Community Forums => General Chat => Topic started by: slapurself on January 01, 2010, 09:23:19 PM
Title: Power Supply help???
Post by: slapurself on January 01, 2010, 09:23:19 PM
well....heres the deal..i have a Turbolink LC-A350ATX power supply that gives off 350 Watts. The new Graphics card i am planning to get requires 400Watts. My current graphics card is crap. Its a Geforce FX5200. And trust me it is crap at this time...>.< I was wondering if i can run a XFX- ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB DDR2 8X Graphics card(requires 400Watt Power supply) with my current power supply(Turbolink LC-A350ATX) or if i should get a new one.
And if i was to get a new one which one would be good? i currently have 2 in mind at the moment but i don't know which is better for my PC. I was planning on getting a Dynex 400-watt ATX CPU Poer Supply Or a Apevia Iceberg 680W Green ATX Power Supply
Title: Re: Power Supply help???
Post by: BranDonk Kong on January 01, 2010, 10:19:18 PM
You need to find out what the wattage is on each rail, 12v, 5v, etc, then find the *real* requirements for that card. A Google search of your PSU shows that it's pretty crappy. You can use this site (http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp) to find out exactly what will work and what will not. It's $2 for the full version, but it's very convenient and very thorough.
Title: Re: Power Supply help???
Post by: ShyGuy on January 02, 2010, 12:59:08 PM
It sounds like you are willing to upgrade the system as time goes on, so I would go for the bigger power supply myself. How soon in the future are you going to switch to a PCI express motherboard?
Title: Re: Power Supply help???
Post by: slapurself on January 05, 2010, 12:25:44 AM
What exactly do you mean by Express motherboard? i'm planning on upgrading both my video and Power supply within the next 3 to 4 weeks.
Title: Re: Power Supply help???
Post by: ShyGuy on January 05, 2010, 01:09:44 AM
The graphics card you describe goes into an AGP slot. About 2007, video cards started coming out that went into a new kind of slot, called PCI-Express. (aka PCI-X or PCIE) The two slots are physically incompatible. If you want to upgrade your video card again in the future, you're going to need a new motherboard. The new motherboard will likely require a new CPU and new RAM.
Title: Re: Power Supply help???
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on January 05, 2010, 01:10:41 AM
Completely new rebuild!!! those are always fun.
Title: Re: Power Supply help???
Post by: slapurself on January 05, 2010, 03:04:18 PM
Yea they are always fun but at times costly when u want a gaming cpu...lol VERY pricey...my uncle works in a comp shop..thats where i got my comp..i think i'll just ask him the price and what not..but i'm thinking if i change my power supply to a high watt then i can run a graphics card that can fit into my AGP slot and is under the power supply watt. if that works or correct me if i'm wrong.
Title: Re: Power Supply help???
Post by: slapurself on January 06, 2010, 03:44:17 AM
So can i run a XFX- ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB DDR2 8X Graphics card that is 400 watts with a 350 Watts power supply by any chance?
Title: Re: Power Supply help???
Post by: ShyGuy on January 06, 2010, 10:15:30 AM
If it is a high quality 350w power supply with a decent amount of amps on the 12v rail, yes it should work.
However, with your average 350w power supply, there is a strong risk of quirky behavior under heavy graphical load. Meaning, you could be playing Crysis and all of a sudden your system resets.
Title: Re: Power Supply help???
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on January 06, 2010, 11:42:11 AM
Or your power supply dies. I've done this. A few times. Get the highest capacity PSU within reason so you don't zap the **** out of it.
Title: Re: Power Supply help???
Post by: slapurself on January 06, 2010, 12:01:52 PM
i actually have a few in mind but idk which one to get...
