ok, 6800 ultra.. can my system power it?

[myth]

Well I just got a email! My card will be here wensday! So I now have to decide how to power it! Here is my power suply...

http://www.fspgroupusa.com/proddetail.asp?linenumber=80



Ok, now I'm suposed to use two seperate leads... With nothing conected to them! Well lets see... I have 2 raptors, a 160 giger and a 40 giger... 2 optical... a Jet 4 and 2 120mm case fans all on 12 volt rails! I all ready am using "Y" spliters to power my two raptors! So, Should I move all this to 1 rail? that would be 4 Hds, 2 optical, 3 fans... Any Ideas on how to balence this out? Perhaps a raptor on each lead to the Ultra?

[Nomadd]

I'd say at 530W it should easily power it. I'd stick the graphics on 1 rail (use a y splitter) and then use the remaining connectors on the rest of your kit. Test it. If you hit problems, try switching it around. My 6800GT is overclocked to Ultra speeds and runs just fine on it's single connector from 1 rail on my Enermax 365W PSU.

Nomadd

[oralpain]

The individual power cables/molex connectors are not rails...

Anyway, the normal load on the +12v rail for the PSU is 8 amps and te MAX is 18. I think you are going to be cutting it close. The 6800Ultra can use about 5 amps on the +12v all by itself. Combined with all the other stuff in your systemand your processor that is going to get very near 18 amps when the system is at full load.

As for balancing it out, I don't think you can. I would get a PSU with more molex connectors and higher amperage on the +12v line. Or, you could use 2 PSUs, if you have some where to put the second one.

If you have to, put one fan or hardrive on each connector going into the 6800Ultra and try it. If you have problem, you'll have a good idea why.

[myth]

The individual power cables/molex connectors are not rails...

Anyway, the normal load on the +12v rail for the PSU is 8 amps and te MAX is 18. I think you are going to be cutting it close. The 6800Ultra can use about 5 amps on the +12v all by itself. Combined with all the other stuff in your systemand your processor that is going to get very near 18 amps when the system is at full load.

As for balancing it out, I don't think you can. I would get a PSU with more molex connectors and higher amperage on the +12v line. Or, you could use 2 PSUs, if you have some where to put the second one.

If you have to, put one fan or hardrive on each connector going into the 6800Ultra and try it. If you have problem, you'll have a good idea why.

due to the cable lenght I'm going to have to put a raptor on each conector with the ultra... I do have another lead but it only has one serial power conector! If I could find a spliter for that I could power the two raptors seperate! I also can remove the 40 gig hard drive... it only has a experimental windows on it...

[eldren]

Can your PSU power your system with the 6800 Ultra? In my opinion, no.

What you can do is go over to http://takaman.jp/D/?english and list all the components your PC has. If that site doesn't list your specific component, you'll have to do a little research, and find out what the component's draw on each voltage rail is. Once you have everything listed, take a look at the required power for each rail at the bottom of the site. Having slapped in some generic values myself (P4 3GHz 533FSB, 2x 512MB DDR400, 40GB & 180GB harddrives), it's already reading 14.1A on the +12v rail. Add to that the estimated 5A that the 6800 Ultra can draw, and you're already over your PSU's maximum rating without even looking at the Raptors.

The reason the say you must run the 6800 Ultra alone on the two power leads has to do with the amount of current it draws. If it were run with other devices on the same leads, the amps going through the leads may be high enough to cause the leads to melt (What with internal resistence and such).

Lastly, for comparison sake, my PC Power&Cooling TurboCool 510W delivers 32A on the +12v rail.

[myth]

oh, and my jet 4 uses .55 amps! No wonder I fryed my fan controler! If this is corect I'm all ready over the maximum!


Now if my powersupy fails I will have a choice betwen these two.... Which one?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...101-207&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...104-150&DEPA=0

[eldren]

I'd go with the OCZ 420W, even though my OCZ RAM is rather carp.
$75 for a 550W PSU seems a bit cheap to me, in the same way that 550W Qtecs are cheap. Though this opinion may be too late, given your updated sig.

[daniel_owen_uk]

$100 Nuff said

[jamadaia]

To be honest I think the OCZ PSU is overpriced/overkill, unless you want its specific features.
Decent priced are the new Enermax range or even a aTagan 480W.

[Steve]

$100 Nuff said

I have one of those. They're great, except for the voltage sensing. Mine runs at about 13 volts. Problem is, by the looks, the sensing cables don't go right to the motherboard. I need to investigate that though.

[Agent]

Nice link eldren

[myth]

While this is off topic.... But I was wondering what BFG does different from the rest! So after much reading I came acros a site that say...

"The first thing they do is take off the reference heatsink, which uses thermal pads, and clean the cooler, GPU and RAM. They then use Artic Silver Thermal compound and reattach the heatsink"

Well, thats gona save me some time! I was wondering which is better? The stock heatsink or the NV 5? I'm not going to pay 28 dollars for a NV 5 if its not signifintly better!

[Donny John]

Anoracs If it don't pwer it get a more powerful ne, I recommend teh q-tec 650w

[myth]

well, we'll all find out this wensday!

[daniel_owen_uk]

While this is off topic.... But I was wondering what BFG does different from the rest! So after much reading I came acros a site that say...

"The first thing they do is take off the reference heatsink, which uses thermal pads, and clean the cooler, GPU and RAM. They then use Artic Silver Thermal compound and reattach the heatsink"

The first thing about that quote is.... its BS.

I installed a nv68 on my bfg 6800 ultra so I should know, and it may have had as5 on the gpu but not the ram.