ATi 9800xt 12v line CURRENT requirement -- Anyone remember??

[Plimogz]

Argh. I can't seem to find it anywhere and I'm still in my "look before you leap" phase, not yet in my "plug and pray" phase.

Apparently specifying 12v Current requirements wasn't as big of a deal back then: www.ati.com/products/radeon9800/radeon9800pro/specs.html

??
Thanks

 

[dug777]

Is it worth asking why on god's green earth you want to use a 9800xt?

60 watts on load (and further info on that page re 12v etc lines):

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-powercons_7.html

 

[Plimogz]

thx for the reply. I guess it must pull something like 5 amps if it uses 60W
the 9800xt would be a huge upgrade from the S3 Savage 4 32MB that's currently in there: it has a frame buffer 8x the size and brings DX9c to the party; it should be a nice fit for a modern OS's graphical interface -- Computer's owner doesn't play games.

Plus, I have it laying around doing nothing...

Oh, DVI and Image Quality. And driving a higher resolution Screen.

 

[toyota]

can the rest of that computer handle a modern OS? lol. I sure hope somebody wasn't dumb enough to buy Windows 7 to put on on old relic that needs upgrades just to run it. much easier just to but a brand new much more powerful $250-$300 modern pc with it already installed then to dump money in a crap pc.

 

[Plimogz]

I think it ought to be fine: Skt754 Sempron 3400+ (2.2Ghz) 1GB PC3200. It fulfills the Win7 32-bit requirements with a 9800xt. Of course, I could always stick Ubuntu on there or something if I don't like how Windows performs.

The VGA and PSU are the only remaining components from what was originally a Pentium II system from way back. I would rather upgrade the power supply as well, but unfortunately I don't have anything on laying around.

Mind you, now that I know that 9800xt only pulls something like 3 amps from the 12v line, I'm not so worried about the PSU giving out on account of the increased load.

This is my father's computer; the man uses email, word processing and occasionally the internet to look up recipes or book plane tickets. If I were to pretext a chrismas gift or whatever to sneak a seasonic-sourced antec earthwatts 380W in there... hell this system could very well last him another decade.

 

[toyota]

how much did you pay for Windows 7 though because unless you got it really cheap then it is not worth it just to upgrade the os on an old pc? that pc is much better then I was thinking it would be but still. btw 1gb of ram could certainly be an issue at times as he will be hitting the hard drive a lot.

 

[Plimogz]

I didn't pay anything, not yet anyway; I'm going to install with no key and leave it unactivated, use the 30-day grace period to see how I like the performance and whatnot.

Like you say, it may turn out that 1GB doesn't afford me acceptable performance or, I don't know... There's always a customized Linux install if I'm not happy with 7...

 

[toyota]

I didn't pay anything, not yet anyway; I'm going to install with no key and leave it unactivated, use the 30-day grace period to see how I like the performance and whatnot.

Like you say, it may turn out that 1GB doesn't afford me acceptable performance or, I don't know... There's always a customized Linux install if I'm not happy with 7...

well how much will it cost you if you decide to keep it though?

I bought my parents a new pc with Vista about 3 years ago and it only had 1gb. I thought they would be fine but they were not. just the AOLbiggrin software and having several tabs open would go over 1gb and make things sluggish. I installed another 1gb stick and it made a world of difference.

 

[Plimogz]

A C-note, give or take a couple of bucks.

The main thing is I want to decide on an OS now. Then I want to work out a transparant back-up strategy, then I want to customize the interface to be easier on eyes that are getting on in years and eyesight which isn't as sharp as it once was...

Once those things are worked out, perhaps I'll be on the lookout for another GB slab of DDR400, or two -- there are three slots to work with. I expect that I can find some sticks for dirt cheap if I keep an eye on craigslist and the like.

Once I'll have worked out the ?s in my plan, maybe I'll drop the money on the 7 license, if that seems like the best option -- Like I said, this system could be in use for a decade. (or until the caps give out, that would be the likeliest point of failure, from what I can see)

In the past I've bought videocards which had 100$ worth of depreciation between my ordering it and the UPS guy delivering it -- damn that 600$ X1900XTX... :-t

 

[toyota]

by the time you get more ram and pay over 100 bucks for Windows 7 you are half way to a brand new pc. that brand new pc will have better components and be better than just updating that old pc. you could also sell that old pc on craigslist for 50-75 bucks. if you do that then you are only looking at around 100-150 bucks total over the cost of upgrading that old pc.

 

[Plimogz]

Perhaps, but you are completely discounting the possibility of an open source solution, which would cost me 0. Also, I have an winXP license for the computer which does the job just fine, but the current installation could benfit from a wipe and reinstall, so I'm going to try out 7 while I'm in there and probably some other stuff, just for fun.

Furthermore, I have a 30GB Vertex here, which I just know will get pulled from my rig sooner or later, what with sata3 and falling nand prices, increased densities and way better controllers, etc... -- so it'll probably end up in some netbook down the line, but if I install a Trim capable OS into this SKT754 box, maybe eventually I'll just stuff it in there instead.

I'm kind of curious to find out what's going to end up sticking, between XP, Linux or 7, because I frankly couldn't tell you how this is going to turn out.

All I'm really sure of is that I'm keen on spending 0$ on this machine right now. And seeing as how it currently has an intermittent problem with the monitor not turning on correctly (I can't seem to reproduce it, but my dad tells me that the error msg says something about analog connection or something) which I blame on the S3 Savage4 32MB and its lone D-Sub out.

So I've got this 9800xt laying around... -- DVI is what I'm really after here, everything else is just maybes, what ifs, and a few "ahh, while I'm at it, why not..."s.