I have just bought a dell XPS 430. It came with a ATI radeon HD 3870 x2 and i have bought another one as a upgrade so i can crossfire them. One problem the PSU is only a 425 watt and ATI recomend at least 550 watt. Dell dont do a bigger PSU. Anyone know a 800 watt PSU that will fit in my pc.
I have a question for you guys and it's just question, I'm not suggesting anything since I'm not sure of the answer in this case. He has a PCI Express x8 slot as well. Could he CF with that? I understand that he will lose his PCI Express x16 bandwidth and be reduced to PCI Express x8 bandwidth in CF. Would this be possible? Or will it still not work if the board lacks CF support?
Thanks a bunch DellUser1 for straightening my wires back out. If I would have referred to my notes I would't have asked that silly question, you're the man.
PCIe x1 card in a PCIe x16 slot will run at PCIe x1 speeds
PCIe x16 card in a PCIe x16 slot will run at PCIe x16 speed.
PCIe cards are all backwards compatible, as in a x1,x2,x4,x8 cards will all work in a PCIe x16 slot
x1,x2,x4 will all work in a PCIe x8/x16 slot
x1,x2 will all work in a PCIe x4/x8/x16 slot
x1 will all work in a PCIe x2/x4/x8/x16 slot
A PCIe x16 card will not work in a slot smaller then the physical card, some motherboards will state however they have 2 or 3 x PCIe x16 slots, BUT one or more may only run at x8 speeds, but the physical slot is the same size as x16.
Message edited by starams5 on 05-29-2009 at 02:13:46 AM
I have an XPS 420 too and have a 3870 X2 installed (big mistake! - both going with Dell and AMD).
I was ready to upgrade to a BFG 285 GTX when i noticed this. Aren't Dell breaking some kind of regulation by only putting a 425 Watt PSU in when AMD recommend 550 Watt ( http://www.amd.com/us/products/des [...] ments.aspx ). This seems like a real swinle. I feel like i have been subject to a con