VanillaGaming

So my new video card came in the mail today. a GTX 260. I currently am using a 8600 gts. My computer is just a Dell inspiron 530 with a stock 350 watt power supply. I knew that the new beefy video card would require more power to run. The manufacturer’s website suggests a 500 watt power supply in order for the video card to operate properly. Lucky for me, I had an old 550 watt power supply that I used to power an old P4 rig.

I plugged the 550 watt PSU into the dell, inserted the new video card, pressed the power button, and… nothing. The fans spun for a split second. But that was it. The power light was lit on the mother board. I decided to take the new video card out and trying powering on ONLY the motherboard. Still nothing. All the connections on the board were all properly seated. The mother board has a 24 pin power connector along with a 4pin 12v connector.

I ended up taking everything out and reverting back to the way I had things. The 350 watt PSU and the 8600 gts. I thought the 550 watt would have done the trick. But I guess not.

My one friend suggested that perhaps the board or something else was not getting enough voltage. I have no clue. I’m probably just going to buy another PSU and see what happens, but any other suggests would be greatly appreciated.

I noticed a couple different things with your post:

1) It’s been fairly recently in Dell history that they started using standardized power supplies (instead of that proprietary dell crap). Check the colors on your 24 pin connectors of both PSUs and see if they match.

2) The other thing is .. not all Power supplies are equal. Many advertise their maximum power (at varying temperature levels). This can make determining power output difficult. A good rule of thumb is heavier = better.

With that said, based on what you described, it seems like the power supply doesn’t work. Get a paper clip and try the following:

http://www.duxcw.com/faq/ps/ps4.htm

Don’t worry about electrocuting yourself, follow the directions and you’ll be fine. Make sure you have a device plugged into one of the connectors, it’s not a good idea to run a PSU without load.

Lastly, if you decide to go for a new PSU, I recommend PC Power & Cooling. They advertise continuous power … not maximum like many other manufacturers.

I will try tip #1 tomorrow. The 550 watt in question is an Antec, so it’s should be pretty good. I hope. Like I said, it works in an old P4 rig, but not when I put it in my Dell.

I don’t care what anyone tells me, I’m not sticking a paperclip into a power supply while it’s plugged in. Sorry.

you’re such a baby

this is the power supply i got.. does everything i need it to do and i still have a lot more connectors for harddrives etc.
and as mode said this is a 550w continuous power psu.

it also is modular ..i wouldnt buy anything but …
also has 1 × 6Pin, 1 × 6+2Pin .if ur card has two power slots…(thought u said urs does)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item...

Personal bias leads me to recommend:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item...
OR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item...

I’m not a big fan of modular (..yet), but I do like how the clips attach to the PSU for the Antec that InteL recommended.

Thanks for the recommendations guys. I’ll buy one later tonight. I’ll let you know how everything goes.

Edit: This is what is in the description on Newegg’s site for the video card. Are you guys able to tell if those power supplies meet these requirements? I know the wattage is good as well as the power plugs that go into the card. I’m not sure about the voltage and the amps. Thanks.

Minimum of a 500 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 36 Amp Amps.)
Two available 6-pin Molex hard drive power dongles

lol dongles

well after some research and looking at the suggestions from mode i would have to say with the specs that ur card req..
this is you best bet.. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item...

the power supply i suggested would work but you really cant beat the price of this one…

only down side not modular.. meaning all the wires are always connected..

on the upside i bought myself a ssd (solid state drive) today .for now i am goin to put my windows installation on it..and if they will fit my steam games.. but i havent looked at that yet..cant wait :-)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item...

Speaking from experience, my PC Power & Cooling 610 powers my 8800 GTX + 4 Hard drives + Secondary video card + Sound Card + Dual Core CPU

Based on what I’ve read:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-gtx-...

The 8800 GTX draws more power than the GTX 260 (based on the fact that the 8800 gtx draws more power than the 9800 GTX):
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1256&pa...

Now that I think about it, it depends on how large your case is.
The PC Power & Cooling PSU could work to your disadvantage because there are a crap ton of wires to route / hide. How much space do you have available to do that? I’m hiding (i.e. stuffed ferociously) into two 5 1/4" bays in my case.

More wires = less air flow if not done properly

Take a look at the pictures of cabling and you can probably make a decision based on these two factors:
Value = PC Power & Cooling
Very little available case space = Antec modular

rofl. my case is the generic dell inspiron case. it’s real tiny. Everything will fit inside, however, the less cables would be ideal.

And what are you thinking noob. you should have just bought a 10,000 rpm drive instead. Probably would have been faster, and gave you a lot more storage. I’ll let the technology advance a bit more, then I’ll step up to an SSD. Then again, maybe i’ll just build this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs

Holy poop, thats fast. Though I’ve always heard that OSs dont work as well when they’re on an SSD cause they aren’t written to operate on flash memory.

Here is the final outcome. New 700 watt power supply, nvidia gtx 260, and no room for anything else. I originally had 2 hard drives installed. One was located where the video card power plugs are. I had to take that one out for the video card to fit. I ended up putting in a 1 TB hard drive to recoup my loses in hard drive space.

sexy now that i got all my wires rerouted ill have to post up a pick!

You should toss those crappy BFG drivers out and install the EVGA with precision you will like the better performance just with the better drivers i assure you.

I didn’t know there were specific drivers for specific manufacturers. I thought you just had to download the correct drivers from nvidia for your correct GPU.

nope each company uses those Nvidia drivers and tweaks them for their card, and essentially every card is the same so really you could use any companies drivers or nvidia’s for your card.

if anyone has any questions heres my xfire evilmonkey2020