Old stem upgrade. New PSU?

[El Banjo]

Hello!

I have an old system that I decided to upgrade with a new graphics card, but I'm not sure if my PSU can handle it.

Here's my system:
K9N SLI platinum
AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ (125W)
Geforce 7900GT
Corsair 450W PSU

I've used a watt-meter, and found that my system peaked at 190W when gaming.

I bought the N260GTX to replace the 7900GT. The box says that I need at least a 500W PSU.

I have to main questions:
Should I try my new card at once, or buy a new PSU first?
If it's working, should I buy a new PSU anyway?

Thanks!
Btw, this is a GREAT board!

 

[aford10]

That's a very good quality PSU. Corsair PSUs perform higher than their wattage rating.

If the PSU is declining in output, and can't support the video card, it won't do any harm, it just won't power up. Then you'll want to get a new PSU.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Technical reviews I looked at recommend a high quality 500 to 550 watt power supply with a 12 volt rail rated at 40 amps for an overclocked Intel Core i7 system with the pre-overclocked version of the GTX 260. That's a fairly common recommendation with a lot of the newer high end systems and viddeo cards. Your Corsair VX450 has a 12 volt rail rated at 32 amps which may or may not be okay.

In addition, that overclocked GTX 260 requires two 75 watt, 6 pin, PCI-e, power connections. The Corsair VX450 only comes with one. That's not a total disaster as a molex to 6 pin adapter could be used.

Finally, as you already know, you have an old system that does not require as much power during gaming as some of the new high end systems. Again, you "might" be okay but I'm inclined to say your system may not be able to keep up with the capabilities of the new, high end, overclocked GTX 260.

Some of the things that can happen with an underpowered system are bad 3D performance, crashing games, spontaneous reset, shutdown of the PC, and freezes during gameplay. PSU overload can cause it to break down.

 

[El Banjo]

Thank you very much!

I have a molex to 6 pin adapter, so that's okay.
I'll try, and if anything goes wrong I'll buy a new PSU.

...but I'm inclined to say your system may not be able to keep up with the capabilities of the new, high end, overclocked GTX 260.

So I should consider getting a new mobo and CPU?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Tom's hardware just published the first in a series of articles about building a balanced gaming pc:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-balanced-platform,2469.html

 

[El Banjo]

Great!

Thank you for all your help.