FSP Booster X5 independent PSU

[davmat787]

I have been given an HP 8100 Elite, complete with an i7-880, 16GB RAM, 240GB SSD, and a POS AMD 4650. The power supply is rated for 320 watts, and being HP, is of a proprietary design. I am looking to upgrade the GPU to something like a GTX660/660Ti/670 or AMD equivalent.

I have been in contact with a very helpful HP rep, and basically there is no way to upgrade the PSU. Not wanting to give up, I came across a solution by FSP Group called the Booster X5 that looks made for just this type of scenario, see the link below.

The Booster X5 fits in an empty 5 1/4" bay and has 4 PCIe power connectors to power modern GPU's. It DOES NOT replace the system PSU.

HP thinks this could work, their only concern is the power phasing. Their exact words:

If the power sequencing is done early enough, then the bios is going to get a chance at looking for powered up PCI-E cards. If the power sequencing is done late then the bios might not see the PCI-E cards. A timing issue might come into play. If the voltage on the 4 pin molex connector is what tells the auxillary PSU to power up then it's a little behind in the power sequencing process. The reviews at newegg.com look promising but none of the posters are using the HP Elite 8xxx series PC.

Anyone have experience with this problem, the Booster X5, and my odds of success? I hate proprietary designs, but the HP 8100 Elite was free and I really want to get back into PC Gaming. Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated! I have also email FSP, but have not heard back yet. Visiontek makes a similar product as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104054

 

[Zap]

I think what they are saying is if the Booster PSU took longer to power up than it takes for the system to POST, your graphics card may not be detected. FWIW I've used a Booster X3 in the past and did not have this problem.