Power Supply change to run Sapphire Radeon "Toxic" HD 5850

Wormwould

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Jul 3, 2012
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10,510
I have a stock HP desktop off the shelf HP Pavilion HPE h8-1214. I have had it for four months but I was given a Sapphire Radeon "Toxic" HD 5850 that works & has approx only a few months of intermittent use. $$ is the main factor in my upgrade, well secondary to compatibility issues.

I do not do extreme gaming but the GPU that came installed does not perform well for TW08 (EA Tiger Woods 08) with medium settings, much less maxed out. Max settings gives frame rate of 12 FPS. Past experience shows me I need 30+ FPS (prefer 40+). Yes it is an old game but I have friends all over the globe I compete with and my physical body will not let me play real golf anymore....you know a game addict when you read one.

I am sure I have giving way too much information but I have always been told when in doubt turn to the wealth of knowledge here at toms' hardware.

PROBLEM AS OF THIS POINT:
Out of curiosity I did not remove the old power supply, I unplugged & hit power button to discharge any power left. I grounded myself constantly to case & disconnected the four internal connectors. This was just to test the Corsair & maybe the wrong way....I set it where half of it was touching metal case & plugged the four connectors in (see below for the 4 connections info). I double checked all connections & then plugged The Corsair up & hit the power button. Well windows loaded all the way to the desktop before the power shut off. I was able to boot in safe mode so I tried one more time to restart. Same result, desktop comes up & as the icons are filling in it powers off.

At this point I panic & realize I always wanted to build my own & now maybe I realize a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The original power supply is hooked back up & all is running fine. I did go to the HP page & did successfully update the BIOS. The other updates there did not seem to apply but here is that link.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=4063&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=5192450#N323


All specs here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c03154290#N66

Windows 7 64 bit
AMD FX-6100 3.3 GHZ 6 core
MB Gigabyte M3970AM-HP
Ram 10 GB DDR3-1333
Radeon HD 7450
300 watt power supply

Windows Experience Index is 5.0 because of GPU.


I am not looking to run "Crossfire" so with that said yes GPU fits in the case with 1/2" to spare. I did a lot of research & found 500w & 600w power supply were recommended. I purchased a CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply.

newegg page here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

I choose it because it is the same physical size as the current power supply, will run Sapphire Radeon Toxic 5850 & has the connectors I need (PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DOUBLE CHECK ME), including the 4 pin 12V P4. I am using the EPS connector that splits in two for the MB 12v supply. The only other cables are the 24 pin & two SATA (hard drive & CD/DVD). Naturally I need the two PCI Express for the GPU II want to install.

Looking for any help & reassurance that I have what I need. Also if I get the power supply to work do I need to uninstall video driver before adding Sappphire, I did not get anything other than the card & Crossfire connections. I do not have the installation drive CD.

Thanks & sorry about the novel I posed here! :na:




Other research I did is here:

GPU
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2943
http://computershopper.com/components/reviews/sapphire-radeon-hd-5850-toxic-edition
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1238/1/

Corsair CX600 Manufacture specs page
http://www.corsair.com/en/power-supply-units/cx-series-psu/builder-series-cx600-v2-80plus-certified-power-supply.html

http://www.motherboards.org/articles/guides/1487_4.html
"The above left connector is called a "+12V" and is the defining characteristic that differentiates an ATX power supply from an ATX12V power supply. It's also known as the "P4" connector because they were initially introduced only on Pentium 4 boards. The connector comprises of two +12V wires and two grounds and provides voltage to the CPU.
The connector on the right is called the "EPS connector." It's typically used on SSI or SMP boards, mostly of the server variety. Essentially, it is two of the +12V connectors side by side and comprises of four +12V leads and four grounds. A quad rail SSI power supply tends to have each pair of +12V leads on this connector on it's own rail, essentially providing each CPU in a dual CPU arrangement it's own dedicated rail. Recently, high performance boards (like the Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe) have added an EPS connector to provide better amperage, through more leads.
Like the 20 and 24-pin ATX main power connectors, EPS and +12V connectors are interchangeable. A 4-pin +12V connector will fit in an EPS receptacle and an EPS connector can fit into a +12V receptacle if you leave four pins hanging off the edge.
In fact, some power supplies actually provide an 8-pin EPS that can be split into two 4-pin connectors (see below left,) one of which can be used for the +12V connector."
 

Wormwould

Honorable
Jul 3, 2012
8
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10,510
Thanks, I have done very little hardware work on computers & never with a PSU. That is why I decided to just plug the old one back up & see what others thought. I did my homework but I see there are some reviews of this PSU that are not glowing. I just thought it would be fine with my setup.