Psu Question

[igotrice424]

Hi i have a psu question. Im currently running an e4300 at 3.0ghz, 2gb ddr2 ram, a 7950gt oc to 650/1600, 2 sata hdd's, 2 optical drives, and two case fans. My power supply is a 400w FSP psu, which has been working flawlessly for the past few months since i got it. I want to upgrade to an 8800gt, and also oc that. will my psu be enough? here is a link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104953 . It has 18a and 16a on the 12v rails. I checked using the extreme power supply calculator, and got 320 watts, but im not sure if i should trust that reading.... thanks in advance.

 

[The_OGS]

Hi igotrice424,
I would say that you just have enough power supply right now. It's difficult to calculate the wattage from CPU overclock, but Tommy's testing shows that it can be large.
Any upgrades you do that suck more power would not be good - but actually the 8800GT is supposed to be very power-friendly.
Maybe your consumption will go down
Regards

 

[emp]

http://images.tweaktown.com/imagebank/88gtsg92_g_11.gif

I wouldn't try to use an 8800GT with that PSU, barely coping as it is. I would get a better quality unit from Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, or PCP&C to power a nice card like the one you have planned.

 

[The_OGS]

I forgot to mention...
The 12v rails were split into 2x and 4x because supposedly they didn't want the rails to go over ~20A.
Later-model single-rail PSUs (circa 2004) had up to 30A rating on the single 12v
Anyway, unless both your 12v are already 20-22A you don't really need more rails.
Note that some 4-rail PSUs will advertise '4 rails @ 16A' but there is not 64A to feed them...
It can be more like 46A total, and 16A rating for any individual rail.
I look for active PFC in any PSU I would consider these days (but that's pretty well a given, if you're into good PSUs, they all have PFC).

I wouldn't try to use an 8800GT with that PSU, barely coping as it is.

Well, true but they said the 8800GT was really miserly because of the new smaller process size.
An amazing vidcard - low-wattage, cool, quiet, fast.
I might need one of them myself...
L8R

 

[igotrice424]

ok thanks guys i guess ill just try out first and see if it works well... if not ill just go and buy the 520w from corsair... which i hear is a very nice psu.