430w psu and 4850?

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eklipz330

eklipz330

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Jul 7, 2008
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So I obviously didn't think this through. My brother has a 430w psu, model number tr2-430w from thermaltake, and I just bought him a sapphire 4850 for ~$85, should it work fine?

He'll be running some standard components including 2gb of ram, 7200rpm hdd, the video card, and a c2d e4500 on a uATX G31 motherboard.

I know the 4850 says 450watts and up, but did anyone get it to work fine? Will he have enough headroom for a mild OC? possibly e4500 3.0ghz?
 
Should be fine. The system in my configuration uses two 4850's and last I checked the system was drawing 375w tops at start up and idle. I did not check the power draw at full load, but my system is overclocked 24/7 and running without power issues for maybe a year. You might monitor the 12v power draw and watch for any suspicious 'spikes'.
 


can you tell me what your build consists of? I might undervolt my 2gb of ram so I can be a little more stable, but I still want to overclock the processor as much as possible on air to get the most from my money... and maybe use rivatuner for the sapphire card.

Thanks for the input though, it kinda makes me a little less guilty into making such an amateur move... lol
 
Q9450
ASUS Maximus Formula SE X38
G. Skill PC28000 8GBs (4 x 2GB) F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ
OCZ 4GB Vboost Flash Drive Readyboost Enabled
Radeon 4850 1GB x 2 CrossfireX
WD 150 SATA RAPTOR w/Vista Ultimate 64
WD 250 SATA storage
ASUS DVD-ROM
ASUS DVD-RW Lightscribe
Thermaltake TP 700 watt PSU
Thermaltake Mozart tower
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/product/Chassis/fulltower/mozart_tx/MozartTX.htm
Thermaltake Media Lab LED Remote control
Zalman 9500 LED HSF
ASUS Xonar 7.1 Dolby
Bose Companion 3 Series II
Slingbox Pro Digital Satellite
ACER H213H 22” HD LCD

 


/facepalm

On what magical world do you live where a card can be given not enough power and simply work "not up to full potential." I'd love to visit some time.

In the real world something either gets enough power or it doesn't. If it doesnt then it will be buggy as all hell, may not be stable, and may damage the card. Unless "not up to its potential" to you means crashing every time one tries to launch a game and bricking the card after a few days..

If the PSU is exactly at the right power you might have limited overclocking... I stress might..


Anyway, you will be cutting it mighty close with a 430w PSU. It should work.. but I would never risk it personally. Chances are it will peak over what the PSU can provide under load and your rig will crash, a lot.

Readign a review on that PSU I am seeing nubmers like 240W on the 12V. That is not nearly enough. They are showing it failing at 12V power of 216W.
Have a look : http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/332/5

That review makes it seem pretty clear that the PSU is utter ***.
 

Assumign it was truely 430W on teh 12V you would be correct. This is not the case though, the PSU in question is over rated and only conforms to ATX 1.03 standards. Be lucky to get 350W out of it, probably no more than 250W on the 12V..
 
Yeah, that unit is on the 'el cheapo' side and could drop dead at any time especially under a heavy load. A sturdy 550w unit with active PFC and more 12v power would give peace of mind. There are a lot better units with much better specs than the TT 430 for reasonable prices.
 


This psu only has a peak of 250 or so on the 12V, that review you posted even states the peak was 275 for the 4850. If it peaks that high on this PSU it will crash every time. Even so, it is way to clsoe for me to advise someone to put a new card on it. You could easily end up with a broken card or worse. The PSU has to be able to have enough overhead.
 


Ya, I think it would work too.. I'd just never advise someone to try it when it is cutting it this close. Specially knowing how cheep the psu is, and it might be aging by now.

Always worth the money to buy a new PSU if your not sure (least in my mind). That is the one part i'd never risk, not too expensive and if its bad everything could be gone before you have a chance to let off the four letter words 😀. I'm all for only buying what you need and making do with what works, but in this case it is just too tight to call for sure without trying it... and I'd feel way to bad if he tried it and it broke 😀
 
arite so im getting different views over here.

one is yeah it'll work.

two is yeah it'll work sometimes.

three is it won't work.

four is it will work don't overclock.

so which one should i go for? Will i still be able to overclock the processor to 3.0ghz? i don't wanna take any chances on bricking a new card, but i can't seem to find a good deal on an antec earthwatts or anything similar on newegg... don't wanna cheap out on some rosewill or sunbeam crapo
 
arite so im getting different views over here.

one is yeah it'll work.

two is yeah it'll work sometimes.

three is it won't work.

four is it will work don't overclock.

so which one should i go for? Will i still be able to overclock the processor to 3.0ghz? i don't wanna take any chances on bricking a new card, but i can't seem to find a good deal on an antec earthwatts or anything similar on newegg... don't wanna cheap out on some rosewill or sunbeam crapo
 
ahh thanks alot invisik, ima try to get on that asap, do you know anything about ocz's rebate policy? i don't like messing with rebates but... sometimes you have to
 
There like every other company you fill the papers out send the upc code and thats about it. Just remember to keep a copy of everything to show proof later on if any problems arise. Here are a few psu that will get you running fine feel free to pick which ever fits your budget.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341016
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341021
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371023
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003
 




Thx, man. I really had a good bit of laugh.

😀
 


If you have not already bought a new PSU, this tool will measure 'active' wattage used on the system in question or any other device you plug in around the house. It's on sale a lot at Newegg. Simple and inexpensive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008

i've decided to buy this one, as there are a few comments in there that say they are running stable with a 4850, and more stressful/powerful parts than mine.

and with a $5 coupon code, and the MIR it comes out to be $35, which isn't so bad I guess..

i would go for the modxstream, but i heard bad things about it. and the corsair one i linked looks like its well known, so ima go for that... ill eventually pick up that killawatt meter since it seems like a must have for any home... thanks guys
 
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