Antec TruePower 430W for a 4870?

[VinnieColaiuta]

My legacy rig has the following power supply:

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817103908

I was previously running an X1950pro on this supply, but gutted all of my P4 rig and replaced it with what you see listed as in my signature as "Rig 2". I was planning on getting a 4870 (512), which (of course) requires two PCIe connectors. Pardon my ignorance, but does that *necessarily* mean that there needs to be two 12V rails on the power supply? As you can see from the newegg link, my current PSU only has one 12V rail rated at 26 amps. Could I use other connectors to make it work? As far as peripherals, I'm only running one HDD, one DVD drive, and three case fans. Any help is much appreciated.

- VC

 

[Stefan Payne]

How old is it?
If it's not 5 years or older, it should be enogh for a 4870, but I'd rather use a HD5770.
That's slower but not so power hungry and not as noisy as a 4870 is.

 

[HOOfan 1]

The link you gave is to an OLD Truepower...with only 20A on 12V....so only 240W. Considering that and the fact that the old Truepower PSUs have a shorter lifespan than many other PSUs...I wouldn't suggest it for an HD4870. Don't worry with the number of rails on the PSU...that has nothing to do with the number of PCI-E connectors.

 

[VinnieColaiuta]

The link you gave is to an OLD Truepower...with only 20A on 12V....so only 240W. Considering that and the fact that the old Truepower PSUs have a shorter lifespan than many other PSUs...I wouldn't suggest it for an HD4870. Don't worry with the number of rails on the PSU...that has nothing to do with the number of PCI-E connectors.

Thanks to both of you for your replies. HOOfan, I understand what you're saying about the rails, but doesn't a video card with two 6-pin PCI-E connectors require a 12V level of power input to each 6-pin? Does that mean I could just arbitrarily use a 4 to 6-pin adapter on any of the connections from the power supply to plug into the second 6-pin receptacle of a video card which requires two of them? I hope I'm being somewhat clear about that. I hope this isn't a stupid question, but how is the amperage only 20 when 26 is listed? Oh, and the PSU is about seven years old. Though it's never given me trouble, is that most of its projected life span?

 

[notposting]

Yes you can do that (adapter) the video card is not going to care where the 12V comes from. You should double check how many amps your actual installed psu has (look at the label and see if it's the newer/older model).

 

[HOOfan 1]

Thanks to both of you for your replies. HOOfan, I understand what you're saying about the rails, but doesn't a video card with two 6-pin PCI-E connectors require a 12V level of power input to each 6-pin? Does that mean I could just arbitrarily use a 4 to 6-pin adapter on any of the connections from the power supply to plug into the second 6-pin receptacle of a video card which requires two of them? I hope I'm being somewhat clear about that. I hope this isn't a stupid question, but how is the amperage only 20 when 26 is listed? Oh, and the PSU is about seven years old. Though it's never given me trouble, is that most of its projected life span?

The PSU in the link you gave to Newegg only lists 20A of +12V.

Maybe yours is a Truepower II and has more power for the +12V.

Rails are the internal components that provide the power...it has nothing to do with the number of connectors. You can have every single 12V wire on the PSU connected to a single rail. All that you have to worry about is that the combined 12V capability is high enough.

Edit: I see you are going by the Newegg listed specifications. I am going by the label on the actual PSU...it states 20A 12V

 

[VinnieColaiuta]

The PSU in the link you gave to Newegg only lists 20A of +12V.

Maybe yours is a Truepower II and has more power for the +12V.

Rails are the internal components that provide the power...it has nothing to do with the number of connectors. You can have every single 12V wire on the PSU connected to a single rail. All that you have to worry about is that the combined 12V capability is high enough.

Edit: I see you are going by the Newegg listed specifications. I am going by the label on the actual PSU...it states 20A 12V

You're right.....sorry about that. Some of this stems from the fact that I simply don't understand power supplies. When I see "12V rail", I'm thinking about one particular set of wires with a plug on it coming out of the PSU that is exclusively 12V carrying whatever amperage is shown. As an example, I was thinking that a video card such as a 4870 would require two 12V rails since it has two 6-pin inputs. I guess I need to find out which wire sets on my Antec are specifically 12V. I also need to read up on power supplies.

 

[HOOfan 1]

the standard is that the yellow wires are 12V...although not everyone adheres to that.

 

[VinnieColaiuta]

Thanks again for everyone's help!

I just made a move and bought the 4870 (512) since I found it at an awesome price, and am planning on picking up the Corsair 450VX. I'm pretty positive that this is plenty of power because of the 33 amps on the 12V rail, but wanted to see if you all thought it was a safe bet given the rest of my hardware. I might OC the CPU a bit, though nothing major. (3.0-3.2)

- VC

FWIW - The resolution for this rig is 1680x1050.

UPDATE: I went ahead and spent ten extra dollars for the 550VX, so it's all good.

 

[bigboxes]

I had that psu many years ago. Was all Antec at the time. Didn't know that they'd gone to crap cheaping out on their capacitors. Thing started to whine and eventually failed. Replaced it with a newer generation Antec 550w that is still going in the wife's pc. Still hacks me that Antec decided to cut their QC. Glad they are back though. Been slowly migrating to Seasonic the last couple of years.

 

[tomoyo]

I had that psu many years ago. Was all Antec at the time. Didn't know that they'd gone to crap cheaping out on their capacitors. Thing started to whine and eventually failed. Replaced it with a newer generation Antec 550w that is still going in the wife's pc. Still hacks me that Antec decided to cut their QC. Glad they are back though. Been slowly migrating to Seasonic the last couple of years.

I wouldn't honestly call it cheaping out on QC as much as cheaping out on an OEM and their parts in the psu. Anyways I'm glad to say that Antec has cleaned up their act in that regard and most of their current psus are decent to excellent.