• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Do I need to upgrade my PSU and is that easy to do?

shireknight

shireknight

shireknight

Associate
Joined
19 Jun 2008
Posts
99
Hi guys,

I am very interested in buying an OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail as an upgrade from my GeForce 7600GT (256mb DDR3) (PCI-Express)

The write up doesn't say how many watts my PSU needs to be to handle this card but it is only 350 Watts -is that enough and if it isn't is it easy to upgrade a PSU unit or should I take it to a computer expert and pay them to do it for me?

I have installed Ram, Hard drives and swopped CD roms and Floppy disc drives between pc's before but looking at the mass of wires coming out of the PSU going into the motherboard looks scary as hell to me when I looked at it earlier :-)
 
Last edited:
shireknight said:
Hi guys,

I am very interested in buying an OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail as an upgrade from my GeForce 7600GT (256mb DDR3) (PCI-Express)

The write up doesn't say how many watts my PSU needs to be to handle this card but it is only 350 Watts -is that enough and if it isn't is it easy to upgrade a PSU unit or should I take it to ** **** and pay them to do it for me?

I have installed Ram, Hard drives and swopped CD roms and Floppy disc drives between pc's before but looking at the mass of wires coming out of the PSU going into the motherboard looks scary as hell to me when I looked at it earlier :-)
Click to expand...


Hi - welcome to the forum. You might want to get rid of that competitor link and go and have a read of the FAQs for this forum.

The chances are that your PSU will struggle. I'm assuming you have a shop-bought PC? If you open up the PC, the PSU should have some ratings for 3.3v, 5v and 12v. What are they? If you can give us a make and model number that would be even better.

Edit: Swapping PSUs is no more complicated than most other components. Just takes a bit longer. Think of it as being like expensive lego...
 
Last edited:
firstly remove the competitor

secondly welcome to the forums

finally, check your pc can actually support the card first, then i would suggest changing the PSU, as 350W may handle it but you will be running pretty close to 100% load at all times, meaning a small spike in power consumption will result in at least a restart.

changing a psu is easy. all plugs are designed to fit only where they are suppose to, ie, you cant plug a 8pci-e plug into a 8 pin socket on an MB.
 
I was 1st to reply and I DO NOT see it and see no Edit mentioned. :confused:

Anyhow I could not care less and I have actually given him some help. ;)
 
Last edited:
Wow thanks for all the replies -you guys are fast.

You confused me with the talk about the competitor but Uriel kind of cleared that up so I have edited my post.

I'm getting the impression that I should upgrade my PSU so Ill have a go at that -cheers for the video link helmutcheese that will help me a lot.

One final question, Iv'e just realised that there are loads of 8800 GT's and this one

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...roupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1008&name=Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GV-NX88T512HP)

looks like it is even faster than the one I mentioned earlier

The first one said - GeForce 8800 GT core running at 600MHz
- Shader Clock Speed of 1500MHz
- 512MB GDDR3 Memory running at 1800MHz
- 256-Bit Memory Interface
- 112 Stream Processors

the new one says -GeForce 8800 GT core running at 700MHz
- Silent cooling solution and cooler running
- Shader Clock Speed of 1700MHz
- 512MB GDDR3 Memory running at 1900MHz
- 256-Bit Memory Interface
- 112 Stream Processors

Is it really that simple or do the stats not really mean a lot? and yes Green Giant I am shire from the CA forums.

Edit: ah and one stupidly obvious question that I forgot to ask, if I'm going to upgrade my psu what should I upgrade it to?
 
Last edited:
Hmm I'm looking at the 9800GTX but it dosn't appear in my graphic card comparison chart so I can't compare it to the 8800, I take it you guys have a more up to date chart that you use could you post the link for me please :)
 
shireknight said:
Hmm I'm looking at the 9800GTX but it dosn't appear in my graphic card comparison chart so I can't compare it to the 8800, I take it you guys have a more up to date chart that you use could you post the link for me please :)
Click to expand...
Price alone gives away the fact that its more powerful. But that means its more power hungry, larger/longer, etc & only makes sense if playing at higher res & or quality.

For 8800GT you'll need around 450W with at least (combined) 28A on +12V Rail...



If your budget allows + want to play it safe you can go for a 500W+ PSU like the Corsair HX 520W (here). Should also last you several upgrades/rigs :)

But I'd wait for the upcoming 4850 from ATI ;)
 
Last edited:
cheers for the advice hp 7909, I'd love to buy a card today but realistically I guess I'm in no rush as I really don't need to ugrade untill Empire Total War is about to be released as that's the game I'm gearing my PC up for so Ill wait a bit longer and see this 4850 that everyone is talking about :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom