Just a question

[Rich H]

When it is asking for my power supply, is it referring to my house; or to the computer? And how Can I find out my power supply?
Sorry, probably sounds a stupid question.
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/HelpMeChoose/fx ... lang=en-uk

[idahosurge]

It is asking about the power supply in your computer.

Rod

[idahosurge]

By the way, if you want to know how many watts your PS can supply you will need to open up your PC and look at the information on your PS or if you are lucky enough to have the tech specs on your PS you can look in the informational book that came with the PS.

Rod

[Rich H]

Thanks, have found out it's 230 volts. What's that in Watts though? Well watts = Amps x Volts, but how do I find out my amperage?

[machineman9]

It will be 230V or so... That is mains power.

It says the Watts on the actual power supply unit - You do not need to work it out.

Take the side of your computer case off. Find the power supply unit (it is the massive fat brick). From the outside of the case this is where you connect the power. The power supply unit is just the inside bit of this.

It will give you the wattage on it. Mine is a 550W one. Usually stock ones are about 200-300W or so. But yes, just take the side of the case off and look for numbers. If you can't find watts, find the product number and type it into Google.

[Rich H]

It will be 230V or so... That is mains power.

It says the Watts on the actual power supply unit - You do not need to work it out.

Take the side of your computer case off. Find the power supply unit (it is the massive fat brick). From the outside of the case this is where you connect the power. The power supply unit is just the inside bit of this.

It will give you the wattage on it. Mine is a 550W one. Usually stock ones are about 200-300W or so. But yes, just take the side of the case off and look for numbers. If you can't find watts, find the product number and type it into Google.

Thanks, did a search and fount it was a 300w one. Is it worth buying a higher watt psu if I'm going to get a new graphics card?

[machineman9]

Depends on the graphics card... But probably yes.

For more modern graphics cards it will require more power - Only so much can be drawn from the PCIe or whatever connection on the motherboard. So if your graphics card requires PCIe power connection, be sure to get a motherboard which has a PCIe connection. This will be a square cable of 4 wires - 2 black, 2 yellow (if memory serves me right) which will give the card additional power to function.

A lot of stock ones don't have this and are only built to support the system they were made for, so a higher wattage one is probably going to be required. How much wattage? That will depend on the graphics card you are getting.

[Rich H]

Depends on the graphics card... But probably yes.

For more modern graphics cards it will require more power - Only so much can be drawn from the PCIe or whatever connection on the motherboard. So if your graphics card requires PCIe power connection, be sure to get a motherboard which has a PCIe connection. This will be a square cable of 4 wires - 2 black, 2 yellow (if memory serves me right) which will give the card additional power to function.

A lot of stock ones don't have this and are only built to support the system they were made for, so a higher wattage one is probably going to be required. How much wattage? That will depend on the graphics card you are getting.

Well I was looking at something like a GTX 260, and I'll just look at my motherboard manual now. yes, It says it has a PCIe 16 slot

[idahosurge]

My GTX8800 plugged into the available PCIe slot, but I had to by a new PS and the GTX8800 needed more power than the PCIe slot could provide so the GTX8800 came with two seperate power cables that plugged directly from the GTX8800 into the cable assembly on the power supply.

Below are the power requirements for the GTX260 that you are looking at.  The below came from

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130370

System Requirements Minimum of a 500 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 36 Amp Amps.)
Two available 6-pin Molex hard drive power dongles

You can see that it states 500 Watt PS minimum, so you need a new PS.  If you have the money I would get one that is more than 500 watts, it is better to get a little more than you need, besides you may want to add something else in the future like another hard drive.

You can also see that it states: Two available 6-pin Molex hard drive power dongles

That means that you will probably need to plug those into the GTX260 and into the power supply cable harness because the PCIe slot can not provide enough power.

I do not know about the GTX260, but the instructions that came with my GTX8800 had no directions on how to hook these extra power cables up and it took me two or three tries to get them plugged in the way that the card liked them plugged in.  If they were not plugged in right then either the GTX8800 or the PS was emitting a high pitched whine.

Rod

[Rich H]

You can also see that it states: Two available 6-pin Molex hard drive power dongles

That means that you will probably need to plug those into the GTX260 and into the power supply cable harness because the PCIe slot can not provide enough power.

What are hard drive power dongles? Would something like this be ok for a psu? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=1483

[stevehookem]

Get higher than you think you'll need. It will come in handy later as you add more stuff.

I use the PC Power and Cooling 750W. My other computer has a Corsair HX1000, 1000W. Can't go wrong with either....

I use a GTX 260 in one, a GTX 280 in the other with multiple drives, i7, lots of RAM, etc.  My specs are in the sig.

A low watt PS will cause all kinds of issues and you won't even know why. It's a hard issue to diagnose. But when you go with a good PS, all those nagging issues disappear!

[Rich H]

By the way, if my motherboard has an integrated graphics card, is it still possible to swap it? http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=bLVB6rzf6bPajeg5

[machineman9]

By the way, if my motherboard has an integrated graphics card, is it still possible to swap it? http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=bLVB6rzf6bPajeg5

Yes. Sometimes you have to disable the chipset in the BIOS (or so I have heard) or, due to being redundant, the integrated chipset should just stop working and let the dedicated card take its place.


The PSU you linked to should be fine. It has those 'PCI-E' connectors. Some other PSUs have a 4 brown molex connection (4 wires to a plastic connection plug) which can be used - But you need a molex to PCI-E cable connection. My 8600GTS came with one of these, but as my PSU came with PCI-E connection, I didn't need to use it.

But yes, you should be fine with what you have mentioned.

[Rich H]

Ah very good, thanks for all your help. Better start saving!