A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

[AtomicRadio]

Ok I plan on buying a Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT 256 MB AGP for my system and Im wondering will it run on a 300 Watt powersupply? Cuase I only have a 300 Watt powersupply and I dont want to buy another one.

[Darksniper75]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

Ok I plan on buying a Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT 256 MB AGP for my system and Im wondering will it run on a 300 Watt powersupply? Cuase I only have a 300 Watt powersupply and I dont want to buy another one.

No, 350W is the minimum!

Cheers

[redearedslider]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

No, 350W is the minimum!

Cheers

nvidia likes juice :P anywayssss make sure, when you buy a psu, buy A brand psu 350 watt minimum...

[Heavy552 AWG]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

300 is weak and inadequate.

I myself have 500+ watts with a 480 watt spare on standby. Get a good Antec for 90 dollars or whatever. Dont fall for those cheep 30 dollar units as they WILL fail within a year.

Ensure that you have sufficient connecting peices for all your devices (Mobo, disk drives, video cards -have two availible for the future.)

[AtomicRadio]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

What about 6600 128 MB card on 300?

[AtomicRadio]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

So what will happen if I dont buy a new one but still buy the 256 mb card and put it in? I read it only needs 300.

[Blackhearted]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

i find it funny that people will *always* skimp on power supplies, yet of all the components in your system that is the single most important one when it comes to stability.

as for '300 watt', '350 watt', '500 watt', etc - all of this is insignificant. you are asking the wrong questions.
the right question is what brand PSU should i buy. i have a '500 watt' PSU sitting on my shelf that wont even boot up my athlon XP 2000/radeon 9700 pro. it weighs about half as much as my quality 300 watt PSU and is a perfect example of what POSs generic PSUs are.
a good quality 300 watt PSU will outperform a generic '500 watt' PSU. this is exactly like the car stereo market, where mmoost people will run out and buy a 'ULTRA 1000 WATT!!!!!!!!' amplifier from some 3rd-tier manufacturer that will be vastly outperformed by a quality 200 watt RMS amp.

a good power supply is an investment. you can buy a 350 watt PSU from a reputable manufacturer now, or you can spend an extra $15-20 and get a 450-500 watt one that you will be able to use with your next system or video card, and will give you more overhead for adding upgrade cards and drives.

the brands you should be looking at are Enermax, Antec, Seasonic, etc. dont be fooled by just wattage - the important thing is how many amps the PSU can consistentlly supply at the rails, how stable the voltages are (no big fluctiations), the quality of the capacitors, etc.

before you buy a PSU, read its review here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/section4.html
if the PSU you are planning to buy, or a similar model by the same manufacturer, doesnt appear there then it probably isnt worth buying in the first place.

a shoddy PSU can cause so many system instability problems you cant imagine. the problems it can cause can also be difficult to diagnose for the average user, so in the meantime youll be sitting there wondering WTF is going on with your system and swapping out your RAM, RMA-ing your mobo, etc.

[Blackhearted]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

you can go here:

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

and calculate how much wattage you will need. i would still add at least 50 watts and make sure to buy a quality PSU to ensure stability and allow for a couple of future upgrades.
you KNOW that the next gen of video cards and processors are going to need more power, and you KNOW your next system will probably have more memory and add-ins. so the most economical solution is to spend the extra $15 or so and buy a 450 or 500 watt PSU as opposed to a 350 watt one, that way its more of an investment and not something youll have to replace next year.
DO NOT BUY GENERIC POS PSUs.

i got a 450 watt PSU with a case i purchased, a no-name brand one. i was running a relatively mild sempron-64 system on it, and i smelled something funny. as i reached behind to turn off the PSU it exploded, and an 8" jet of blue flame shot out the grille on the back and fried my hand quite badly. i still have a scar. the motherboard hasnt worked properly since, and i had to replace it. it could have gone worse - it could have damaged my vid card, processor, ram, etc. i could even have lost the data on my hdd if it were damaged.
bottom line is if you want to skimp on some components, do so - but the last thing you want to be cheap on is your PSU. unfortunately most of the time people do skimp on them, because a quality PSU isnt going to give yoou more FPS in BF2, and people think itll be 'good enough'. sure, it might, but a cheap POS generic PSU is like having a ticking time bomb in your comp case.

[LoD]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

yeah going off what blackheart said, a 300watt PSU can be just fine, if its a reliable model from a good brand. If its a generic it probably wont be enough. If you plug in the card and it works, then your in the clear. You either wont boot at all, or will notice lots of random crashing, and lockups and restarts if the PSU is underpowered. Plug it in and find out.

[Blackhearted]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

yeah going off what blackheart said, a 300watt PSU can be just fine, if its a reliable model from a good brand. If its a generic it probably wont be enough. If you plug in the card and it works, then your in the clear. You either wont boot at all, or will notice lots of random crashing, and lockups and restarts if the PSU is underpowered. Plug it in and find out.

or itll boot, post and seem to run fine but youll start the timer ticking...
whistling capacitors from a cheap PSU that is running near capacity can drive you insane. it could also run, at near capacity, and then one day fail discreetly or in a very dramatic fashion, taking some of your other hardware with it.

also the peak power consumption occurs when you are, say, in a session of BF2 and both your cpu, ram and vid card are running at or near capacity. your PSU might supply more than enough power for you to check your email, but when your system is running at full load it could have a hard time keeping up, or keeping up a STEADY voltage. as a PSU reaches capacity voltage fluctuations increase. if yoour card isnt getting enough voltage it can cause anything from mild stuttering to random crashes, system resets, etc.

if you are going to skimp on a PSU then at least try to minimize your power draw. have a 200 gig drive in there, and 2 other 20 gigs for 'backup'? yank em out. yank out any old modems, extra CD roms, or any add-in cards you are not using. you can check on the PSU calculatoor page approx how much power each device draws. unfortunately youll only save 4-5 wattts by unplugging, say, an old CDROM or modem, but if removing a couple of those puts yoou a bit under capacity then it is a smart move. the most power is consumed by your CPU and vid card, but removing redundant hard drives and cards, even unplugging USB devices can have an effect.
youd be suprised how many people buy a new 300 gig hdd and yet leave 2-3 other little crappy 5400rpm drives in their comp for 'extra storage'. not only does this slow your comp down but its also added power draw on your PSU.

if you are absolutely on a budget - and i can understand that - then remember that you are better off buuying a QUALITY 300-350 watt PSU than you are with a generic 450-550 watt one.

[redearedslider]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

or itll boot, post and seem to run fine but youll start the timer ticking...
whistling capacitors from a cheap PSU that is running near capacity can drive you insane. it could also run, at near capacity, and then one day fail discreetly or in a very dramatic fashion, taking some of your other hardware with it.

also the peak power consumption occurs when you are, say, in a session of BF2 and both your cpu, ram and vid card are running at or near capacity. your PSU might supply more than enough power for you to check your email, but when your system is running at full load it could have a hard time keeping up, or keeping up a STEADY voltage. as a PSU reaches capacity voltage fluctuations increase. if yoour card isnt getting enough voltage it can cause anything from mild stuttering to random crashes, system resets, etc.

if you are going to skimp on a PSU then at least try to minimize your power draw. have a 200 gig drive in there, and 2 other 20 gigs for 'backup'? yank em out. yank out any old modems, extra CD roms, or any add-in cards you are not using. you can check on the PSU calculatoor page approx how much power each device draws. unfortunately youll only save 4-5 wattts by unplugging, say, an old CDROM or modem, but if removing a couple of those puts yoou a bit under capacity then it is a smart move. the most power is consumed by your CPU and vid card, but removing redundant hard drives and cards, even unplugging USB devices can have an effect.
youd be suprised how many people buy a new 300 gig hdd and yet leave 2-3 other little crappy 5400rpm drives in their comp for 'extra storage'. not only does this slow your comp down but its also added power draw on your PSU.

if you are absolutely on a budget - and i can understand that - then remember that you are better off buuying a QUALITY 300-350 watt PSU than you are with a generic 450-550 watt one.

that "taking other hardware with it" is exactly the thing that made me go from my zalman 350 watt to my new psu...my old psu really pwned but i want to put other things in my comp in the future and i didnt want to be living in fear of my computer getting hurt

[Xicer]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

Ive had an X800XL running on my crappy 300w PSU for about a year now, and no problems! So a 6600 should do fine =P

[AtomicRadio]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

My PSU is a Sparkle Power Switching power supply. The AC input is 115/230V - 10/5A 60/50 Hz, DC Output 300W. My specs are a AMD Althon 2400 + XP 37 GB HDD, 2 Sticks of RAM = 1GB RAM, DVD/CD Drive, Floppy Drive. So I hope it can take the heat of a 256 MB card, but I may go for 128 MB 6600. Cuase this Radeon 9200 sucks :cry:.

[Blackhearted]

Re: A 6600 GT on a 300 Watt Powersupply

dont get a vanilla 6600 - minimum you should get is a 6600gt. the new 512mb DDR2 6600 is significantly slower than the 128mb 6600gt, however it can be overclocked to near GT speeds, and has the benefit of 4x the video memory (which helps with large textures).

sparkle makes OK PSUs... thats not the POS i expected. you should be able to run an enthusiast level card with that unless you are going crazy with the peripherals. did you go through the PSU load calculator i linked? that will give you an idea of how many watts you need.

with video cards i dont think its so much the amount of RAM that determines the power consumption but rather the actual GPU itself - some are more power-hungry than others.