Sectorgame

And I know nothing about PSUs. So I come to you.

It needs to work with a GeForce 9800GTX+, so around 500W with 2 PCI-E 6-pin connectors.

I dont wanna be paying 100$ for a PSU, but at the same time I don't want it to die in a year and take my whole PC with it...

Antec Earthwatts 650.

How much does it cost?

http://www.antec.com/usa/productDetails ... 650&type=0

http://www.antec.com/connectors.php?Pro ... SetZone=en


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I got lucky and found one in a CheapGuys (now SmartGuys, I think) for 69.99 w/o tax.

I think you can order from them online.

Yeah. $69.99:
http://cheapguys.com/store/product_info ... ca56a87f60

$99.99:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817371015

Ignore the comment about the noise. The PSU isn't loud in the slightest.

:EDIT:

Though I do have a ceiling fan on 24/7. So if you live in a cooler area (and therefore don't need a fan running), you might hear the PSU.

I was looking at that one before and it looked good, but the 100$ turned me off. I'll look at that on cheapguys, maybe get it there. You think they'd have a 9800GTX+ but cheaper than newegg?

EDIT: I notice neweeg says it only has 1 6-pin and a 6+2-pin. Whats a 6+2-pin, and will it fit the 9800GTX?

It's like a 20+4 pin connector, it can be used for both a pci-e 6 pin and 8 pin connection.

Is the fan on the top of that PSU? Because if it is, it won't do jack for me since my PSU is snuck against the top of my case...

The fan aims downwards.

Oh, ok. That's good.

Last question (I hope): Can anyone tell me where the PCI-E connection on the card is? Like how far from the end it is? And does it need some sort of mountain bracket or does it just sit there? Because it looks REALLY heavy.

The PCI-E or Molex (some cards use Molex, interestingly enough) connector(s) is(/are) usually on the far end of the graphics card, and is(/are) usually situated on top of the card, or on the side.

This card's connector is on the top of the far side of the card. (see the second image from the right)

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I've never seen a graphics card that needs a special holding bracket. Though most cards in the x800 range (like the one above) appear to require two MoBo card slots. So if you're planning to SLI the cards, you'll need to make sure that the MoBo has enough distance between the PCI-e/x slots, otherwise they won't fit.

Aaw, for real? That sucks. Nobody bothered to tell me the 9800GTX needed 2 slots :/ Back to the drawing board.

As for the connecter, I meant the slot it connects to the mobo in, not where it connects to the PSU.

EDIT: Just looked it up, and I'm a bit confused. Does dual slot actually use 2 PCI-E slots, or just the amount of space that 2 PCI-E slots would normally use?

Also, I've been reading about the HD4850 from ATI, which to you recommend? I'd prefer to stick with NVidia because I know it works, but the HD4850 is better than the 9800GTX+, I'd be willnig to try it.

It just uses the space of two PCI cards, it only plugs into one slot. And yes, it just sits there.

As for ATI, I have no idea. I'm an NVidia guy.

Hold on, I thought the point of the GTX was that it was newer so it had near equivalent power to the 8800GT but took up one slot.(Edit Oops, I was actually thinking of the 9800GT) The GTX+ has more power than the GT but I didn't think it took up another slot for it.

I'd call this an Edit but seeing how I haven't even posted yet It isn't.

It turns out it is dual slot, but if you want something of near equivalent power that is single slot I'd have to direct you to (definately not reccomend, oh no, no way, no-ho-ho, no) the HD4850 or the HD4830.

The HD4850 is slightly (only slightly) worse than the 9800GTX+, but it does have better anti-aliasing. The problem is though it is generally noisy, it has terrible power management, and the single slot cooler means they get hot.

The HD4830 isn't quite as good as the HD4850 in terms of power, but does run cooler, is a bit less noisy, and is somewhat better with the enregy issues, but is essentially the same chip in hardware terms.

However if you are looking at the HD4830 I could direct you to the nVidia 9800GT, which is pretty much exactly the same as the HD4830, even in price, and generally performs slightly better than the HD4830, but does fall slightly behind when Anti-Aliasing is acivated.


And sorry I can't give you a personal recommendation, I have an nVidia GTX260 which being dual-slot I think is out of the question.

BloodEagle wrote: As for ATI, I have no idea. I'm an NVidia guy.

Also, I heartily agree with BloodEagle, I always try to buy nVidia instead anyway, because their drivers are generally better, and nVidia chips are generally used in conjunction with the developers of most games e.g Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 are both optimised for nVidia cards. Many of the ones that a PC will struggle with usually are nVidia supported, such as the aforementioned Crysis.

Well, I've decided to probably get an 8800gt because I dont think I have PCI-E 2.0 and a 9800GTX+ on a slow PCI-E 1.1 slot would be a waste of money.

Matthew wrote:Well, I've decided to probably get an 8800gt because I dont think I have PCI-E 2.0 and a 9800GTX+ on a slow PCI-E 1.1 slot would be a waste of money.

No it's not (I have one). AFAIK no card has saturated even PCI-E 1.1 bandwidth, let alone that of 2.0 - I had the same concern myself when I replaced my 8800 GTS XXX (nice card, still, but too little RAM for me) with a 1GB GTX+, but the speed boost is appreciatable. There is likely still some minimal power loss, but it's still going to be (and is) noticably improved over an 8800.

Incidentally, the choice between a 4850 and 9800 GTX+ seems IMO to be mostly dependent on which games you want to use it for - or which is on special at the time. I got the Nvidia card as ATI has issues with GTA4 in particular, plus the benchmarks were a little higher for a few games I already had.