Need a little help with my new computer.

[MrPresident]

so, I got it all, put it all together, just to have it crash every time I try to run something taxing to my gpu. I called BFG Tech, and the lady there told me that it was failing because the card requires an amp rating of 28A on the 12v. (12v - 28A) and my power supply is only like.. 22A.

I was looking around for a new supply, but I am hardpressed to find one that has a 28a rating.. so here is my question.

It seems like a lot of the newer power supplys have like.. 12v1 and 12v2 all the way up to 12v5 in some cases.. but these numbers are smaller.. usually like.. 12 or 16A.

DO these numbers combine? Like.. if I get a card that has 12v1 16A and 12v2 16A would that actually make a rating of 12v - 38A?


Looks like for now, I get to use my brand new 3.0 Core2 and 8800GT to browse the interwebz.. =(

[JamminR]

There is no simple answer to your Q.
Short, yes and no.
The PCIx power output is 24v. I'd say that most power supplies combine two rails for a PCIx power connector.
Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that its going to put out the required amerage for your vid card.
Does your card have two PCIx inputs? That makes it even more difficult to find.

What type of power supply did you get?

[MrPresident]

it has one 6 pin PCIe power connector on it. This I have plugged in with the 6pin PCIe plug built into my PSU.

The power supply I have came with the case. its a 500watt. The amp on the 12v rail is 22a.. the tech support lady told me it required a 28a output.

I have an adapted.. (that I've lost) that takes 2 of the 4 pin standard power outputs (the one that you plug into PCI hard drives and CD Drives.. sorry I dont know the exact term for that...) and it converts those 2 into a 6 pin PCIe plug. I didn't think I needed this adapted because the power supply had this plug already.

[JamminR]

I'm only making an experienced guess here;
The converter wouldn't help, if you're wishing you would have found it.
If you only have one rail, and it only supports 20a, I tend to agree with BFG tech that your new card isn't getting enough juice.
If it isn't getting enough power, it is more likely to have memory or transfer bus corruption, and, oddly enough, overheat.

I have an Aerocool zerodba 500w power supply. I bought it for way too much money at a brick and mortar store. (I'd just gotten a new card that required more power, and I didn't want to wait on shipping).
It's lowest powered rail is rated 17a (it has two rails)
It has two PCIx connecters that go to one cable.
 I use it to power two 7800GT cards along with a Opteron 185, 2gb of DDR400 memory, 4 ide drives, 1 sata, and several fans.
Though I'm probably near my max power limit, it serves me quite well as is.

I'm guessing that if you got a good 600+ power supply with 2 or more 12v rails that combined are more than 28a, and at least one PCIx included, you'd be ok and have a bit of room to grow/upgrade later.
Whatever you do, as you might have already learned through the interwebs, don't skimp on a cheap PS.

[MrPresident]

found the adapter.. and oddly enough.. i no longer get the error message and when I load HL2, I don't crash from the animated menu anymore. I plan on still buying a new PSU just to be safe, but I don't really know how to explain this..

Maybe the PCIe cable I was using was faulty? and my card wasnt getting any power through it at all, because I don't see how converting 6 pins from two 4 pin plus is any better than just using the built in 6 pin plug?>!?!?! but it works now.. and at least maybe it can hold me over for a week or so until i can rebuttle from spending $700 on my new stuff and fork over another $100 for a decent PSU...

Thanks Jam.. though you did answer my question. I needed to know if multiple rails combined amp ratings and you are saying they do, so I can be a little more prepared when I do go looking to buy one here soon.

[Banyon]

I honestly have not seen a PSU I would put in a new $800 system for less than $150.

Power supply is one of the MOST important parts of building a new computer.  most people will argue back and forth that ram is more important, or mobo is most important, but its definately power supply.  If you bottle neck the other part of the computer, its just gonna run crappy, if you get a cheap piece of ram, you may get errors, but its an easy fix. However if you get a cheap or defective PSU, not only will your system run bad, it may not run at ALL, or worse you can actually damage the other parts of your computer from a shitty made power supply.

[Megiddo]

I got a $60 PSU and it's always within 1% of tolerance, while accepted is 5%.