it was my birthday yesterday and i now have a bit of spare cash, with that i plan to get a new graphics card, the ATI RADEON™ HD3870 X2. heres a link, its one of the best cards on the market at the moment.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/products/pr...ew.php?gpid=209

heres my problem,
this new graphics card needs a min of 550 watts of power and currently i have a 375 watt power supply unit. i can buy a new 550 or 600 watt psu so i have enough power for the graphics card but im not sure if this will over power/heat my processor, motherboard and other components.

if you need more information or know the answer then please post, any help is welcome as i was relly looking forward to buying this and now im not sure if its possible for me to without replacing all my other parts which, though i have some spare cash, not quite that much.

thanks,

arrenmog.

Your PSU will only suck the power it needs, you don't have to worry about frying your hardware with a quality PSU. I would however go above the Minimum system specs. Also i would compare the HD3870X2 to the 8800GTS 512MB. It takes up less power, creates less heat, very fast and cheaper. Also with the 8800GTS you don't have to worry about fussy drivers like you would with the dual processor card with its crossfire drivers.

375w PS????

ack dude! Your video card will 'score' the power connector from the power supply. I know because I had at one point a 400w PS and I wondered why sometimes upon bootup it would say 'no video card installed' and not boot up...

so I gutted it one day and found the damaged power connector.. niether the card OR the PS was damaged, only the connector, and it was at that time I understood - MORE POWER!

550w is more or less the standard these days. Fork over the funds and get one - TruePower is rather good, to compare cost vs. reliability.

I would suggest a Corsair HX520W or HX620W, very good quality and should power your system fine, and I would also suggest an 8800gts 512MB for the same reasons as above.


+1


Chris.

I actually own the Corsair HX620W, and can say that it is a very reliable unit with a lot of power. I am currently running my Athlon 64x2 5200 paired with a 8800 GTX and the unit doesn't even flinch. It's been running for a year and not one lick of trouble. It is probably one of the most reliable units I've owned, and would recommend it to anyone who's doing a gaming rig or graphics workstation.

Here's a pic of my rig with the unit: http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii149/S...9/AsComp010.jpg

In case you don't go with what the others are recommending, be sure to compare the amperages on the +12V rail between the old and new units. If you look among the less reputable power supply manufacturers, many just dump current into the +5V rail in order to claim a higher total wattage.

EDIT: I seem to have stumbled in on an instance of thread necrophilia.

The the only difference between the Corsair's 520 and 620 is the 5v and the 3.3v, they both have three 12v at 18 amps. The extra on the 5v will help with more power intensive CPU's, such as in the case of Quad cores and overclocking.



Oops, my mistake.