6800gs in a shuttle XPC w/ 240watt PSU, is it possible?

[jasontkennedy]

I have read some articles on this site, where they were using under rated shuttle PSU's with the 7800gt, and it was doing fine. Is there anyone out there with this configuration, or any feedback as to whether this thing is gonna work? Mi frend Tim swears up and down that the shuttle PSUs are excellent and that they are capable of more than other PSU's of the same rating, It he crazy / full of shit or is that the case?

 

[Pain]

The issue is this. There are PS recommendations for cards based on estimations of what people will have in the machine. There is no way for the company to know if you have absolutely nothing in the machine, or if you have 3 disks, 2 opticals, 10 fans, and all of your expansion slots full. So, they make recommendations that you should have XYZ power supply, and people take that as fact and parrot endlessly that you MUST have XYZ power supply for a certain card or the machine will melt down.

The fact is this: You only need what you need. Would I want to have more than 240W? Yes, I personally would, but you never know what you really need. Now, from what I have seen, the 6800GT pulls around 55W fully loaded. If the rest of your machine is below 175W then you are probably OK. But, the trick is that you can't simply go by wattage alone, but by current draw on each rail (3.3, 5, 12, etc).

Bottom line, your mileage may vary.

 

[biggs]

I am pretty sure you will be just fine with the 240W PSU of the shuttle. I used to run a 6800GT in an older xpc with the 200W psu and it worked just fine. Currently i am running an x800xt aiw in an xpc with shuttle's upgraded silent-x 300w psu, but the stock 240w ran the setup just fine...if you are still concerned about it, consider the silent-x.

I think xpc's and other sff mobo's can get away with smaller power supplies due to less expansion pci slots and board real-estate in general to power...just a guess. Good luck.

 

[jasontkennedy]

cool, thanks for the feedback. Do you know of any good programs to monitor current or power draw? In onther words, it would tell me how close my PSU is to it's thresh hold. THanks

 

[Pain]

There is no [practical] way to do it, and no program for such purpose.