upgrade problem

[MrP]

i built this last year on the cheap

AMD XP3700+ S393 (£25)
DFI Lanparty UT RDX200 CF-DR (£30)
powercolour x800gto (£30)

and stuck it in
coolermaster wavemaster
akasa 400w psu
200gb hdd
pioneer DVD-rw
1gb patriot ram

since then i have had graphics errors in wow (and to a lesser extent in other games) having tried other cards and different machines DFI informed me that my PSU isnt up to the job.

so do i shell out £60+ on a psu that may or may not fix the problem
do i live with it
do i keep the psu and try to upgrade to a second hand AM2 and hope that the board i get isnt as hungry

not sure what i want to do with this as i cant throw much at this, either way dosent seem to offer a garenteed fix which makes me even more suspect about throwing money at it.
anyone got any opinions??

[ash_rm]

I doubt that system will even draw any where near 200w when on full load, so not sure what DFI are on about. Unless the PSU is faulty?

Can you borrow a PSU from another system to test?

What is the error btw?

[MrP]

gonna try the psu from my shuttle in it to see.

just graphical errors, so missing polygons, extended polygons, trees etc flickering (polygon disapearing/reapearing i think)

tried the grphics card in another PC so i know it isnt a gpu fault.

psu could be fauly, i'm gonna test it tonight, the shuttle psu should confirm it though

[amjedm]

Some DFI boards can be fussy with power supplies.

Did you test with the Shuttle psu?

[MrP]

the shuttle only has a 20pin atx cable and the dfi wants/needs 24 i think.

so i'm just gonna go for a new corsair psu and keep my fingers crossed

[s_kinton]

For your system £60+ on a psu is excessive. Just buy a good psu, around the 500w mark.

[MrP]

looking at the corsair hx520w at the moment, although i may go for the 620w to future proof that part of my system

[amjedm]

Some DFI boards had issues with Seasonic psus and as Corsair are made by Seasonic, I would recommend you check with DFI if it should be ok.

With your existing setup I'm sure you can get away with a quality 300-400 psu.

[MrP]

thats slightly worrying.

the guy from DFI i have been talking to says i should have at least 480w, and gave me this to work from, they seem to hold the corsair in very very high regard, so reports or problem worry me

[amjedm]

thats slightly worrying.

the guy from DFI i have been talking to says i should have at least 480w, and gave me this to work from, they seem to hold the corsair in very very high regard, so reports or problem worry me

Maybe the issue's been sorted in that case? I mentioned this in an older thread and Clunk agreed.

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.p...t=dfi+seasonic

The problem could have been with S12 and DFI whereas the Corsair is based on the M12?

[ash_rm]

Maybe the issue's been sorted in that case? I mentioned this in an older thread and Clunk agreed.

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.p...t=dfi+seasonic

The problem could have been with S12 and DFI whereas the Corsair is based on the M12?

Strange, can't say I've had any issues with my S12 + DFI NF4 Ultra.

As said above a good quality 300-400w PSU should be more than enough for your current system.

[Blitzen]

the guy from DFI i have been talking to says i should have at least 480w

He's talking out of his hairy hole then .....simply not true im afraid.
Although your system is decent enough, its not a power house and will not draw anything like 300W let alone 400W

That PSU is MORE than enough to copoe with that system.

99.9% sure its the DFI board that is the problem.

DFI boards are notoriously fussy over the PSUs that are powering them and it is a board problem and not a PSU one.

These problems with DFI boards are well documented.

Unfortunately, although DFI boards are good, they should be avoided as their compatibility with other components is some of the worst in the business.

[MrP]

so i have now found out.

i was tempted to have a bitch at them as my shuttle runs the same chipset (and comps if i transplant them) and that runs fine off the 240w psu that it comes with.

is it worth me getting a different s939 board and hoping, or am i still best getting a better PSU then blitzen?

[ash_rm]

Try using a volt meter and measure the voltage rails, to see what's going on.

[MrP]

all the voltages seem ok (tried a psu tested last nite, from looking at the voltages nothing seemed that low)

i'll check again tonight

[ibrien14]

it wouldn't be a psu problem the guy really is talking out of his ass as the 8800 serious only require a 500w psu i would probably say its a problem with mobo if you have alrdy swapped out the graphics card. or as a secondary thought is the machine over heating and have you got the latest drivers i had an 9800pro which would give me graphics issues on a dfi board and with a driver update it stopped