GeForce 6800 replacing the lame FX

[Larry_OHF]

I have a 430Watt in mine, and from what I hear, that is going to be on the low-end soon.

[Animal]

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: I have a 430Watt in mine, and from what I hear, that is going to be on the low-end soon.

If it's a quality unit frame a reputable manufacturer then you'll be okay just fine Larry. The ATX motherboard and ATX power supply are reaching the end of their lifespan, so it should probably last you the life of your PC.

[Memnoch]

Hmmm...what's so bad about a 330Watt power supply? [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] I thought that the requisite for the FX5900 was 300W...

[Bungleau]

Depends how much other stuff you've got in there suckin' up the juice. When I was replacing the power supply on my new PC, I googled a web site someplace that let you calculate your requirements -- so many watts for the CPU, memory, drives, vid card, and so on. I did that and then added some more, just as you apparently did.

Hmmm... Here's a link to someone who's got some sample numbers for calculation.

[frudi_x]

it's not so much about the numbers (wattage) as about quality. even a 300W unit can be enough if it can suply enough current and still keep the voltages on the main rails stable under full load.
your 330W psu should probably be enough for the 5900XT, but it also depends on the rest of your computer's components - cpu, ram, number of hard/optical drives, expansion cards etc.

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

also, if you are a keen overclocker you need a big powersupply. Larry, 430watts is actually quite a lot, in a magazine that I read they have a beast of a computer running (if you can beat its benchmarks you win £100 automatically) and it is powered by 460watts I think. Well it is 4.2ghz, which takes a lot of juice, so I think 430 is easily enough.