Only 1 PCI-E on 430W EVGA 80 PLUS White - problem?

chrismox

chrismox

chrismox

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
1,832
Location
Brighton
I'm building a new system.

I picked up an MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card from the member's market and I've bought myself a 430W EVGA 80 PLUS White PSU.

The card requires 2 x PCI-E power plugs but the PSU only has 1.

I've found a 2 x molex -> 1 x PCI-E adapter in my box of bits, so the card is now (in theory) correctly powered.

My question is, is this an acceptable way of powering the card or should I be looking to return the PSU and buy one with 2 x PCI-E power plugs?

Presumably the fact that the adapter exists suggests that this is perfectly reasonable, but I want to check.

Many thanks.
 
Molex to PCI-E adaptors are perfectly fine to use.

The 970 is very energy efficient (reference version is 145W), but what's the rest of the system going to be. That PSU can only supply 408W on the 12V rail, so you only have ~260W for the rest of the system. Personally I'd get a better PSU.
 
Your psu only has 408w on the 12v rail so you are getting close to that. Seeing as it's a cheap psu from a mediocre oem (HEC) I would want a better unit than that in a pc such as yours, especially if you are going to overclock the cpu.
 
Some of them are decent, but the decent ones tend to be expensive. I'm not too sure about the cheaper models, but I would avoid the VS series for sure as they're the really cheap ones. What is your PSU budget?
 
My budget is "budget" :)

I can spend whatever I need to, but I simply need a PSU that's powerful enough (I thought it was) and won't go BANG after 6 months.

Cheers.
 
OK, in which case:

Superflower 550W Golden Green £59.99
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/supe...0-plus-gold-power-supply-black-ca-003-sf.html

XFX XT600W £42.95
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-xt-series-600w-80-plus-bronze-power-supply-ca-023-xf.html

The superflower is a quality unit and will run anything including a 980Ti if you're not OCing anything. You will be able to OC, as the 970 is lower-powered than a 980Ti (145W compared to 250W). It also outputs the full 550W on the 12V rail from what I remember - I have one in a system at home.

The XFX is more of a budget unit, but still decent, hence I'm suggesting the 600W model. It'll give you 540W on the 12V rail, which will be more than enough for your needs, OCing included.

I could suggest a full modular unit, but then you're usually looking at upwards of £70 for a 550W unit.
 
Very kind of you, thanks.

The setup is going inside an old Antec P182, so there's tons of room for cable management and therefore I'm not too fussed about a modular PSU.
 
The White is used by us for the 80+ version that is below Bronze. Generally we do also have other PSU from different manifacturer available. The 430 White is our very basic entry level model, Bronze units available from us have more power/connectors but also produced by HEC. In the Gold certified range we have models produced by Super Flower (G2), Seasonic (GS) and Super Flower (GQ). Best bang for a buck is the GQ series, GS are the one with the lowest noise level and G2/P2 are the one with high end quality.
 
Thanks for the clarification as to who your OEMs are for each range. You definitely have a diverse range of PSUs suitable for every application!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom