• Happy holidays, folks! Thanks to each and every one of you for being part of the Tom's Hardware community!

can my GTX 960 be used with a thermaltake power express 250w?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
slayermen

slayermen

Reputable
Oct 2, 2015
8
0
4,510
here is the description of the external PSU i have for my old graphic card and i will like to know if with the same i could use my new GTX 960 4gb edition?

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/PowerExpress/

It has 2 (6 PIN) PCI.E connectors and Im using now only one (6 PIN) with my geforce 9800 GTX+ 1gb
 
Sort by date Sort by votes


Thank you for the answer, im quite new about all the PC gaming things, as i can see on the description of the external PSU say output 21amps max, so anyway i will be needing to replace the PSU right?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Small update in case could be useful for someone:
I try the gigabyte GTX 960 4gb windforce version with the external PSU thermaltake mentioned above and it work without a problem, after one week of testing playing games in ultra setting on 1080p I can say it is possible to use that video card with that PSU (lucky me) :bounce:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Wait a minute, SR-71, this isn't the usual PSU question. The PSU he has is a niche product made a few years ago that allowed people to add extra power to their PCs by adding an auxiliary PSU purely to power the GPU in the form of a 5.25" bay drive. It didn't catch on, as the few products actually manufactured were not readily available, and generally build quality was a bit questionable.

As to whether the GTX 960 will run on it, that particular card consumes only 130W under full load. The PSU, assuming 70% efficiency (Just to be safe, I calculated using a lower than average efficiency.) will still output around 175W, meaning that in theory it is enough.

However, these external PSUs are getting on in years, and I'm assuming that your's is at least 7 years old. They weren't good PSUs even when they were first released, and the cards they had to power had very low TDP; The two top of the line GPUs at the time were the Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 and the ATI Radeon X1950 XTX, both of which only needed 450W PSUs. They weren't as sophisticated as today's cards, and thus weren't that sensitive to voltage instability or ripple, and as a result PSUs back then were much more rudimentary than now.

All of this combined means that it isn't a good idea to run a modern day enthusiast GPU off it, even though it in theory does provide enough power. It may run for now, but it very possibly will damage the GPU and stop working later on. Save up for a new, ATX PSU that will be much better at providing power and will have protection against damage to the GPU, like short circuit protection (SCP), Overpower (overload) protection (OPP), and in some cases even overtemperature protection (OTP) that your external PSU most likely doesn't have.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thank you very much both for the answers.

I think it was my mistake not mention that the ¨solution¨ of using my external PSU is temporary meanwhile i get my salary i will go for a new PSU immediatly.

In case it will be possible can someone suggest a good PSU with a 300zl (70$) budget for it?

Im planing to change quite soon my MOBO and processor as well to be able to have pciE 3.0 and maybe SLI for the future you never know :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Im living in Warsaw Poland, and yes in fact im planing to change motherboard and processor in a couple of months too. (So far i have Phenom II x4 955 black edition and 770 gigabyte motherboard
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
This is a very good PSU: Click here.

If that is not available, this is just as good: Click here.

Both will be enough for a GTX 960 SLI setup, so you don't have to change it later on. Can you please specify exactly what CPU and motherboard you will upgrade to in the future? Depending on the processor, you may face a bottleneck with a GTX 960 SLI setup.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Thank you for the links i Will check it with calm tonight.

Honestly im still not sure about the exact model of processor, i Will like AMD fx 8350 with a gigabyte mobo that allow pciE 3.0 and SLI but im not sure yet or if maybe i should give a try to Intel i7.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote


I would say get a i5 4690K and a good Z97 board, since you will be limited to only a few high-end motherboards for the 8350, and as of now AMD does not have a good upgrade path. IMO, since as of now (And most likely for the foreseeable future too.) no game benefits from more than 4 cores when comparing CPUs with more 4 or more cores the main deciding factor should be the single thread performance. You can also consider TDP if you want a low noise / low power build.

The 8350 has an insanely high 125W TDP unoverclocked, while the 4690K sits at 88W and also has a higher single thread performance, meaning at stock it'll run cooler, perform better and have better overclocking potential as well.

An i7 will give you absolutely no extra performance in gaming over an i5, so get an i5 and spend the extra on upgrading other parts of your PC.

Here is a good combination:

Intel i5 4690K: Click here.

ASUS Z97-K: Click here.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thank you very much for those tips!
I didnt knew the small difference (for gaming) between the i5 and i7 ... definitly i will get that model of i5 and the Asus mobo looks pretty good as well.

I will keep you guys updated as soon as i can get some of those recommended new parts.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom