6800: Invest in new PSU?

CowMan

Distinguished
Jun 5, 2003
59
0
18,630
Ok, I've got a radeon 8500LE right now, and it's well past time to upgrade. So, the big question that everyone's asking is NV40 or r420? I really can't afford to shell out $300+ every time a new card comes out so I want to get the best milestone. I've got my eyes on the NV40 non-ultra right now. I'm sure my opinion will change somewhat over the next couple months, but the pixel shader 3.0 support is kinda winning me over. I don't want to get the ATI X800pro and have to upgrade next year because everything is PS 3.0. I don't mean to detract from any of the "official threads" but I just want to know what would be a good power supply to invest in should I choose to get the NV40. I've got a Raidmax 350W right now, with 3 fans, 2 optical drives, and 1 HD. I won't have the two dedicated rails that the card requires with my current one, and I keep hearing everyone say "go with the Antec truepower 480W" but $80 for that thing (on newegg) is a little more than I want to spend. The Thermaltake 480W Xaser edition is about $15-$20 less, but I don't know how well they compare. Who's got ideas here?
 

scottchen

Splendid
Jun 3, 2003
5,791
0
25,780
I personally don't trust Raidmax psu myself, I would recommend you buying another 200 watt generic psu that has at least 8A on the 12V rail, do the <A HREF="http://modtown.co.uk/mt/article2.php?id=psumod" target="_new">psu</A> mode as shown, then connect your optical devices, fans, and hdd all to the 200watt generic psu. Then dedicate your raidmax to the mobo+video card only.

<A HREF="http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/myrig.php?do=view&id=17301" target="_new">My PC</A>