FSP Group booster X5 - please explain

[cyphilis]

FSP booster I need a smart person to tell me exactly what this does.

If my mind is taking it in right, this is just like a mini power supply in itself? I am going to be running 2 8800 GTS cards, and my current PSU won't handle the power. So if nothing else could I keep one card on my PSU, and another card running on this FSP booster?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: cyphilis
could I keep one card on my PSU, and another card running on this FSP booster?

Yes, that's exactly how it works. I have a Booster X3 and used it for a while powering two 8800 GTS cards. Worked as expected. Nowadays with huge wattage PSUs pretty common, there's little need for these as the price for one is around 2/3 the price for a new PSU... IMO. Anyways, mine is collecting dust in my garage these days.

 

[cyphilis]

Cool. Did you run both of the GTS cards off the X3?

 

[jonnyGURU]

Unless you're pressed for space, the Booster X makes no sense. For a little more money you can get one decent PSU and improve efficiency, less cable clutter and less noise.

You have enough money for two 8800 GTS's, you don't have enough for a decent PSU?

What is your current PSU? Are you sure you can't run two 8800 GTS's with it? You should be able to do a pair of GTS's with a decent 550W or even a mediocre 600W.

 

[Zap]

cyphilis, yes I ran them both off the X3. Of course the main PSU was still providing power to the card through the PCIe slot.

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
Unless you're pressed for space, the Booster X makes no sense.

Mine was a Quakecon prize.

 

[cyphilis]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
Unless you're pressed for space, the Booster X makes no sense. For a little more money you can get one decent PSU and improve efficiency, less cable clutter and less noise.

You have enough money for two 8800 GTS's, you don't have enough for a decent PSU?

What is your current PSU? Are you sure you can't run two 8800 GTS's with it? You should be able to do a pair of GTS's with a decent 550W or even a mediocre 600W.

I am really pressed for space,.. which I why I bought 2 used 8800 GTS cards. I never said anything about not having the money, I just want to still use what I currently have. Any cards more advanced then the 8800 GTS's, is to long for my mid-tower with 4 HDDs. I tried a 9800GT, but found it was a step down from my 8800 GTS 320mb. If I were to buy a new PSU, I might as well buy a new case,.. while Im at it change out this junk MSI motherboard, and then I'd have the room to run 280's in SLi. But I don't want to spend upwards of 2 or 3 grand right now, I just want to spend the bill I spent on the 8800's, and the $70 I spend on another 450 additional dedicated watts.
My PSU is a Xion 600 supernova, which dog it all you want, has held up and runs beautifully.
I ended up going with a Thermaltake 450w, just like the FSB booster. Thermaltake also makes a 650, but from the reviews I read, people are running 2 280's off the 450W setup's and I will never need that much power that the 650 version puts out.

To me, this makes all the sense in the world,.. at least to me and my situation. It fits the bill for what I need, and I won't have to worry about tearing my computer almost all the way down to change out my PSU. Now I just throw this in, and have everything else the same (I'm lazy) and continue to half way keep up with the upcoming games for another year or so. It may not make sense to you, but for me, its perfect.

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: cyphilis

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
Unless you're pressed for space, the Booster X makes no sense. For a little more money you can get one decent PSU and improve efficiency, less cable clutter and less noise.

You have enough money for two 8800 GTS's, you don't have enough for a decent PSU?

What is your current PSU? Are you sure you can't run two 8800 GTS's with it? You should be able to do a pair of GTS's with a decent 550W or even a mediocre 600W.

I am really pressed for space,.. which I why I bought 2 used 8800 GTS cards. I never said anything about not having the money, I just want to still use what I currently have. Any cards more advanced then the 8800 GTS's, is to long for my mid-tower with 4 HDDs. I tried a 9800GT, but found it was a step down from my 8800 GTS 320mb. If I were to buy a new PSU, I might as well buy a new case,.. while Im at it change out this junk MSI motherboard, and then I'd have the room to run 280's in SLi. But I don't want to spend upwards of 2 or 3 grand right now, I just want to spend the bill I spent on the 8800's, and the $70 I spend on another 450 additional dedicated watts.
My PSU is a Xion 600 supernova, which dog it all you want, has held up and runs beautifully.
I ended up going with a Thermaltake 450w, just like the FSB booster. Thermaltake also makes a 650, but from the reviews I read, people are running 2 280's off the 450W setup's and I will never need that much power that the 650 version puts out.

To me, this makes all the sense in the world,.. at least to me and my situation. It fits the bill for what I need, and I won't have to worry about tearing my computer almost all the way down to change out my PSU. Now I just throw this in, and have everything else the same (I'm lazy) and continue to half way keep up with the upcoming games for another year or so. It may not make sense to you, but for me, its perfect.

Are you comparing a single 9800GT to your 8800GTS 320's in SLI? If not I call Shenanigans.

The 9800GT is a re-badged 8800GT that took on a die shrink which is leaps ahead of a single 8800GTS 320. So if it wasn't faster than a single 8800GTS 320, you either got a defective card of was doing something wrong.

 

[cyphilis]

Just using 1 9800GT, compared to my 1 8800 GTS 320. From the research I did online, I may of gotten a bad card. However, I believe it could also be that, in conjunction with bad drivers. I did everything I could, include buy driver sweep and deleted everything and tried every driver... spent a good day maybe 2 days just trying to find a driver. Either way, I'd had my fill with MSI, and RMA'ed the thing back to newegg and chalked it up to a learning experience. No MSI in my future, sticking with what I know works.. EVGA.

I tried every driver out there for the 9800, and nothing took away my artifacting and pixelating. Even my 8800GTS had some of that with the newest drivers from Nvidia. I went back to the stock year old driver that came with my card way back when and the GTS is running just fine with no hitches or hangups.
I will give you, that the 9800 was faster. That is by seat of the pants feel, I don't run FPS utilities. I don't know if the graphics were any better, because like I said I couldn't play any games because the damn thing kept messing up and frustraing me (If you look in the VGA forums, I have it all explained out and a pic of what was happening under the topic about 8800 to 9800 weird problems)

In a round about way, hopefully these 620's will keep me happy for a long while. At least I hope so,.. and so does my wife

 

[jonnyGURU]

I'm not going to knock your Xion 600W. It's made by SuperFlower which is somewhat decent. I'm willing to bet it would have no problem running two GTS's.

FYI: I run one GTS off of a passively cooled CWT 500W. That build includes a pump, two opticals, two HDD's and three fans.

 

[cyphilis]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
I'm not going to knock your Xion 600W. It's made by SuperFlower which is somewhat decent. I'm willing to bet it would have no problem running two GTS's.

FYI: I run one GTS off of a passively cooled CWT 500W. That build includes a pump, two opticals, two HDD's and three fans.

Thank you,.. I just see a lot of people trashing Xion, but my experience with their products is nothing but positive. I've heard bad things about their customer service, but I've had good enough luck not to have to use them yet. In the future I will probably go with a different brand, but only to have the best of the best and not worry and plan ahead instead of buying the prettiest product.

I used one of those sites, that you punch in everything your rig has and it suggests how many Watts you need to just run it. Everything that I punched in for my current rig with 2 8800gts, is was telling me I needed at least 639W. The Xion might of been able to pull everything, but for $70 I got a good band-aid to help me for another year until I invest in a new rig.