Power Supply Issue

[aReda]

Lately I have decided to buy a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro VPU. I looked online at www.ati.com to see if my computer met all of the requirements. My computer checked out with everything BUT the power supply. Apparently, the 9800 series of Radeon's VPU's connect to your computer's power supply and they recommend a power supply of 300W...my computer only has 250W.

If I install the card in my computer using only 250W, what would happen? Can I even? Or does it only recommend that I use 300W because they are automatically assuming that my computer is fully loaded with PCI cards and hard drives and the like?

How do power supplies work? Is it like RAM where parts of the computer share the watts and just take up a portion of what it needs, or do all parts of the computer use 300W? Because if, in fact, it does share, and my computer does have spare watts for this card, then it should work just like it would with a 300W power supply, correct? I really don't know!

I have never has this be an issue for me, and I am wondering if I can still use this VPU with only 250W. If anyone has any information to help me out with this, please respond! Thanks!

[RedFury]

Well, you look at all those micro ATX board handled lan systems out there, you are going to be hard pressed to find a 300w PS in them, yet people have thrown high end cards like that ATI in them.

What it boils down to is what the MAX drain your system will pull. I'm running a 300w Antec PS, and that powers a GF4ti, Hercules Game Theater XP sound card, Thunderbird processor, 2 HDD's, 2 optical drives, 2 cold cathodes and 5 ultrabright LED's, plus 4 80mm fans, and one 120mm blowhole fan.

I've yet to have a crash with this setup, and according to an online calculator I used, my max burn before adding the 120mm fan was 294w, meaning if everything in my system decided to pull its maximum wattage, I'd be close or short of power.

If you have minimal components in your system, a quality powersupply shouldn't have a problem powering that card.

[gerald_weigel]

Yes, get a bigger power supply, I'd even go 350W, that way there is room to expand. You can never have too much power, but if you have too little you will end up with a myriad of problems including random reboots, BSODs, lockups, and worse.

Here's a very helpfull article on understanding power supplies, it'll take reading it 2 or 3 times to really understand how they work, but once you do, it's invaluble knowledge:

Article

[tony_j15]

Using your analogy, PSU's are a lot like RAM. You may be able to run the 9800, depending on how many other hard drives n' stuff you got. Worst case scenario is your system will buckle and you spend another 50 at most for a new PSU.

[Xtreeme]

The 9800 draws ALOT of power from the 12v rail. Thats the problem and why they recomend 300watt psu. The card draws enuff power that the AGP socket cannot feed it enuff. Its powered by a molex plug. So it isnt drawing the power through mainboard. Thats a bit of power.

Will it hurt, well it will if the psu overloads and explodes possible taking other parts withit or even the entire pc. Not a worthy risk IMHO. Whats the best case scenerio with problems....it will simply crash during heavy loads say gaming with high res and such. Best case-it will REALLY strain your psu not failing but weakening it tremendiously and making failure risk that much more in the future. PSU powers your entire $ pc and not worth skimping on at all. A Vantec ION 400watt psu (500watt max) can be had for under $60 and has 3 year warrenty plus every feature under the sun including quiet operation huge HS and short circuit protection. Its just not worth running a $200+ card on a $10 psu. And thats not acounting for the rest of the rig $.

[RedFury]

Interesting read..fellow Minnesotan!

Cause and effect, I checked out my specs. I'm 15amp on my 12v rail....sweet! No wonder I'm chucking out power without hiccups

[aReda]

Wow cool thx for the help guys. Yeah I'm definently going to have to get another power supply. Might this be a problem though? My computer is a Dell...or should it not matter?

Oh hey RedFury and gerald...I'm from Minnesota too

take it easy guys, and thx again!

[RedFury]

You may run into issues as Dell likes to use Proprietary components. The connectors for the Motherboad may be different than whats on Retail Power Supplies. You may have to get one from Dell.

I'm not all that familiar with them though. You will want to check before you go and spend the money on a PS though.

What part of MN?

[Redwolf]

The older Dells are proprietary, but I'm not sure about the new Dells. Worse comes to worse some sites can tell you how to do surgery to replace the new PS's connectors with the old PS's connectors. Now to find these sites

\/ ALL OF THESE ARE MUST READ FOR DELL OWNERS!
http://165.193.123.52/articles/upgrade3_01_01.asp
http://www.hardwareguys.com/dellwarn.html
http://www.siliconacoustics.com/atxtodelad.html
http://www.informit.com/isapi/produc...t/articlex.asp

If you currently own a desktop system made between 1996 and 2000 from Dell, you will definitely want to pay attention to this section. A potential booby trap is waiting to nail the unsuspecting Dell system owner who decides to upgrade either the motherboard or power supply in his system. This hidden trap can cause the destruction of the motherboard, power supply, or both! Okay, now that I have your attention, read on....

An even bigger crime than simply using nonstandard power connectors is that only the pinout is nonstandard; the connectors look like and are keyed the same as is dictated by true ATX. Therefore, nothing prevents you from plugging the Dell nonstandard power supply into a new industry-standard ATX motherboard you installed in your Dell case as an upgrade, or even plugging a new upgraded industry-standard ATX power supply into your existing Dell motherboard. But mixing either a new ATX board with the Dell supply or a new ATX supply with the existing Dell board is a recipe for silicon toast. How do you like your fried chips: medium or well-done?

Fortunately, starting in 2000, Dell switched to using industry-standard ATX power connections in its Dimension 4300, 4400, 8200, and newer systems. That means barring any other unforeseen glitches, these systems should be more easily upgradable by just replacing either the power supply or the motherboard alone. I, for one, am glad to see Dell moving back toward industry standardization because its systems are now more appealing to purchase as a starting point for a system that will be user upgradable and repairable in the future.

[aReda]

sweet thx redwolf!

redfury: I live just south of the cities. Actually, tomorrow I'ma take my computer down to general nanosystems and test out a P4 2.4GHz 400FSB CPU, a Radeon 9800 Pro, and a new PSU to make sure everything goes as planned when I buy using pricewatch. I talked to them on the phone today and they sais that yeah they'd throw that hardware into my comp to see if it works.

Thx,
Red