small psu pants

mikef · 8 Jan 2006 at 16:02

sff psu's

Hi all, new on here and kinda need a little advice

Just built a biostar 300g media center and wanted to stick a good pci-e graphics card in it but with the psu only giving out 250w power its going to be a bit of a no goer. Looked around and cant find any other small psus with good rails etc, has anyone done anything with external psu housing or case modding to fit a bigger psu in, or laptop brick and dc-dc converter etc

any advice and photo's is appreciated.

Luck · 9 Jan 2006 at 12:55

Matey, its not the size of the PSU that counts its the quality that counts. most shuttles have a really small power supply like 200watts or 250watts but we all run big powered cards like 7800GT's and 6800's without any problems.

Its all about quality not quantity with power supplies. people think they need 600watt power supplies to run their system but they are wrong.

mctrials23 · 9 Jan 2006 at 18:23

yeah if you look at what the SFFs actually support you will realise the PSU these have will be good quality.

mikef · 9 Jan 2006 at 20:16

the spec

3.6ghz 1mb cache cpu
2 x 512mb ddr
80 gig sata drive
sony dvd writer
wireless mini pci
tv card with 2 analogue tuners

the graphics card

sapphire gto2 256mb

The problem

125 degrees vpu

the solution

any ideas?

Cheers guys

Mike

mctrials23 · 9 Jan 2006 at 22:35

ive got a heavily overclocked amd 64, 1gig of pc3200 running at 260fsb. A raptor 74gb and another 160gb sata. 6600gt and soundcard in mine and a 240w psu runs it perfectly. I had an X800 xt pe in here for months and never had a problem. You will be fine.

PureAppleJuice · 9 Jan 2006 at 23:08

I've got an overclocked athlon 64, 1gb of RAM, 2 HDDs that are pretty much always running, overclocked 6800 GT, soundcard, optical drive, 6 USB devices and extra fans, no problems at all, the voltages aren't exact but are stable

mikef · 10 Jan 2006 at 00:18

Thanks guys, i cant understand why my system isnt stable then. I was told it was the psu, i need to look in to this a bit more.

Is there any software that can measure the strain on the psu?

could this simply be a dodgy x800 gto2 card?

mctrials23 · 10 Jan 2006 at 00:26

is it unstable for you then, i got the impression that u were going to put a pci-e gfx in but were unsure if it could take it?

mikef · 10 Jan 2006 at 10:07

no its already in althouh if i dont fix the problem by the weekend its coming out as the pc has onboard as well. The pc just blue screens after about 10 minutes, the vpu temp soars even with the fans on full wack, it got really hot the other day and i'm quite lucky the card wasnt fried.

I cant find any possible explanation, even re did all the thermal paste just in case as i had a sparkle card go because of dodgy heat sink fixings and paste. I havent unplugged all unnecessary devices and then tried it but i think thats the next step, is there no software that can tell me if the board is getting enough power?

mctrials23 · 10 Jan 2006 at 13:15

huh. still confused. Your saying you think the psu is the problem yet its the gfx card overheating that is giving you problems?

Sure you havnt got a dodgy gfx card.

mikef · 10 Jan 2006 at 16:26

thats what i thought but i'm getting conflicting information.

I'm gonna take it back and try and get another. If it still doesnt work i'll know its the pc then for sure

peetee · 18 Jan 2006 at 13:03

its 125degrees? is the fan actually plugged in?