I need more power...

oniian

This what I have:

http://www.pny.com/products/quadro/fx/1000fx.asp

This is where I am looking:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Pagesize=50&Page=1&Category=32&N=2010320058+1131414175&Submit=ENE&Nty=1&SubCategory=58

So I am lacking the 350W power supply need to run this mother. One thing that catches my eye as I look through the offerings is "Efficiency: >70%." Does this mean, as I am assuming, that if a 350W power supply is at 80% efficiency, then I am getting 280W of power and hence an inadequate amount for my video card?


Any other comments, suggestions, or recommendations on buying a power supply would also be appreciated.

Ruckus

I'd assume that PNY takes into account efficiency when they list the recommended power supply, but I'd personally recommend a 450W out of principal, especially if you have multiple harddrives, cdroms, etc.

Darth Waiter

I'll agree (wholeheartedly) with Ruckus; there's really no such thing as "too much" when it comes to a PC's power supply...unless we're talking horsepower here. With more and more hardware requiring more and more wattage, it's best to scrimp your couch change for a few days and have that 450w or 500w that'll last you a couple of years. Having to upgrade a power supply every 6-8 months is a royal pain.

Ruckus

And I know Quadro's can be power hogs, we use them in our AutoCAD demo machines.

oniian

Makes sense to me and if anything at least I'll be able to run Solid Edge.

Now then, any recommendations or comments on the first five listings on newegg.com under the 400 - 500 range?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010320058+1131414176&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=58

Ruckus

Well, personally I'm a huge Enermax Whore, but there's only one in that list and it's definately not near the top of your list.

I guess I've never heard anything bad about ThermalTake.

oniian

And so I take that you have heard bad things about the rest of the first five or ten?

Ruckus

I've only heard bad things about CoolerMaster, I've never even heard of the other ones.

stigweard

What is your current system? That Quadro is an agp card, so I am guessing you have an older pc. You might be able to get by with 350 without any difficulty, provided it is a good quality psu. The problem with the efficiency rating is it marked down at the highest under a specific load (without telling what that load is). So it could be >70% efficient at 50% load, but only 40% efficient at 20% and 80% which means you'd be dumping a whole lot of electricity as heat and the unit might not be enough to power your system. If you really want an efficient psu, you are going to have to pay more, but in the long run it will pay for itself with the added bonus of not heating your room as much. If a psu is in 80 plus you can be pretty much guaranteed that it is efficient >=80% at 20,50,80, and 100% load. That being said, good brands like Seasonic were already doing this before the new 'standard' for efficiency came about.

As far as the brands on newegg are concerned, FSP Group makes both Fortron and Sparkle (Fortron being the higher qauality of the two according to enthusiasts), The Antec Smart Power 2 should be avoided because they have a highest failure rate of any unit coming from Antec and though the problem was corrected, you never know whether you are getting from the old batch of duds. Rosewill is the newegg brand iirc. Enermax, Thermaltake, and Silverstone are all decent brands. The rest I really couldn't say. SPCR have a ton of good information about power supplies and they do extensive testing.

oniian

Errrrr... my current system is a Dell (got from parents for college):

System Model: Dimension 4600i
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A10
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Memory: 510MB RAM


Drive C:
free Space: 17.9 GB
Total Space: 39.2 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: Maxtor 2F040L0

Drive: F:
Free Space: 27.0 GB
Total Space: 76.3 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: Maxtor 6Y080L0

Drive:
Model: SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-616E
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/4/2004 04:00:00, 49536 bytes

Drive: E:
Model: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/4/2004 04:00:00, 49536 bytes

oniian

So with that in mind, does that change any of your recommendations?

stigweard

What does it have in it for a power supply right now? You have opened the case and checked that it has an agp slot in it, right? You wouldn't want to order a new card and find out that the system uses pcie or has no video expansion slot at all.

blincoln

Before you go buying a power supply, make sure it will work in the Dell. I haven't worked on one as new as yours, but I have on various models using the original Pentium up through the P3. All of them had unusually-sized PSUs (so you couldn't mount an aftermarket one in the case), and some of them are wired differently too, so a normal PSU will either damage the motherboard or not work, but either way you'd be rewiring it at best in that case.

Also, this probably isn't a concern with that model, but make sure there's no restrictions on the type of AGP card(s) it will accept. I was piecing together a Compaq P4 from parts the other evening, and for some reason it only accepts one type of AGP card - 3.5v maybe? I don't have it in front of me right now. Anyway, the connector on the motherboard was shaped so that e.g. a Matrox Millennium AGP wouldn't fit, but an original GeForce256 AGP would. I've never seen anything that stupid on a DIY system's motherboard.

oniian

This is the equilvelent of what I have now:
http://www.impactcomputers.com/m0148.html

Dell calls it "nonPFC."

I all ready have the card, got it for free, and it does have the proper slot for it. In fact I could have it in right now seeing as it has a built in safety feature to avoid damage to the pc if there is an insufficient power supply but I will wait on that.

Other than that, it will be able to accomdate most power supply units availble I think.

oniian

BTW - Sorry for not getting back to the helpful posts earlier last night, got caught up in a group project.

Bump-age

blincoln

According to this article, Dell is still using nonstandard wiring for their PSU connectors, so you'll need to hunt up an adapter at least for that part.

In about fifteen minutes I can see if a standard ATX PSU fits in either of the P3 Dell systems I have in my closet.

oniian

Cool, that would help a lot.

I talked to a dell repersentive an she gave me a model for a lite-on on that would be able to replace my old one so I am think lite-on might be the way to go just so it works.

stigweard

Non-PFC means it has no power factor correction. Essentially, it allows the current coming back out of the power supply to be 'dirtier' than when it came in. If you are interested, there is a pretty good explanation here. It is more of interest to companies who pay their power bills because they are charged differently than consumers.

blincoln

Okay, I tried mounting an Enermax PSU in two P3 Dell systems - a Precision 210 dual-CPU workstation, and an Optiplex GX150 desktop. The good news is that the PSU fit into the space fine - neither of the Dell PSUs were a weird shape or size. On the Precision, the screw holes in the Dell mounting bracket were in the wrong place, so if I'd really wanted to mount the PSU permanently it would have meant drilling some new ones. That wouldn't have been necessary with the Optiplex, which is slightly newer than the Precision. YMMV.

On the downside, you're still going to need to do one of the following:

- Buy an ATX -> Dell adapter of some kind.
- Buy a third-party PSU with a Dell wiring scheme standard (like the article I linked mentions).
- Rewire the connector on a standard ATX PSU to match the Dell wiring scheme.

oniian

Yeah the rep explained that to me somewhat but she only explained that PFC is better protected in case of power problem like losing power.