4890 Cross fire Power Question ?

[kevy1986]

Hey Guys,

I'm current running a XFX HD4890 and thinking about getting another one in the near future. I'm thinking about getting another PSU to power it if mines can't do it. Currently I have a .....

Arctic Power 700W PSU - With PCI-E, 4x SATA, 20+4, ATX12V, 8pin +12V

Powering a....

Antec 902
Q6600 ( 3.3Ghz O'C )
OCZ Gold Edition 8GB ( Just over 1100 O'C )
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45
DVD Writer
1 TB Samgung F1
2 UBS ports in use most of the time ( Phone + Monitor )
XFX HD4890 ( 920 Core O'C )

As it's 700W I would hope that would be enough to run 2 cards in crossfire. The problem i'm having is that i'm currenly using Molex to PCI-E 6pin ( x2 ) to power GFX card, leaving only one molex to power DVD writer and also the case fans.

Is it possible to get something like a Sata power connector to PCI-E 6pin as I couldn't find any. Or could I just use Sata to molex then to PCI-E 6 ( seems a bit much but would it work ? )

Not sure if it's worth the hassle or if I should just buy a better PSU as this one is about the cheapest one I could get at the time that was black, quiet and quite powerful.

I've found a few sites selling the older.....

THERMALTAKE Independent 450W Purepower Power Express Power Supply

My mate has a 250w one running his HD4870 and I like how it just fits in a drive bay and is nice and neat. Has anyone had any experience of these and think a 450W might be a good solution ?

I game at 2048 x 1152 on Dell SP2309W, I read that crossfire gives you more improvement on on higher res but as my mobo is PCEx16 & PCIx8 would this throttle it too much to make it not worth while ?

I'm not going to upgrade for a month or so, just tempted to buy another PSU now so it's not another exspense when I get another gfx card.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[95thrifles]

You really should invest in a proper quality PSU, this is one of the best you cna get and is reasonably priced too, they also do it in black
Running at x8 may throttle it marginally, but not too much to worry about, youll still see more of an improvement than not

 

[kevy1986]

Thanks for the quick reply, you think it would be best just to get a new PSU then ? That's what I was kinda thinking rather than messing about with this one and it not working. I am tempted by the Thermaltake dedicated PSU tho, have you any experience with them ? The link you sent me does look like it ticks all the boxes but certainly not in the horrible orange I'd have to get a black one then

 

[gareth170]

or a Tagan PipeRock TG800-BZ 800w

 

[antran]

i got 2 ati 4890s and is power by ocz 600w stealthstream

 

[AMG]

thats cutting a little close

I have checked my system on antecs power calucator thing, and its says 750watt O_O

spec in sig

so I would get a good 800watt like a tagan, hell even a 750watt corsiar could do it, I don't trust OCZ so much from what happened last time

 

[kevy1986]

Well thanks for the advice everyone, I feel it's probably best just to go for a new PSU and take it from there. Wish we knew the power consumption of the new DX11 cards so i'd know how far to go for future proofing but we'll just have to wait and see I expect

 

[RJC]

thats cutting a little close

I have checked my system on antecs power calucator thing, and its says 750watt O_O

Crikey, they did go over the top, my I7 rig with 4870x2 only pulls 530w ~

Psu calculator comes up with 500w psu for your system.

 

[AMG]

with hte overclock, and the HDDs optical drives and stuff, not sure if that is right or not seems a little high.

I m fine anyway i have a 1.1kw althrough i orded a 800watt