Video Card ???'s

[TilDeath]

pfff it should be fine, its a GT not a GTX remember. plus its a gaming computer not military hardware, no need to massively overbuild it, its not live real lives depending on it...

Would you be willing to replace the PARTS that go POP when he overloads the system?

[RTHolmes]

no, but in the very unlikely event that something goes wrong I wont have to, Velocity took the liability for that when they told Tex "it works no problems"

[1701E]

pfff it should be fine, its a GT not a GTX remember. plus its a gaming computer not military hardware, no need to massively overbuild it, its not live real lives depending on it...

No, but it is real money depending on it.  Should the PSU fail due to lack of needed power, or simply poor construction, and it takes the rest of the system with it, as some lower end PSUs do, that's a good chunk of money.

I've had a PSU fail before and take a Motherboard with it, and it's not an experience I would want anyone to have to go through.
Skuzzy, was it you who said 25% overhead was a good idea, for start-up or something?  If so does that mean, if a PC needs 350Watts and 40V a PSU should be about 438Watts and 50V to be safe?

PSUs still confuse me so I just went ahead and bought the best bang for buck I could use (dimension restrictions), OCZ 750Watt Stealth.

Edit...my spelling is bad at 1am

[RTHolmes]

well its all guesswork without the GPU specs but most 9800GTs ive seen require 400/450w PSU min, so 550w already has 20% headroom.

[usvi]

Just bought and installed an OCZ 700 watt modular power supply to replace the 430 watt PS in had.
The evga 9800gt I just installed was working ok but I wanted to be safe.
The specs for the card called for 25amps and the old PS only had 18amps.
If keep upgrading my PC a piece or two at a time,soon I will have two units.

[TilDeath]

well its all guesswork without the GPU specs but most 9800GTs ive seen require 400/450w PSU min, so 550w already has 20% headroom.

9800GTX require 24 amps and the 9800GT requires 26 amps, that is the SPECS..

[usvi]

It say 26 amps online and 18amps on the box.
If the system builder say it's 26 amps I believe him.
So much of the information available is so confusing you've got to listen to the experts.

[Skuzzy]

Yes 1701E.  You need a cushion, of at least 25% excess steady drain power, in order to meet the startup current surge from a cold start.

You also never want to run a switching power supply beyond 85% of its rated capacity.  The power supply will merrily supply up to about 95% of its rated capacity, but starting at around 85% and up to 95% the power is going to get dirty on an exponential basis.

Dirty power causes premature failures and overheating to occur.  It will shorten the life of the components in the computer.

[RTHolmes]

9800GTX require 24 amps and the 9800GT requires 26 amps, that is the SPECS..

ECS 9800GT/GTX+ state 141W (450W PSU), which (assuming its all drawn on the 12V) is 11.75A.

nvidias own 9800GT states 105W (400W PSU), or 8.75A.

different manufacturers will have slightly different requirements, plus the 55nm cores seem to draw alot less than the 65nm cores. like I said without the specs for the exact GPU its guesswork.

also remember that while PSUs dont like to be driven at close to their max rating, they also dont like being driven at very low loads either. adding up the individual components max draws, then adding 25% is a good rule of thumb.

[Skuzzy]

If the power supply has active PFC circuitry, you can safely run it in a very low load condition.  If the supply does not have active PFC circuitry, it may not start at all, without sufficient load.

[TEXICAN]

Texican - FYI, you can get rid of that cpu and bump it to an E8400 or E8500 to further update your system, if needed.  I have the E6750 on the P5n-E SLI and it runs AH full sliders with shadowing on with 9800GTX 1 GB.

Hey If I did this could I use my old cpu in my kids Dell computer???

[Spikes]

Hey If I did this could I use my old cpu in my kids Dell computer???

Depending on the motherboard socket.

[Dragon]

Here we go again, what is the model of the Dell?

[TEXICAN]

Its a Dell Dimension DIM4600 Pent 4 Cpu 2.8ghz.  Im just trying to figure out the best bang for my buck.  The kids computer will barely play AH on lowest settings.  If I could upgrade mine and use the old stuff from mine on theirs it would be great!  I dont know it may be cheaper to buy a package on sale at Frys or Micro Center.

[Spikes]

It seems as though the motherboard is a socket 478, while the CPU is socket 775.
Basically if you were to get the old CPU to work you would need a new motherboard.