gcurchod said:
Hi,
Your assumption seem correct... at least, you don't really known what will be the comportment of the PCI-e.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure a PCI-e graphic card doesn't have hot-plug capabilities.
Hence, I think you'll need to restart your computer with both PSUs turned on to have your HD 5850 recognized.
Then you should turn off your PC and restart with the 400W PSUs only to come back to your "non-gaming" configuration.
However, I've serious doubts that the PC will agree to start with non-powered graphic cards installed...
Moreover, if your PCIEX8_1 (third PCI-e) is populated, (and since it is shared with PCIEX16_1 (first PCI-e)), the PCIEX16_1 will only operate up to x8 mode.
(cf.
http://www.gigabyte.fr/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3...)... which would not be good for your CrossFire.
For me, you should consider acquiring a new PSU... I have a very similar PC (GA-X58A-UD7, 2x HD5850) with a Seasonic X-750.
Hope this helps
G.C
Hi,
Thanks for your reply, I wasn't planning to hotplug, I was planning to change over during reboot. That's a good point you make with the slot 1/3, hadn't quite thought about that. I've got a PSU which is capable of running them, it is simply the noise issue I was trying to fix (the cards are super noisy as well, obviously!). I'm thinking at this stage it's looking like I'll just have to seriously re-model my machine every time I want to switch between the two configurations, until I can afford to have two different machines entirely.
For any other posters reading this thread, I am also still wondering (to minimise how much I have to change between set-ups) if the
Unpowered cards left in the slots would attempt to draw power through the PCI-E slot (thus overloading either the slot or the smaller PSU)
Cheers,
Scott