going with what I got. :p
@Yams
heh, sorry, when I said
"But I have seen a benchmark test shows it to use less than 300 watts[though higher than 250] even in system with some decent equipment."
I was talking about combined total watt usage for the whole system(if that wasn't clear).
Though I am glad to see a site that has thier actually watt usage. I always have issues finding individual components power usages.
Hmmm. Thanks for the information. Somehow I don't think I need a 500w PSU, especially since all I am running is 2.8GHZ, 7800GS, 2GB RAM, 2 optical drives, 1 hard drive, and that's pretty much it.
I am still unclear as to whether it's about the PSU or the cooling. So far it hasn't happened in the last two days (the shutting off randomly), so if I can avoid buying anything at all that would be ideal.
Would be cool if it'd just stop now.=]Quote:
Originally Posted by Omecle
since the problem only started after adding the graphics card and the memory it tends to point to the psu been to weak.
how many amps are on the 12volt rail? if its under 20 id definatly replace it especially if its a generic brand psu they can take out components when under strain just ask any one with a q-tec or a hiper psu :P
try putting one of these FSP psu's in your system very reliable and shouldnt take out any components if it goes bad as theres plenty of failsafes and its a good quality psu plus the 2 12 volt rails will give plenty power about 28 amps i think not looked at the sticker on mine for a while :)
FSP Sparkle Blue Storm 2 500W ATX2.0 PSU
btw one week before i rebuilt my system i put in my x800gto and my cpu points on my old sempron halved on 3dmark tests plus some stability problems = my old mercury "generic 400watt psu was struggling to hell oh it only had 17 amps on its only 12 volt rail and would of blown up big time if i kept it and i was getting similar symptoms to you"
even cpuz agreed the voltage was fluctuating a lot and that was a sempron 2800 socket A.
the fsp one is happily powering a 3700 a64 1 gig ddr400 a x800 etc plus 3 harddrives and 2 dvd drives and it will allow me to whack in a 8800gtx "possibly sli" on top of that when i get money and if i want one plus that psu is silent and wieghs about 10 times the weight of my old generic one :)
moral of the magical story is you get what you pay for and a decent brand psu will last for ages and not take out components when it blows and will last for at least one mainboard upgrade before struggling so kind of a future investment which results in a more stable pc and stable overclocking :)
on the old psu and my old graphics card there was a point i overclocked it to and my 3d marks started to drop.... same happened on cpu overclocks psu was to blame :)