Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (
More info?)
"nobody@nowhere.net" <MyGarbage2000@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<4h1kb0h4se4tjqtvqpqr7cohvhr4cl0l5o@4ax.com>...
> On Sat, 29 May 2004 19:54:53 -0400, Tony Hill
> <hilla_nospam_20@yahoo.ca> wrote:
>
> >
> >The nVidia GeForce 6800 IS a power hungry beast, needing over 100W all
> >on it's own (completely ridiculous if you ask me, but not
> >surprisingly, nVidia didn't ask me :> ). The processor eats up about
> >100W and all other components in your system will eat up about another
> >100W. In total you're looking at somewhere in the 300-350W range.
> >
> >That being said, power supplies are MUCH more about quality than
> >quantity. A good quality 350W supply should power this system up
> >fine, a poor quality 600W supply will fail miserably. I'm not
> >familiar with Akasa power supplies, however if they're halfway decent
> >it should work just fine with that 460W supply you've got.
> >
> >-------------
> >Tony Hill
> >hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca
>
> A real life example: a friend of mine built a dual Opteron246 on Tyan
> Thunder K8W with 4GB RAM, 2x 7200rpm HDD, some high end Radeon
> (9800XT? - not sure). The PSU he uses is something approved by both
> case maker (Thermaltake - he uses one of those fancy Xasers with lots
> of fans, lights, etc.) and Tyan (Thunder needs special connectors, not
> plain vanilla ATX) 4x0W (probably 460W - not sure). When he tried to
> use CD writer, the video would freeze. After long recearch it turned
> out it was insufficient power (he turned off some other internal
> gadgets, and it all started working). Now he resorted to using as
> many devices externally as possible, and waits for approved 550W or
> greater PSU to come out.
> I have no idea how much power requirements of GF6800IS are different
> from those of R9800XT, but just by looking at ATI's heatsink I'd say
> it is quite power hungry.
> So 600W does not seem too much of overkill. After all, the price
> difference is too negligible to warrant skimping on PSU for a high end
> system.
As another point of reference, I'm using a dual Opteron 244 on a Tyan
2875 Tiger board, 2GB RAM, 2 x 120 GB SATA HDD, Radeon 9200 graphics,
DVD burner and FDD. The power supply is an Antec 400W one and I have
had no problems whatsoever. I realise the video card is a much lower
end model than yours, but I'm still a bit surprised your friend had
problems. Maybe I'm living life on the edge and just haven't realised
it yet!
Mattias