80-100w Graphics card for m-itx system?

mcwildcard

mcwildcard

mcwildcard

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I currently have a 120w Mini-itx system with the following spec:

In-Win case (Built in 120w psu)
Zotac 9300 wifi mobo
E8400
2 x 2GB DDR2
320GB 3.5" HDD
Slimline DVD drive

But I notice that In-Win now have almost identical cases with a 200w built in PSU.
So I was considering grabbing one of those and installing my components into it, plus adding a graphics card in the PCI-e x16 slot to use the 'spare' 80w+.
I figure the on-board GPU that I can switch off uses around 20w or so, which means I've probably got about 100w to play with.

The question is, what's the most powerful low profile graphics card I can realistically install, that will use no more than 100w?
 
I constantly look for the answer to this question. There is a Sparkle 250 GTS, but it's clocked fairly slow, is double width and is over £100.

I settled for an Asus 6570 1gb GDDR3, similar to above but with 200mhz faster ram. Be careful though the Asus is a slot and half wide, fits perfectly in my Antec case, but might be too wide for some other cases.
 
Hmmm, looking at the 200w case, it looks like it's quite different internally.
A dual slot card would probably fit fine in my current case, but i suspect the new case would be a different story. I think I'll need to give it more thought, thanks guys!
 
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I'm using a much smaller case and I'm using the Sapphire 5570 which is the same size and has the same cooler as a 6570:

tmpag.jpg

tmp2g.jpg

tmp3r.jpg


It's exactly 1 slot wide.

I have removed the fan and shroud on the cooler but not due to width, it's because the heatsink is staring into the 70mm fan on the PSU literally a couple of millimetres away and the 40mm fan on the card would be (pointlessly and noisily) spinning against the flow.
 
Jou Jye NU-528i-B with a 220W psu.

It's been modded to fit in the graphics card, an extra 2.5" drive, 2 more USB ports and a fan controller.

Otherwise you can't put a gcard in as the bracing strap gets in the way (needs trimming down), you only have mounting holes for one 2.5" drive (you can drill two more and mount another with just that).

The USB ports were just my fancy as there was a blank spot for a firewire port which wasn't included so installed more USB ports. Also a blank spot for a card reader which wasn't included so added the fan controller.
 
Hmm... the plot thickens.
Doing a little nosing online and it seems the TDP for a 6570 is 44w, I'm wondering if I've got the overhead to give this a go on my current case with the 120w PSU.
I know it sounds like a bit of a risk, but I remembered the below thread from ages ago and doing the maths it would suggest that I'd have enough power to just about get away with it!

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18027035

What do you guys reckon?
 
mcwildcard said:
Hmm... the plot thickens.
Doing a little nosing online and it seems the TDP for a 6570 is 44w, I'm wondering if I've got the overhead to give this a go on my current case with the 120w PSU.
I know it sounds like a bit of a risk, but I remembered the below thread from ages ago and doing the maths it would suggest that I'd have enough power to just about get away with it!

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18027035

What do you guys reckon?
Click to expand...

I reckon it's marginal.

While back I was working out power usage of my rigs using an ammeter on a live wire and multiplying by mains voltage.

With my E8400 + 5570 stock:

Idle: 0.3A / 69W
3DMark06: 0.5A / 115W
Prime95 Blend: 0.4A / 92W
Furmark + Prime95: 0.6A / 138W

The 6570 uses slightly more energy than a 5570 under load: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4278/amds-radeon-hd-6670-radeon-hd-6570/15 <- ignore the fact it's almost 200W, just check the difference, its mostly the overclocked i7 920 they run it with hogging up the numbers.
 
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I think I need one of those power draw plug thingies, can anyone recommend a cheap one I can get from toolstation, screwfix, or RS components?
I live near all three, so could go grab one asap!
 
I got a power testy plug thing today and tried it out, my system idles at just under 60w, but under prime it goes up to 105w.
At a guess I'd say the onboard 9400 GPU draws around 20w, so I've got no chance of sticking the 6570 in there currently.
Looks like I'll have to get that case with the 200w PSU afterall.
Ah well, it was worth investigating anyway!
 
Monkeynut said:
You tried undervolting components to save power? You will find you can go a bit lower on the volts to save a few watts without compromising stability.
Click to expand...
I considered it, but I'd want to get down to 90w, is it feasable to save that much power through undervolting?
I'm not really enthused about underclocking my E8400 to ensure stability, but as an interim measure, I might consider it.
I can only really afford either the card or the new case this month, so if I could get the card running, then the case next month, that would deffo be the better option!
 
mcwildcard said:
I got a power testy plug thing today and tried it out, my system idles at just under 60w, but under prime it goes up to 105w.
At a guess I'd say the onboard 9400 GPU draws around 20w, so I've got no chance of sticking the 6570 in there currently.
Looks like I'll have to get that case with the 200w PSU afterall.
Ah well, it was worth investigating anyway!
Click to expand...
I'm thinking of getting a tester too. Any help on which to buy?
 
If you're confident in working with mains voltage you can use a multimeter to measure voltage and amps being drawn.

That's what I did but I was using a clamp meter which meant I didn't need to actually expose a wire.
 
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