Help...kinda...

XionTawa

XionTawa

New Member
About 2 to 3 months ago I purchased an nVidia 8800 GTS and while it runs great it seems to be getting hotter as of recent, like I have to keep the fan speed at 100% to keep it under 60 degrees Celsius... Also my hard drive is louder and everything (even after multiple reformats) seems to be running much slower than my wife's, almost exactly the same as mine, computer. I think that I need a new hard drive and I suspect I need a new power supply for the video card... Story:

I bought this computer in January for 2007, so it is roughly 1.5 years old (I know this doesn't matter too much)... the specs when I bought it were:

Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz 6600
2GB RAM
250GB HD
256MB GPU ATI X1300 (replaced with nVidia 8800 GTS)
375 Watt PSU

Now, the reason I suspect I need a new PSU is that I once tried to run 2 hard drives and the power supply would not power the second HD, and the new graphics card connects directly to the PSU... My current plan is to get a better HD and PSU, anyother thoughts? ...am I wrong? ...please help...
 
inkelis said:
375 watts does seem to be on the low side. I would consider a 500+ Powersupply.
Click to expand...

Yep the power supply is to low. The specs for the 8800GT when I got mine was a min of a 500 watt power supply. A good 500+ shouldn't set you back a great deal.
 
If your worried about heat on your 8800GTS I suggest replacing
your stock videocard cooler with a Zalman vf1000 and because
you got a 8800GTS I think you need to make sure you got 10
Videoram heatsinks.

Also with Powersupplys, before you buy one I suggest looking on
Newegg to see what people think of the powersupply your thinking
of getting before you buy the power supply.

I myself use a Zalman vf1000 bundled with 8 Videoram Heatsinks on my
8800 GT
 
It's been a while since I built a new desktop computer, but I've been pleased with any Antec power supply I've purchased.

Here's a direct list of 401-500W Antec power supplies on Newegg.
 
I am really leaning toward this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371019 due to price, however, I wonder if it can handle the heavy taxing, even though I am running a 375 right now...lol... or this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007 which I want more, but getting the wife to let me spend $40 is a lot easier than $90...

Also, I should probably mention that my mobo is actually backwards, and I have a right side opening case (stupid dell) which I do not think this matters, it is just a bit annoying...
 
Last edited:
Ok now that I have screwed up your last post I hope you find what I originally meant to post helpful. I had the same bad experience when I got my card but it all got worked out in the end.

When I got my 8800 everything ran slower and more horribly. Turns out that the combination of my low-end CPU and poor power supply was creating massive bottle necks. Anyways a new e8400 Intel dual core and power supply and everything is running fine. I mention this as many people think that if they get a high end video card everything will turn to gold but it is the combination of systems parts that is important. So I suppose it might be worth at this point stopping and thinking what you have and what would be most important to get. The e8400 are amazingly fast CPUs at really low prices at the moment but then again reasonable priced hard drives are available to.

I will probably be flamed into non-existence for this but i found the Vista system score breakdown was really useful for me in deciding what to upgrade and what can stay as it is. There is nothing better than seeing this score go from a 4.4 to a 5.7 for the outlay of a modest amount of cash.
 
XionTawa said:
Is there anything I need to be careful of when buying a new PSU, like over powering, or anything?
Click to expand...

Power supplies only deliver what is needed. If the computer draws 300w then it will deliver 300w. However the efficiency will vary over the load draw, but you generally don't need to worry about that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top