power supply questions

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rodchar

hey all,
is there such a thing as putting a power supply that's too high for a board?

how much wattage would i need to run 2 decent video cards and 2 hard drives?

thanks,
rodchar
 
given the documentation above

i 2 video cards

1. nVidia GeForce 7300LE 64MB PCI-Express
2. nVidia GeForce 6200A 256MB PCI

i also have a 2nd hard drive installed

i browsed around at the MicroATX power supplies and looks like the highest
i've found so far is 400W.

i have a 300W now and when i put the 2nd video card in it works fine for a
few minutes and then the 2nd video monitor shuts down and then my pc locks
up. i'm assuming that's because of the power supply. Would 400W even be
enough still?
 
rodchar said:
given the documentation above

i 2 video cards

1. nVidia GeForce 7300LE 64MB PCI-Express
2. nVidia GeForce 6200A 256MB PCI

i also have a 2nd hard drive installed

i browsed around at the MicroATX power supplies and looks like the highest
i've found so far is 400W.

i have a 300W now and when i put the 2nd video card in it works fine for a
few minutes and then the 2nd video monitor shuts down and then my pc locks
up. i'm assuming that's because of the power supply. Would 400W even be
enough still?
Click to expand...
300W seems a bit low. As others have said, just go to each manufacturer
and get the power specs and add them up. Add another 50W for the heck.
 
rodchar said:
Would the following power supplies work in my computer?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0320058+1131310094+1131414175&name=301+-+400W
Click to expand...
Do you know your cabinet and motherboard models? Call New egg and talk
to their support and see if they can assist.
You are concerned with 2 things in general. The mounting screws, a/c
outlet position and the connectors to the motherboard.
MB connectors are pretty standard from major type of board to board.
Cabinets might mount the supply differently, but again, this is
standardized pretty much the same. The cabinet has cutouts in the back
for the plug and a possible 2nd ac outlet for daisy chain, and the fan
and the power, along with 4 screws. If you don't match the same layout
you can't mount it.

I haven't built a PC for myself in about 18 mos. but I've been building
them for about 20 years, and this has held true so far.
12 volts is 12 volts by the way. 5 volts is 5 volts. Voltage is the
level or potential. Wattage is how much amperage or power a supply will
deliver. When you draw too much power the voltage will go down. Thus
yes, you could have a too low of a wattage supply. COULD!
If you had a volt meter or a motherboard voltage monitor software, you
could look at it?!!!
 
Would the following power supplies work in my computer?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=201032005....





- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Providing the PC is not a Dell PC and then any power supply made for
the motherboard "form" should work. However, if you are replacing the
power supply now, I would add more wattage just incase further plans
for "expanding" your PCs (CD / DVD drives or USB devices.) I would
personally consider the 400 watt units.
 
hey all,
is there such a thing as putting a power supply that's too high for a board?

how much wattage would i need to run 2 decent video cards and 2 hard drives?

thanks,
rodchar
Click to expand...

This question has NOTHING to do with the XP OS, hence does NOT belong
here.

Ask elsewhere.

Oh, and MI5, go <blank> yourself. I won't sink to your level and
insert the vulgarity.
 
rodchar said:
hey all,
is there such a thing as putting a power supply that's too high for a board?

how much wattage would i need to run 2 decent video cards and 2 hard drives?

thanks,
rodchar
Click to expand...

******
1. nVidia GeForce 7300LE 64MB PCI-Express
2. nVidia GeForce 6200A 256MB PCI

i also have a 2nd hard drive installed
*******

A 7300GS is 16.1W in 3D max and 10.3W in 2D max. The 7300LE would
presumably be close to those kinds of power numbers.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/power-noise_7.html

The examples of the 6200 family I can find, show a passively cooled
card, so its power cannot be a lot more than the 7300 example. There
are limits to how much can be safely cooled passively. Especially
with an extruded heatsink, without heatpipes to spread the heat.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139022

I don't know if I'd conclude it was a power problem.

Neither of those cards has an Auxiliary power connector. An example of
a 7300LE here.

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/14-127-269-10.jpg

I think I would -

1) Remove all video card drivers.
2) Install one card at a time.
3) Install a video card driver for the one card.
Test it.
4) Uninstall driver. Remove video card. Install second video card. Install driver for card.
Test it.

Use either a copy of 3DMark or a 3D game, to heat the card up,
and test for stability. Some cheap video cards, hardly have
the heatsink in contact with the GPU. The smallest copy of
3DMark I know of, would be 3DMark2001SE Build 330. This is
a 41MB download. Some cards won't run long enough, to finish
the benchmark test. There is also a "Demo loop" option, which
you can leave running overnight.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=99

I have two passively cooled FX5200 cards here, as an example.
They are low power/preformance like the 6200/7300LE. On
one of the cards, I have to keep an 80mm fan pointed at
it, to keep it stable. The second card works OK without a
fan pointed at it.

It is also possible there is a software interaction occurring between
the two cards, and the driver(s) chosen to be installed.

Take a look in Event Viewer, and see if there are any messages
from the video drivers.

A second hard drive adds another 12W or so to the loading.
In many cases, you can look up a more exact figure for the
hard drive power, on the manufacturer web site.

The database here, has some comments from users of multiple video
cards. They find occasional problems with the drivers used,
and either the order of installation, or the brand of chip
is important.

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/gallery_browse.asp?ID=711&date=desc&nummon=true&mon=desc

It could just be a bad video card or bad driver combo.

HTH,
Paul
 
Paul,
I tried the individual installs of the video card and it worked. It's just
when i put together when my system starts to lock up.

i'm considering reformatting and reinstalling and was wondering if i should
have both video cards in at the same time during the process of reinstalling
or should i have the 6200A in first, the 7300LE in first, etc.
 
rodchar said:
Paul,
I tried the individual installs of the video card and it worked. It's just
when i put together when my system starts to lock up.

i'm considering reformatting and reinstalling and was wondering if i should
have both video cards in at the same time during the process of reinstalling
or should i have the 6200A in first, the 7300LE in first, etc.
Click to expand...

I don't have an answer for that. You'll have to experiment. The video card
driver goes in, after the OS is installed. When the process starts, you'll
probably be on one of the video cards, and at 640x480. And things will improve,
as you add the video drivers.

I suspect you'll also find useful guidance on this site. Based on this
article, you could start with the 6200A PCI. And then do the 7300LE after
that. You could even uninstall all video drivers now, and try doing 6200A
and then 7300LE using your current OS install. While reinstalling may help,
I save that as a last resort (an admission I've been defeated).

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/forum/messages.asp?Topic=7839&tmpl=UltraMon

Paul
 
I tried the individual installs of the video card and it worked. It's just
when i put together when my system starts to lock up.

i'm considering reformatting and reinstalling and was wondering if i should
have both video cards in at the same time during the process of reinstalling
or should i have the 6200A in first, the 7300LE in first, etc.
Click to expand...

Your original question asked if sufficient power exists for both
cards. I don't see anywhere that was answered. No one can answer
that but you. The only useful answer means using a 3.5 digit
multimeter to measure all critical voltages (one of red, orange,
yellow, and purple wires)with the full load (both video cards). Only
those 3 digit numbers posted here can result in a useful answer.

As Paul has noted, video cards should, at minimum, default to text
mode - the original video mode found on IBM PC and PC-ATs. Windows
should then find and apply drivers as hardware is found. However, if
in doubt, be sure to remove all existing video drivers (ie Device
Manager) before rebooting and letting Windows attach new drivers to
that hardware.

If booting with only one video card, then that working driver should
be OK when rebooting with a second (new) video card installed.
 
Watts = Volts X Amps.

Wattage on a power supply equals the sum of the (voltage legs X their rated
amperage of each leg). That's its TOTAL wattage rating. Has no bearing on
your question as your question has nothing to do with voltage requirements
and corresponding amperage. You're asking a question with no power
requirements listed on the devices you're asking about.

Hard drives use the +5Vdc leg and the +12Vdc leg to source their power. Any
other voltage leg of the power supply has no bearing. Similar with video
cards who source their power from the motherboard slot. A bit of fishing,
and I usually find those power requirements on the internet. I also do
similar with all the components that are in the PC including any USB power
sucking by external USB devices. Then, I sum the requirements up, add a
minimum 10% for the +5 and +12 legs for amperage each leg. Then, I hunt for
a power supply with those minimal requirements or more.

--
Dave

How about a tax to support any military conflict/police action over 3 months
old?

An actual war, we can do what's been done in the past.
 
But which power supply ratings are we talking about here? The AC input
power is not the same as the DC output power (i.e. DC output voltages X
their respective DC output currents). The AC input power is larger, of
course, due to its inefficiency (the rest being converted/lost in heat).
 
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