The Palit 7300GT Sonic

[Xylaquin]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

Got more than I bargained for guys! £275 which covers everything including buying the game itself (infact i'll have 34p after everything is bought). Here's the system:

300W PSU with 18A on 12v (4pin) rail
Asus P5VD2-MX microATX (úATX) Motherboard
Pentium 4 516 @ 2.93GHz
2gigs of Corsair Value Select DDR2 PC4200 (533)
Palit 7600GT Sonic (1500MHz GDDR2/575MHz GPU/12 px pipes)
on a 15inch 1024x768 TFT Monitor

I appreciate your guys help, thanks very much! I'll be sure to update all the necissary drivers. One question @ alex98uk, what psu do you have?

[megawhompertoo]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

nice. 300W looks a little underpowered, but with 18A on the +12v you shouldn't have any problems, as long as you're getting enough juice to the +5v rail to keep the memory stable.

good luck.

[=98=]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

yea 300W is a little underpowered...

I have a Hiper Type-R 580W PSU:

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-HP

Not only is she powerful and good looking, but the packaging it comes in is by far the best i have ever seen. They send it to you in a toolbox kinda thing which can be reused. I use mine to hold all my spare parts in. Very good thinking from them.

[Xylaquin]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

Lol, just got another £20 in the mail, so if i need a PSU i'll use that. My current psu has 25A max on the +5V rail- Is that enough?

http://www.power-on.com/atx12vg300bt.html

Look at the table near the bottom.

[=98=]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

I would be very careful running high end parts with a generic PSU. They often arent very stable and do not give out their stated power. So a 300PSU like yours might only create 250W in reality. Plus power surges can be common and could fry your CPU which is the last thing you want.

If i were you i would buy a new PSU, its better to spend a lot now and not have to upgrade for a year or two than to be constantly upgrading.

EDIT: I meant Hiper Type-R 580W not GT-R (Too much like car names!) with 580W being the continuous output and 630W being the peak.

Mine has 2 12 Volt rails but i don't know what the max Amps on each is. It doesn't really matter though. With a quality PSU, you are bound to have good stable output.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

probably fine with 300W. an upgrade wouldn't hurt, but I wouldn't go out and buy a cheap 500W, nor would I feel the need to buy a high-end 400-450W to run the components you have.

i have an Antec 380W (also 18A on the +12V rail) driving my p4 3.0E, 2x512mb, 3x120mm case fans, x800xt AIW, soublaster audigy 2 zs, 2x7200rpm eide hd's, and 2xeide opticals.

my feeling is that people tend to go a little overboard on power. hence why it's called "power", and not "brussel sprouts", i guess. if you were running a x1950xt or a 7950gt, you'd need 400-500W. 7600gt's draw considerably less power.

[Xylaquin]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

How about this 350W psu:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=256343

or this 400W:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-SK

Do you know of any programs that will tell me if my psu is only giving 250W? I'm a nub when it comes to PSUs, and I have £20 to buy one if i need another.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

How about this 350W psu:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=256343

Do you know of any programs that will tell me if my psu is only giving 250W? I'm a nub when it comes to PSUs, and I have £20 to buy one if i need another.

Watts are a measure of power, and if your PSU is rated for 300W, it is probably dissipating 300W. Very cheap psu's have less efficiency, run hotter, are noisier, and less reliable but if it says 300W, it is most likely delivering 300W. For your purpose, the amperes (amps) which measure electric current are more important, and 18A should be plenty as long as the voltges are stable. You can download and install speedfan to monitor your voltages; a good rule of thumb is that they should be within 5% of the rated voltages.

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

Speedfan is also handy to deliver information on your temps, the speed your fans are turning (if they are plugged into your mobo), and detailed system information.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

edit: here is a shot of what you should be looking at

oh, and yes: you can find out exactly how many watts your PSU is supplying at any one time by multiplying your voltsxamps, in fact VA and W are interchangeable with regard to consumer electronics. this only applies to small loads though, so if you become an electrical engineer, don't use this formula to decide how much juice granny nelly should get from the electrical company in the winter, or you might have to thaw her out to plant the old gal.

[Xylaquin]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

Oh yeah I've already got a program that does that, currently on idle I get these stats:


EDIT: If it's any use at all, I used this and got 270.

[=98=]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

So what are the final specs you decided to go for?

[Xylaquin]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

300W PSU* with 18A on 12v (4pin) rail
Asus P5VD2-MX microATX (úATX) Motherboard
Pentium 4 516 @ 2.93GHz
2gigs of Corsair Value Select DDR2 PC4200 (533)
Palit 7600GT Sonic (1500MHz GDDR2/575MHz GPU/12 px pipes)
on a 15inch 1024x768 TFT Monitor

*-Might have to change this, but lets hope it's good.

[Xylaquin]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

Well after half a day getting things sorted it looks all good. The only problems I really have are "System On" LED which on the chassis is a 2pin but on the mobo is a 3, the chassis fan is a 4 pin and the mobo has a 3 (resulting in the fan spinning at full speed constantly), and the saturation when watching some videos is a bit :-/

But overall I'm glad I made it, although I did have to reinstall windows and everything else. The PSU issue looks alright, it hasn't crashed on me yet and the voltages seem fine (although the probe tool doesn't list the -12 voltage).


Using advice from tweak guides I have my settings at Med/High except dynamic shadows and effects which arre at low, no AA and full veiw distance. I get about 40FPS with this, the lowest dropping to 20, highest 60ish. Maybe the PSU is holding it back, but it's all good for me at the moment. Thanks for all your help guys!

[dstewart1982]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

I can confirm that you might, just, be able to play BF2 on low graphics. Seriously... 7300gt is pretty aweful

GO FLAMES GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[megawhompertoo]

Re: The Palit 7300GT Sonic

Maybe the PSU is holding it back, but it's all good for me at the moment. Thanks for all your help guys!

Nah. If the voltages are staying consistent under load, and you aren't experiencing any crashes/blocky textures/rendering errors, then the PSU is working fine. If it gets too hot (or if it gets so dirty that air flow is impaired) this could change, if it is being pushed near its limits.

'luck.