Problem with hardware

[the_kay]

I just got my new GeForce 7900 GS.

It is really great, but it needs a lot of energy.
Beside the PCIe-Slot it needs two (!) molex...
All molex of my SHA350-8P (350 watt) are now used. Beside my graphic card I have:
- mainboard & 3GHz Intel Pentium IV
- 1 DVD-Drive (IDE)
- 2 S-ATA hard disks
- 1 PCI sound card

I somehow have the feeling that though my graphic is better, my computer's speed decreased. Sometimes sound is missing.

Can it be that not enough power is available for all those components?
If anyone could help me, that would be great

[}TCP{Carnage]

U can try this site

http://www.journeysystems.com/power_sup ... ulator.php

it will give u an indication of the power suply u might need .. a little more of course is a good thing

[Hyper]

Your Sharkoon (cheap stuff brand) 350w could be around it's edge now. Of course the best way is to measure the power output and usage of each component, but if I was in your situation I would consider to buy a good PSU.

I can recommend brands like:
Enermax
Fortron
Zalman
Tagan

Stay away from cheap stuff and there were quite a number of problems with Antec PSU's (Who make excellent cases btw)

When buying a PSU, think about which hardware you want to buy in the future. Dual CPU's, SLI GPU's, multiple harddisks, lots of fans etc all need power.

[the_kay]

Thanks for your help, Carnage and Hyper

I tried the calculator, however it doesn't seem to be very updated, the best graphic card they got is still a 6-series (6800 Ultra)... I got a 7900 GS which is not listed.
Additionally I am not totally sure what fans I got...

Nvidia says the card is takes at maximum 82 Watt, so all in all we have:
321 Watt

However on this site they talk about 187 Watt for the graphic card and so it would be
426 Watt

What I'm gonna do is looking if problems continue and then perhaps try to supply only parts of the system (for example only 1 hd is needed, the other hd and the dvd-drive is not needed).

Hyper, what do you think how much such a brand PSU might cost? :-/
I just spent much money on the graphic card...

[SLAPHEAD]

Hello Kay.

Right mate,you need a 600watt psu min and as suggested a brand name quality one.

What is happening is your pc is being starved of power,which after long term
may damage it.

I tried to explain this to you last night but you left.
When you upgrade a compontent in your pc,you also have to upgrade
your psu as well.
This is a mistake alot of people make.
Your cpu and chipset of mother board is restricting the full potental
of your video card.

look at this site for more info http://guru3d.com/article/Videocards/402/

[}TCP{Wolf]

Simply get the strongest PSU there is and stop worrying if it's too little or overkill

[}TCP{Cee]

Dont listen to ppl telling you to buy expensive brands. I always used cheap Coba ones and never had any troubles (except for my old 350 w one, which seemed to slowly fail after 4 yrs)
A ~500w psu should be enough for anybody, except total freaks.

[Taz]

Yeah, Cee is right..a PSU like this should hold, it's the one I have btw

http://prisguide.hardware.no/product.ph ... t_id=22271

Thats around..60 euros, is that a lot?
Because that is actually really cheap for such a good PSU.. at least in KR :O

[}TCP{Wolf]

Not ~really~ cheap but saving at the PSU is saving at the wrong end...

EDIT: Correction, it's horribly expensive, see

http://computer.listings.ebay.de/Gehaeu ... ngItemList

[Taz]

In KR it is

It's cheap in my country :l

[}TCP{Cee]

It still shouldnt cost more than 60 euro to get a decent psu
All those overprized "top brands" with prices around 90 euro are way too expensive. I see Hiper and Enermax 500w psus that cost 90 bucks, while I paid around 50 for my 535w Sharkoon crap. It still works though and thats what counts for me

[}TCP{ZzCaT]

I would say to prevent future power problems have a look here:

http://www.indiamart.com/kia/diesel-gen ... ators.html

[}TCP{Coco]

Hi!

It still shouldnt cost more than 60 euro to get a decent psu
All those overprized "top brands" with prices around 90 euro are way too expensive. I see Hiper and Enermax 500w psus that cost 90 bucks, while I paid around 50 for my 535w Sharkoon crap. It still works though and thats what counts for me

Ok, it works, but it can bring several problems. A few years ago, I read an article in the German computer magazine c't about it. The better PSUs (not necessarily the more expensive ones) have better componentes compared to the not so good ones. Usually that doesn't matter, but if you experience minimal fluctuations or power losses, the better ones are able to catch them and regulate the voltage for a short time. Also, the components don't get damaged that easy.

These short interruptions or fluctuations usually happen more often than you'd think of. In general, they lead to unpredictable behaviour of the computer, like freezes, crashes, spontaneous resets and the like. In my opinion, it's far better for the entire hardware to avoid something like this happening. That's why I'm going to get myself an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in the next months. There are some not too expensive ones (around 100 Euro) that can keep the PC running for 15 minutes when there's a power failure and even shut down the PC safely automatically, before the reserves drain, if you can't do it in between when you're not at home or something alike. In conjunction with this, a cheap PSU shouldn't be a big problem, I think.

Coco.

[the_kay]

First I wanted to buy a 10 Euro PSU but the guy from the computer store told me it was crap. so I bought one that costed... about 25 Euro I think. Now I see that this is still very cheap (I never thought you could buy a PSU for 100 Euro )

[}TCP{Cee]

Probably should've bought this

http://www.alternate.de/html/productDet ... tno=TNAX01