Not enough power? Really? OCZ

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nubbin77

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Messages
284
I bought this:


http://www.svc.com/ocz700gxssli-b.html

For the following build:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128398

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103649

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231275

1 hard drive and one dvd drive.


And the item that puts me over the top - a 4870. When I have this video card installed (and power inserted) three red led's flash on the vido card and the fan goes nuts sometimes. Usually whenever it ramps up it shuts down. I installed w7 and it would not complete the install process. I removed the 4870 and W7 installs fine. I put the card back in and tried a couple different power configs ( I saw that there are 4 12V rails on the thing that are 18 amps each so I tried to put one 6 pin plug in from the PCIE rail and got a 4 pin molex to 6 pin adapter and plugged that in thinking maybe the card would pull enough power from plugs from 2 different rails. With this config I got into windows, but when I installed the drivers, as soon as it got to a point where it like initialized anything 3d, the pc shut down with the vid card fan going full tilt again.

I guess my question is, should this power supply be able to handle this card? I know OCZ doesn't make the best PSU's but I thought a 700 watt would be a good enough to handle this. Or do you think the PSU is a dud... OR is it the vid card that is the problem?


My wife's computer has a BFG 550 watt psu that I've read a number of reviews that say people are using it with their 4870's. So when I can get her out of the house, I'll rip that out of her computer and try in my brother's pc (Parts above are for a build for him - I had the 4870 from my computer and upgraded mine a while ago).

If OCZ GameXstream 700 should handle the 4870, then I'll return the PSU as defective. If I am stupid and should have know that that PSU would not handle a card like that, then I'll try to swap my wife's PSU for the OCZ. I'm just nervous that the BFG wouldn't be enough for the build I am proposing. Any thoughts?
 
got a model number of the PSU? can't view your link.

what kind of amps does it produce on the 12v rail? What does that card require?
 
OCZ OCZ700GXSSLI GameXStream 700W SLI ATX12V 2.2 Power Supply - Recertified


The power supply says 4 rails at 18 amps each.

According to this calculator my system shoudl need 342 watts.


http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

the card says these are the requirements:

500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode)

I don't know what the wattage of the 2 6 pin PCIE connectors are for the OCZ PSU.
EDIT: if I am reading it correctly the 4 12 V rails = 680 watts. divided by 4 = 170 watts per rail. The one rail only has the 2 pcie connectors, which sould be 85 watts each.

theoretically it should work I think?

EDIT 2 - on second thought I think my math is way off, I didn't factor in the 5V and 3.3V in as part of my division of the 680 WATTS. Maybe this PSU doesn't meet the requirments of this vid card?
 
Last edited:
Not the best PSU, but it should work. Reviews are fine except ripple is out of spec, I wouldn't use it, and maybe that is causing some sort of interference, but not likely.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=24

I'd test another videocard in the system, preferrably a lower power one, and 2 try that videocard in another system. Allow you to definitely pin-point the power supply as the likely problem. Then RMA it.
 
dr.stevil said:
got a model number of the PSU? can't view your link.

what kind of amps does it produce on the 12v rail? What does that card require?
Click to expand...

nubbin77 said:
I bought this:


http://www.svc.com/ocz700gxssli-b.html

For the following build:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128398

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103649

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231275

1 hard drive and one dvd drive.


And the item that puts me over the top - a 4870. When I have this video card installed (and power inserted) three red led's flash on the vido card and the fan goes nuts sometimes. Usually whenever it ramps up it shuts down. I installed w7 and it would not complete the install process. I removed the 4870 and W7 installs fine. I put the card back in and tried a couple different power configs ( I saw that there are 4 12V rails on the thing that are 18 amps each so I tried to put one 6 pin plug in from the PCIE rail and got a 4 pin molex to 6 pin adapter and plugged that in thinking maybe the card would pull enough power from plugs from 2 different rails. With this config I got into windows, but when I installed the drivers, as soon as it got to a point where it like initialized anything 3d, the pc shut down with the vid card fan going full tilt again.

I guess my question is, should this power supply be able to handle this card? I know OCZ doesn't make the best PSU's but I thought a 700 watt would be a good enough to handle this. Or do you think the PSU is a dud... OR is it the vid card that is the problem?


My wife's computer has a BFG 550 watt psu that I've read a number of reviews that say people are using it with their 4870's. So when I can get her out of the house, I'll rip that out of her computer and try in my brother's pc (Parts above are for a build for him - I had the 4870 from my computer and upgraded mine a while ago).

If OCZ GameXstream 700 should handle the 4870, then I'll return the PSU as defective. If I am stupid and should have know that that PSU would not handle a card like that, then I'll try to swap my wife's PSU for the OCZ. I'm just nervous that the BFG wouldn't be enough for the build I am proposing. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
See first post.
 
nubbin77 said:
I don't know what the wattage of the 2 6 pin PCIE connectors are for the OCZ PSU.
EDIT: if I am reading it correctly the 4 12 V rails = 680 watts. divided by 4 = 170 watts per rail. The one rail only has the 2 pcie connectors, which sould be 85 watts each.

theoretically it should work I think?
Click to expand...
This is because the 12V rails alone are capable of putting out 680W, but any load that is on the 3.3V and 5V load will need a part of that[...]The breakdown of the 12V rails on the GameXstream is very simple. There are four, but the first two are broken down like a standard ATX12V power supply with the CPU on one rail and everything else on the other. +12V3 and +12V4 go to each PCI-e connector. 18A on each rail for this, and this exclusively, is more than enough for even a quad-SLI system. The 12V leads are actually color coded with a green stripe, blue stripe and black stripe so it's easy to tell which connector goes to what rail.
Click to expand...
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=24
 
I had that exact PSU and it is known to have ripple issues above 500W. However, your system should not be over 500W so technically you should be OK with that PSU and setup. Nevertheless, I would still get a new quality PSU because that's the right thing to do.

Consider the following:
Corsair 550VX
Corsair 650TX
Corsair 750TX
Antec EarthWatts 650W
Antec TruePower TP-750
Seasonic M12 700W
Seasonic M12D 750W
 
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