Antec 550 vs Nvidia 9800gtx

[slatchley]

I have an Antec TruePower 2.0 TP-II 550 550W Power Supply. I just put in an evga 9800GTX. I get an nvidia message that the card is not getting enough power. The 9800GTX box says it needs a minimum of 24 amps on the +12volt rail. I would think this power supply would do it, but how do I know. Oh, by the way: as for power to the card, it requires two inputs. I have used the powercord that says pci-e, but have had to also make use of two fan power cords via the adapter that came with the card. evga tech said this should be ok.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Well, your power supply could be dying, or it could be very old. Either way, it might not put out stable power. I hope you don't have one of the bad Antecs?

 

[jvnk]

If that Antec PSU is rather old, as BlueAcolyte said, it's possible it could be one of the "Bad Antecs". Ideally a nice Antec 550w PSU should be able to handle a 9800GTX fine , however, as Antec has recently established a decent name for themselves in the power supply market.

Initially I would have said you should make sure all the power connections on the card are connected properly - I forgot to do this when I got my first really nice video card back in the day, a 6800GS, and I got similar errors. But since you mentioned that you connected it properly to your power supply, that probably isn't the issue.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: slatchley
I have used the powercord that says pci-e, but have had to also make use of two fan power cords via the adapter that came with the card. evga tech said this should be ok.

Are those connectors marked with the word "FAN" on them and are regular 4 pin molex but with only two wires going to them? If so, then they aren't putting out the full 12v needed. Antec used to have these "fan only" molex connectors on their power supplies which were tied into the PSUs fan controller. Presumably it was tied to some load or thermal control, but inevitably your fan would barely spin when used with those connectors.

Take your adaptor and connect it to two normal molex, and take some diagonal cutters and snip off those "fan only" connectors.

example of "fan only" connector (halfway down the page)

 

[slatchley]

Yes, you are correct that they only have two wires. With 4 hdds I am out of power supplies, but did manage to find one 4 wire that I plugged into 1/2 of the adapter. So now I have one correct power supply, and one that gets 1/2 from a correct plug and 1/2 from a fan plug. That does seem to have eliminated the power warning and it also makes it so Photoshop CS4 doesnt tell me it cant use the new GPU features. As I intend to rebuild this computer sometime soon, I think I will just order a new Corsair 750. Provantage seems to have the best price I have found so far. http://www.provantage.com/cors...psu-750tx~7CSMC05E.htm unles someone knows a better one. Thanks for the help.

 

[jvnk]

Originally posted by: slatchley
As I intend to rebuild this computer sometime soon, I think I will just order a new Corsair 750. Provantage seems to have the best price I have found so far. http://www.provantage.com/cors...psu-750tx~7CSMC05E.htm unles someone knows a better one. Thanks for the help.

Corsair's power supplies aren't the greatest. See Anandtech's review of them - there are better PSUs for the same price in the same class. They just look fancy.

Link too the review:
http://anandtech.com/casecooli...us/showdoc.aspx?i=3445

 

[BlueAcolyte]

I was pretty sure corsair PSUs were solid. Maybe not the greatest, but very reliable. Although, there are probably better deals that $100.

Aha! $81 after rebate

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: slatchley
Yes, you are correct that they only have two wires. With 4 hdds I am out of power supplies, but did manage to find one 4 wire that I plugged into 1/2 of the adapter. So now I have one correct power supply, and one that gets 1/2 from a correct plug and 1/2 from a fan plug.

Ugh. Still not a good idea at all to mix fan-only and PSU molex connectors. I would unplug the fan-only connector entirely, and see if it works. If it does, leave it, and get a new PSU as soon as reasonably possible.

 

[jvnk]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
I was pretty sure corsair PSUs were solid. Maybe not the greatest, but very reliable. Although, there are probably better deals that $100.

Aha! $81 after rebate

You're correct - citing the conclusion of the review, you can see that the benchmark folks are baffled why the other siblings of the TX750 perform a lot better than it does(however it's designed differently - it's not just a bad unit). I suggest the OP looks at another PSU from Corsair or goes with a different brand. A good place to start would be the Anandtec 730-900W PSU roundup, found here.

 

[jademaster221]

i just bought a evga 9800gtx+ running a amd 9950 be and i'm pushing 4 sata hd and one ied hd along with my dvd burner..... case is a 182 se antec with a trupower 850 quattro power supply....i've got cables piggybacked everywhere but it runnig full blast...see my post that i need more cables for my power supply i've got 3 modules that aren't even being used ...all that strapped on a msi dka790gx...ready to flame straight out the box....i think it's pretty good for a low budget puter

 

[slatchley]

I chose the corsair based on the main forum page about system building. Maybe that list should be updated. I will keep looking.

 

[slatchley]

How 'bout Cooler Master M850? Seems like plenty of cables for my needs: 4hdds, two to an nvidia gtx, etc, etc

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Nothing wrong with those, I think.

 

[legcramp]

Why the heck would you connect the adapter to the FAN ONLY molex??

There's nothing wrong with the PSU, I had one of those and they were pretty reliable.. 19a Dual 12v rails if I remember correctly.

Use the pci-e adaptor on a REGULAR connector not the fan one... I bet you it will work just fine.