Phenom ii, 4870 and psu potential problem

[gee-the-frog]

Hello good people, i just purchased a Phenom II 955. I have two questions,

1)Do i need an 8 pin power cable for it? at the moment its working with just the 4 pin plugged in but i dont wana continue using only the 4 pin if its gonna be detramental to the cpu. If so then will a molex to 4pin do? or do i have to buy another psu (which i dont want to do at all).

2)also i have a 650w psu and a 4870 (requiring 2x6pin power cables). I think my power supply should be just enough to keep the system stable. Would we all agree?

Also i plan to overclock (for my first time ever) in a couple weeks when i have the cash for a decent cooler. Will i be able to even oc or will my system be to unstable with all these power issues. Cheers guys.

 

[saint19]

Hi newcomer and welcome to the Tom's hardware forum.

1- The PSU is enough, even, is enough for a Crossfire is is from a good brand.
2- What cable do you mean exactly?

 

[gee-the-frog]

Hi newcomer and welcome to the Tom's hardware forum.

1- The PSU is enough, even, is enough for a Crossfire is is from a good brand.
2- What cable do you mean exactly?

1)awesome, my mobo has intergrated graphics which apparently i can use with my 4870 in crossfie. I have no idea what sort of performance gain I will get from that but surely it cant hurt. Does that sound right? EDIT: just had a look at this and its a no go. I asumed the intergrated 4200 would work with a 4870. aparently i wasn't the only one who assumed this though.

2)my mobo has an 8 pin power input for the cpu, at the moment im just using the 4pin as my psu only has one 4 pin and not 2x4pin. it works fine so far but im thinking of using a molex to 4 pin adapter (pictured below hopefully) to fill the other half of the 8pin input. (if that makes sense). Is this a good idea? Or should the cpu run fine with just the 4pin plugged in? Im thinking it should work fine untill i overclock it. what are your thoughts?

 

[macabre215]

My understanding is you need cards from the same generation to put them into crossfire. So 4870+4850, but you can't put a 4870 with a 4770. This would trickle down to a 4100 IGP, and would be incompatible with a 4800 series card.

 

[saint19]

1- Yeah, you can use your video onboard, but it's called Hybrid crossfire.
2- Keep it with the 8pin connector, if this comes working fine, Why change it?

 

[macabre215]

I don't recommend using hybrid crossfire with a 4870, it would actually hamper the performance of it.