X1900XTX DOA?

[Dev2]

I recently won a Sapphire X1900XTX Toxic in a competition, it was shipped from America to Ireland. I bought a Antec Sonata II case ( Antec 450 W Smart Power 2 PSU incl) and a Asus A8N SE motherboard and a AMD 3700 from overclockers.co.uk to go with the new graphics card. I used the RAM (2x512 PC3200 DDR) and IDE hard drive from my old computer to save on money. I managed to get it all assembled with no problems. I then booted and got 1 long beep and 2 short. I checked up what it meant (Asus A8N SE has Award BIOS) and it means that the graphics card either isn't seated properly or is dead. I really hoped i wasn't dead as I just want to get it up and running but after reseating it a couple of times I'm starting to think that it is dead. Is there any other explanation for this ie my PSU isn't good enough? I have 15A and 17A on the 12v rails. I assumed this was the bare minimum but enough to boot at least. Please help. Sending it back will be expensive as it will be at least $40 to ship and I will probably have to pay for other charges too and it may work out cheaper to buy another graphics card.
-Dev

So yeah the rig in my sig is the broken one.

 

[vapor matt]

Hi dev, well looking at your system, it may well be the PSU. the XTX does suck some power but it should at least boot.

Is there anyone close to you that can test the GFX card in there PC, if not you can still return the GFX to sapphire direct as it will be coverd by the 12 month garentee!

also it maybe the M/board as i have had boards that would boot with one kind of card but no another brand, even of the same chipset. but first you should test the GFX card in another PC

 

[Dev2]

Thanks for the reply. I posted the same thread on Sapphire's support forums. This was a reply I got from a super moderator.

"Heya,..

An underpowered PSU will eventually get stressed and cause overheating leading to artifacts, freezes, BSODs, crashes, reboots and may kill the card, the PSU itself and/or other components.

That PSU is no way near good enough to run that system with the VGA you have, honestly. The X19series need a MINIMUM CONTINUOUS/SUSTAINED AMP rating on the 12v rail of 30a+, this is NOT the Max Peak Power rating but the SUSTAINED rating.

Best PSU for that card/system :- Enermax Liberty Series 620W or similar speccD unit from :-

TAGAN
PC Cooling
Zippy
Xion
Aerocool
OCZ

You also have an ASUS mobo and there's NO guarantee that ANY ATI based card will run on it - check the HUGE ASUS vs X16series thread for an idea as to why..

GG"

So it probably is the PSU. Shame really as Sapphire have a minimum spec PSU stated as 450 Watt so I don't see why it shouldn't boot at least. I guess I have learned the hard way.