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PSU upgrade needed?

T

TheBlackAngel

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 3, 2004
Messages
159
i'm looking to upgrade my system to either a 6850 or 6870 GPU. its currently running an e6550 CPU on an asus P5Q MB. system has 3 HDD and 3 case fans and an 8800GT. Its running an old thermaltake purepower 420W PSU, model HPC-420-102 DF and the sticker lists 18A on the 12V.

will that PSU handle a 6870? i was originally going to get a 6850 as i'm 99% sure it will work OK with that PSU, but the 6870's aren't very much more then the 6850 right now. of course if i have to get a new PSU to get a 6870 then it makes it a lot more expensive.

thanks! :cool:

edit: forgot to post resolution, monitor i'm hooked to is 1280x1024, playing mostly SC2 and eventually BF3 and diablo 3.
 
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The PSU will, but what are you upgrading to play? That CPU is going to be more of a limiting factor than your 8800GT in most games.
 
sorry, edited the first post with some more details. just mainly want to be able to up the graphics effects in games as most games i have to use medium or lower settings on my 8800GT right now.
 
If all the games you currently play run well enough for you at low details, then fair enough, but I will say, there are a lot of recent titles out there that need more than an E6550 run smoothly.
 
thanks for the help, got my spanky new 6870 in and running today, so far nothing has exploded either ;) its a million times better then my 8800GT, settlers 7 was a laggy crappy looking piece of crap on my 8800GT, it looks awesome now :)
 
you are being foolish running your system on a psu thats only rated for 18 amps on the 12v when brand new and under ideal conditions. heck there is no chance that entry level psu makes 18amps after years of use.

and tbh your cpu is too slow for BF 3 especially multi. not to mention you are playing on the worst possible aspect ratio and will be completely missing out on 1/3 of the fov for modern games.
 
To be honest, depending on which Thermaltake it is, the PSU may survive a few years at that load, the CPU's sufficiently low end that the system will only be drawing 200-230W at max. That said, the CPU is definitely too slow for BF3, and there's no getting around that one. Slap a quad core in and that PSU probably isn't adequate.
 
samuelmorris said:
To be honest, depending on which Thermaltake it is, the PSU may survive a few years at that load, the CPU's sufficiently low end that the system will only be drawing 200-230W at max. That said, the CPU is definitely too slow for BF3, and there's no getting around that one. Slap a quad core in and that PSU probably isn't adequate.
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do you realize that 230 watts is OVER 18 amps and thats all his 12v was rated for when new. and of course that's where nearly all of the power needs to come from. and again those were low end models and he has many years of use on it. he is absolutely pushing it to the edge.
 
thats what you get when you have a limited budget. that and its a system that i use at work to play games on, so i can't go all out with a fancy system, and the monitor is my work one so thats what i'm stuck with and i won't be playing BF3 multi as i don't think it would work to good tethered over my phones 3G connection as thats the only way i can have internet on that system..... but i get to play games at work :)
 
(to samuelmorris) lol, yeah probably not :)

and just for arguments sake, what is the minimum rated power supply i would need to JUST power the video card? we have a ton laying around from systems that come back from sites, i could probably frankenstein one into the system to just power the video card if you thought it would be worth it?
 
I'd strongly advise against that - office PSUs aren't designed for that kind of 12V load. Just grab a proper 430W EarthWatts unit and have done with it, they're not expensive.
 
sweet, thank you both for the opinions, i will keep my eyes open for a deal and hope nothing bad happens before i get one O_O
 
Sorry to say I don't like the Builder series much, theyre not really any better than his Thermaltake...
 
samuelmorris said:
Sorry to say I don't like the Builder series much, theyre not really any better than his Thermaltake...
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well it has 50% more 12v amps and will actually make all of it. for 25 bucks, its brand new and gives piece of mind for his particular situation.
 
Statistically the Builder series units fail more often than the Thermaltakes I believe, they're really shoddy for Corsairs, I was very disappointed when they first came out.
 
sweet, that will give me some "upgrade" room then in case i'm ever able to get a new MB/CPU/RAM :)

i'm running an athlon phenom 2 x4 CPU with 8gig of RAM at home on a 550W corsair PSU. so someday when i upgrade my home PC i'll be able to just move that stuff into my work one :)

thanks!
 
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