9800GX2 + EA650 = ??

[cyclometric]

Hi,

I just bought a used 9800GX2 and before I put it in my rig, I wanted to get some advice on whether I need to upgrade my PSU. I have an Antec EA650, running a Phenom X4 940 overclocked to 3875, 2 DDR2 6400 memory chips @ 840mhz, 4 HDDs, and 7 total cooling fans. Board is 790X-UD4P F8, and I'm running Windows 7.

From what I've gathered in studying the issue, I think I will be OK, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. If I don't need to worry about this one, I won't, but if it's an iffy thing, I was thinking of ordering one of these, since it'd be nice to go modular, at the same time, but only if really necessary. Any thoughts? Thank you,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371024

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153038

 

[nforce4max]

You are cutting it close but the psu might hold up and had to fan mod mine also a ea650.

 

[cyclometric]

Well I would hate to overwhelm and destroy a perfectly functioning PSU, so I will just hold off for a bit til I'm a bit more confident. I admit, though, that the Thermaltake modular 750 @ $99 is looking appealing.

 

[jsc]

An Antec EA650 can provide 45 amps on the 12 volt output.

Figure 10 amps for an OC'd quad core CPU.
Figure 15 amps for the 9800GTX2
Figure 5 amps max for four HD's and the optical.
Figure 2 amps for the fans.

That's 32 amps on the 12 volt rail. You will have plenty of power with the Antec 650 watt PSU assuming that it is working properly.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

^5 +1 what jsc said.

You should be okay. The Antec Earthwatts 650 is a very good power supply. Technical reviews are favorable.

 

[cyclometric]

Well, that was an interesting couple of hours. The GX2 is not at all happy in my rig. At first it seemed OK, I was able to install drivers, rebooted, and although the screen redraw was truly ugly (a flash of many colored very fine lines, just for a millisecond, but still, wasn't pretty), and it was sending audio to my monitor over the HDMI cable (no, thank you!), then the system froze -- no mouse, keyboard, frozen. Soft reset. Back in Windows, same situation. Shut Down.

I had connected Monitor 1 via HDMI-DVI adapter, Monitor 2 VGA-DVI. Green and blue lights were on. So I thought maybe it's the HDMI... I connected the monitor's HDMI directly to the HDMI out on the GX2. Results even worse. Next try: just connected Monitor 1 to the smaller monitor, using VGA-DVI. It booted, but I was already headed to Safe Mode to Uninstall the device. That done, I have the GTX260 back in and should probably figure out what the problem(s) is/are.

1. Though my PSU has 1 6-pin PCIE and 1 6+2 pin PCIE, the 2 pin seems like it maybe doesn't fit right? I remembered reading about the issue on the EVGA website but that information was psyching me out, perhaps. I couldn't tell if the +2 pin piece really did fit, or didn't, but I inserted it without forcing it. And all the lights came on -- that is, the green lights on both sides of both power connectors, a green light in the back by Monitor#2, & a blue one by Mon#1.

2. Maybe the PSU really isn't up to the task for the GX2 in this particular build, but it is a bit of an expensive troubleshooting method, ordering from Newegg.

3. Windows 7 64-bit drivers on the GX2? I dunno, I just assumed the latest would be best, they work fine on the newer board, but that's apples/oranges, I think.

4. Maybe I omitted some steps of the install... I never did find an official installation or manual.

Meanwhile, I'll be shopping for some hardware ideas to put the GX2 in, because even if it does work in my main rig, I had visions of putting it in its own separate folding machine that wouldn't be subject to my gaming or anything else. Not sure if I should keep this thread alive here on PSU forum or take it to the VGA area.

Thanks,

 

[nforce4max]

The ea650 has a power management scheme which pisses me off since rail 1 and rail 3 are reserved for the 8pin cpu connector while rail2 is for the gpu and every thing else. Just look it up there is a few reviews. Just make sure the psu is cool when under load.

 

[cyclometric]

So I think the main issue was the EDID gets badly interpreted by the Nvidia drivers. There are lots of threads about this issue, it seems rather amazing with the issue so well known, it isn't fixed!! Or put in the release notes, at the very least.

I had to add a regkey OverrideEdidFlags0 with values set for my monitor's EDID settings. I can provide more details if anyone is interested.

This did allow me to boot and run, for a while, with Monitor #1 attached via HDMI-DVI adapter. But before too long, had a really bad moment where first Monitor#1 went black, then Monitor#2 went black, then keyboard locked and I knew what was next... ill-sounding system beep. Had to hard-power-down. After restart, came back OK, but forget HDMI!! I reattached Monitor#1 via VGA and thought everything was smooth, until in a game the screen went haywire (fuzzy, jagged electro-interference-lines and jiggle).

So I am giving up on getting this9800GX2 card to work on my system.

I regret having bought it from someone in another forum, final sale and all, because the GTX260 I bought to play with works beautifully, if less powerful.

I am considering building a cheap box that can house this beast of a card so I can fold in Linux or XP. Unless someone might be looking to pick up a 9800GX2 from a motivated seller? wink wink!