I was just about to click buy, then I thought I should really consult with the people of Hexus to see what they have to say.
I'd like my computer to be reasonably quiet, and the graphics cards to preferable vent out the back of the case to avoid cooking the rest of my computer. So I lined up either a HIS X1950 Pro or a Sapphire X1950XT. Now I'm not really sure of the noise level of the XT but it is a good card for the price.
Then I thought to myself: "Chuff, am I going to be able to power either of them?"
I've got a 430W Antec PSU (2*16A 12V rails) which from what I can find seems to be borderline. It's only powering an X2 3800+ EE, 2*1Gb 1 sata hdd, 1 dvd-rw, floppy and PCI wireless card so the overall system load shouldn't be too bad (no overclocking), but it'd be shame to spend over £100 and have nothing working. The problem is that I can't really justify spending the extra £80 on a new PSU
Should I play it safe and stick with the X1950Pro, or is that still going to be too much load? And how do the 7900GS's compare for power requirements if the X1950's are out of my league? They seem to be the same price for slightly lower performance and mostly noisy looking coolers.
Cheers!