Question about my power supply and graphics card

Hey there,
I just picked up a new PC that comes with this power supply: http://www.saturn.pl/zasilacz-modeco...-box,id-251717
It’s mostly a Core 2 Duo 3.2GHz setup with 4GB of RAM,
and I'm planning to drop a Creative Sound Blaster (or maybe an ATI HD 4830)
into it. I've seen conflicting info online—some places say this power supply can handle it just fine, while others claim I definitely need something beefier. Can anyone with some expertise clear this up for me?
Basically, I just want to know if this current power supply will work with that card.

It’s probably not about the wattage itself—it’s more that the unit is just low quality. I guess if you picked up something with an actual Bronze certification (like an EVGA or an AMD model) with the same rating, it would work perfectly fine.

Edit: My bad, I misread your link at first and thought that power supply was 450 W. If I'm seeing this right, it's actually a 350 W unit. You should probably look for something at least 400 W—though I'd personally recommend aiming for 450W.

I just dug up an old Microsoft Pro 550ATX P4 power supply from an old PC
Can I actually use this? Does the P4 label mean it's strictly for Pentium 4 builds? 😁
Honestly, I have no clue.

Regarding the wattage—yeah, it should be enough for that Graphics card. You just need to make sure you have an extra 6-pin power supply connector for it, assuming it’s the same one shown in this picture:
http://forum.oktabit.gr/files/asus_eah4830_3D.jpg

As for the build quality on this Microsoft power supply, I probably wouldn't recommend it.

Don't plug any of that into a Microsoft Industrial unit! If you were absolutely determined to hook that Graphics card up to something, I’d suggest using a Dell over a Microsoft setup... Microsoft provides even less amperage on the 12V rail. Honestly, though, I wouldn't trust either of them; I’d just grab a Corsair or something similar so I wouldn't have to worry about it. Everything else is just a risk.

George Sanders37 said:Regarding the wattage—yeah, it should be enough for that Graphics card. You just need to make sure you have an extra 6-pin power supply connector for it, assuming it’s the same one shown in this picture:
http://forum.oktabit.gr/files/asus_eah4830_3D.jpg

As for the build quality on this Microsoft power supply, I probably wouldn't recommend it.

Why wouldn't you recommend it? Is it because of the speed, or could it actually damage my motherboard or graphics card?
PS. Thanks for the answer. My plan is to install it on this power supply for now, then once I have some extra cash, I'll upgrade to a better one. Until then, I'll just roll with this.

Jerry Morgan3 said:Why wouldn't you recommend it? Is it because of the speed, or could it actually damage my motherboard or graphics card?
PS. Thanks for the answer. My plan is to install it on this power supply for now, then once I have some extra cash, I'll upgrade to a better one. Until then, I'll just roll with this.

It's a bad idea because those are bottom-tier power supplies. Under any real load, they can easily pop and take out a component—or your entire rig—right along with them.

And I'm guessing that's not exactly what you're aiming for.🙂

Robert Rodriguez2 said:It's a bad idea because those are bottom-tier power supplies. Under any real load, they can easily pop and take out a component—or your entire rig—right along with them.

And I'm guessing that's not exactly what you're aiming for.🙂

Signature.
A Microsoft power supply might hold up in an office setup where the load is minimal, but for anything else... I guess it's pretty questionable.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:It's a bad idea because those are bottom-tier power supplies. Under any real load, they can easily pop and take out a component—or your entire rig—right along with them.

And I'm guessing that's not exactly what you're aiming for.🙂

So, would it be safer to just use a Microsoft 550W ATX power supply as a temporary fix until I can grab something better?

Jerry Morgan3 said:So, would it be safer to just use a Microsoft 550W ATX power supply as a temporary fix until I can grab something better?

I'd definitely buy a new one. You have no idea what kind of shape this power supply is actually in. Personally, I wouldn't take that risk.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:I'd definitely buy a new one. You have no idea what kind of shape this power supply is actually in. Personally, I wouldn't take that risk.

Actually, looking at the tiny bit of info I could dig up, I think the second one is better. It has more declared A on the 12V rail, which is the most important part. This Microsoft one has 20, if I recall correctly, which is honestly a joke... If you absolutely have to use one, I'd say go with that one first.

Pick them both up and see which one feels heavier 😁 Honestly, they’re both low-quality junk. Whichever one you go with, make sure you crack it open to blow out the dust and check that the capacitors aren't bulging. That HD4830 pulls a decent amount of juice, so I wouldn't recommend pairing it with some cheap, ancient power supply, but hey, if you really have to...

Hey everyone, I just installed an HD 4830. I'm running that 350W power supply mentioned above. Everything looks great when I launch Skyrim—it runs smoothly on high settings—but after about thirty seconds of gameplay, I hit a BSOD 0x00000116. I'm not sure if the power supply is failing me or if there's an issue with the graphics card itself, especially since the card feels pretty hot to the touch sometimes.

I also just realized my Graphics card temperature spikes like crazy whenever I start a game (hitting over 80C). Is it possible the power supply is causing it to overheat, or is the card itself just faulty?

Clean the dust out of your Graphics card; obviously, temps are going to spike when you're actually gaming since the thing is finally doing some work 😁 80 degrees is nothing for that card, honestly—it can probably handle up to 110. As for those BSODs, you've gotta tell us what the actual error message says, because 0x00000116 doesn't really tell us anything

060615-28844-01.dmp 6.6.2015. 19:12:29 0x00000116 fffffa80`041ba4e0 fffff880`02d02f94 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000002 dxgkrnl.sys dxgkrnl.sys+5d000 DirectX Graphics kernel Microsoft ® Windows ® Operating system Microsoft Corporation 6.1.7601.17514 x64 ntoskrnl.exe+80640 C:\Windows\Minidump\060615-28844-01.dmp 2 15 7601 1.222.704 6.6.2015. 19:24:15
Here's the log

I figured it’s most likely a power supply issue. When I run Skyrim on medium or low settings, everything works fine, but as soon as I crank the graphics up to high, my PC restarts. It's probably because there isn't enough juice for the GPU once the load gets too heavy.

It looks like your Graphics card is going to overheat. If you're already hitting over 80 degrees right at startup, God knows how high it'll climb later on.

When I'm gaming, I keep an eye on my temps, and the Graphics card doesn't go over 75C during gameplay. To me, that means it isn't overheating; instead, it's likely a lack of juice from the power supply causing the restarts, at least that's my take.

Jerry Morgan3 said:When I'm gaming, I keep an eye on my temps, and the Graphics card doesn't go over 75C during gameplay. To me, that means it isn't overheating; instead, it's likely a lack of juice from the power supply causing the restarts, at least that's my take.

I guess you reached a solid conclusion there.