Power Supply

I had a topic going a while back about this, but after some work, and thanks to dough, I think I have solved my problem.

I installed a new graphics card about 2 weeks back, a evga geforce 7900 GS KO, and a second 320 gb hdd. once everything was all said and done, i got a messeage from my graphics card, saying that it was underpowered, and it was going to dial itself back to reduce chance of damaging it. I posted on here, and was able to solve my problem, I hope. My powersupply is gone. Now i have a 500w ColorsIT power supply(never heard of it either, came with my machine), but according to lavalys, my graphics card is underpowered, and all this other stuff. So i pulled out my new card, in hopes of saving it, and put back in my old one. So now i'm in shopping for a new one.

I was looking at two different psu's. One is at bestbuy, a Dynex 500w psu.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.a…amp;catid=20380

And the other is at a local computer store, a Antec 550w

http://www.memoryexpress.com/index.php?Pag…D=5821&SID=

now i don't know much about psu's and all that stuff that goes with them, so if you guys could possibly look over these two, and help me out…that'd be great

thanks
brad

Well, there are several different things you need to look at. First off, and most importantly, with psu's ..the old adage "you get what you pay for" holds true. In other words.. if your looking at two psu's side by side, both or which claim 500w yet one cost 40 bux and the other cost 139… odds are the one for 40 aint what you want to go with. (The Antec is the choice there by the way)

Secondly.. if you have a 500w psu.. then you really should be fine. Granted, I run two (2) 350's in mine, still with 500w's you should be good to go. What you need to do is boot to bios and check the voltage of the AGP slot. You should be able to adjust that.

CAUTION:adjusting the voltage (overclocking) to your AGP card could very well cause the system not to boot.

That is a problem easily solved in case you do change it and it does not boot..simply look for the "Clear CMOS" jumper on the board… or pull the battery out and leave it out for 5 minutes before re-inserting it.

Finally, you could do as I have and simply add another power supply. Its fairly simple to do. You will have one running the board (and ATX) and thats it.. nothing more. The other you run your physical drives off of (and any extra stuff like lights.. fans.. what-have-you).


Here is a pic of my setup, if you'll notice the 2nd power supply is mounted underneath the drives (and in case your wondering.. thats my video card thats liquid cooled)

[external image: Posted Image]

Couple of Antec PSU's you might be interested in, here:
Tom's Hardware, ZipZoomFly.com, Newegg.com are reputatable online retailers which I have used with satisfaction.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList….=16&Go.y=27

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/ ——–> Then run a search for Power Supply

Tom's Hardware:
http://www.tomshardware.com/index.html —-> then run a search for Power Supply

TigerDirect.com also often has great prices on Antec, but doesn't seem to have anything in stock right now.

Happy Shopping.

i've just found the specs for my current psu btw. Specifications AC INPUT: 230VAC 10A 50-60Hz Model 500U DC Output Max +3.3V +5V +12V -5V -12V +5VSB 28A 35A 25A 0.5A 0.8A 2.5A 500W And i'd perfer to buy it from one of these two places. bestbuy is the easiest to get to, but if need be, i can go to memoryexpress. I have no credit card, and i have nobody who would let me use theirs. But assuming from your the reply's, the memoryexpress psu would be the best.

Yes. And you'll be fine with that unit, as compared to others that have been recommended. Best Regards