Re: Best $/value Video Card with S-video to run on stock PS

Hey,
I was wondering what's the best $/value video card with s-video out that I can run with my stock PS (300W, I believe).
I'm in Canada and I was looking at the cards at NCIX sale. EVGA E-GEFORCE 8600GT looks pretty good for the price, but it requires min. 350 W PS, Would I be able to run it with no problems, if I don't game??

Alternate and prob. the safe choice is "EVGA E-GEFORCE 8400GS" for the similar price, i guess.

Let me know what you guys think!

btw, is there anyway to find the wattage of the stock power supply ,just to confirm what I found in another forum ( My PC is Cisnet CA-8003B)?

 

Hi,

Definitely not ps rarely have a maximum output of what is advertised they can be quite misleading at times..i like enermax ps..your 300W maybe only be producing a constant 280w effective wattage.

Dont forget your pc fans are all sucking out the power and hardrives are all in there aswell, not to mention if you have a cd or dvd the thing is bouncing around a laser which is a major drain.

If you have a newer pc i am told they have a more efficent PS rating especially around 450 or 500 which is what id be aiming at..it also gives you room to expand in the future.

If i recall correcty i think there is a guide online, that tells you the power consumption of each device like X watts for Hard drive and X for DvD/Cd etc. you might be able to establish what you need if you can find out this and compare it to your hardware you have installed. When you achieve this add about 15% to 20% just to be safe.

I think from memory a single (ide not sata) hard drive consumes (on average) about 20watts on its own per device so 3 Hdd would = 60Watts add a DvD ?? 30 watts, X amount for the fans i think the 300w "wouldnt get off the ground" to run a gpu which is reccommended at 350W on a 300W..
I'm sorry to say i dont think your unit could start, apart from maybe the fans starting to kick over and then stopping.

Hope this has saved you some time and money.
Ps Get two 8600Gt 512Mb DDR3 if thinking of getting a single 1gig 8800gt not only are they quieter they have the next gen gpu. At least thats what my gaming mate reccommends, only thing is power for two graphics cards in sli mode is going to push up the PS requirements potentially even more...and make sure your borad supports sli of course..

 

Thanks a lot, I would love to know which software/ website that has the power consumption of each device, was that a general guide or can it measure your CPU's power consumptions?

btw, Would I be able to under clock the video card if I go for "EVGA E-GEFORCE 8600GT" at NCIX??? and prob. invest in a PSU later (unless there reliable one fore around $20, lol)?

 

Here's a simple tutorial from TigerDirect which I have used with success which includes a basic chart, about 2/3rd's down the page, though there are calculators out there but someone else will have to point you there. I think the best thing is to run Everest and paste your hardware only here. You may not even have PCI-E available on your motherboard.

 

haha, which is what (PCI-E card slot or not) I was wondering now, I will run Everest and post the results!

 

Here's is the report given by EVEREST

 

One more question, If I underclock say EVGA E-GEFORCE 8600GT, would it use less power ? What is the safe range to underclock btw?

 

Here's a decent PSU for the money from DirectCanada,
Thermaltake TR2 W0070 430W ATX12V V1.3 20/24PIN Power Supply Dual 80MM Fan W/ 6PIN PCI-E which is what I have been running 24/7 for three years now with a similar system to yours but with an AMD dual-core. I really think that the 8600 is overkill for you if you're not gaming IMO.

 

I am most likely going to go for the 8400GS at NCIX, because it would be the safe choice and cheapest!

Thanks for replyin