8800GTX PSU

cosmicnut

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Aug 2, 2006
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I've got some PSU trouble

Sometimes my PC won't start, the power comes on but it won't post.

If I mess around with the rats nest of PSU cables (combination of an antec 900 gaming case with the PSU at the bottom, a 1kw PSU with more cables than common sense and a huge graphics card taking up the middle of the case!), I can get the PC to start normally.

The only thing i can think of is a bad cable on the power supply. This is looking more likely as it didn't seem to turn off even though I had switched off the hardware switch on the back of the supply!

I'm going to try and replace the PSU first. If that fixes it, great, if not then its time to think again.

The problem I have is with the 8800GTX. This is an old monster of a card and off one of the first production runs so it needs 30amps on the 12v rail.

I'm thinking of getting a

Hunkey X7 900W Power Supply

Problem is that its got a tonne of rails, but does anyone know if it has enough juice on 2 of them to power the 8800GTX?
 
I've heard and read some bad things about Huntkey. Also, a 1kW powersupply of ANY brand is major overkill for an 8800GTX. If you do want to replace it, a high-quality 500W will probably do the job.
 

cosmicnut

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I'm in the UK (so no rebates :cry: )
The problem is that the original 8800GTX had very high power requirements and it took a real effort to find a PSU that could handle it.
Before I got my current one I had to spread the load between an FSP GPU power supply and an OK (not great quality) 600W. If you don't have a measurable 30amp between the two connectors on the card it will underclock!

 
Yes, that card was extremely power hungry for its day but 900w is still overkill. A good brand is the key to PSU selection. 90% of PSUs out there are very sketchy but if you go for a good one then you can actually trust the power ratings. This would be a good choice;
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141006
If you really feel the need for overkill then get this;
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161664
but either one could run 2 of those cards.
 

cosmicnut

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Hate to be a git but which model 8800GTX? They re-relased the GTX version when they moved down a die size to reduce the power consumption.

This is one of those annoying ones that will haunt me till I actually get the unit.
 
There was never a die shrink of the 8800GTX. There was a die shrink of the 9800GTX which was called the 9800GTX+(and now the GTS 250) but those cards are not based on the 8800GTX but rather the 8800GTS 512mb. I suppose you could call the G92 based cards(8800GS/GT/GTS 512mb) die shrinks of the G80 architecture(8800Ultra/GTX/GTS 320/640mb) but they are not really the same processor.