Time for a new psu? Insufficienct power for 7900 gt!

ztrain727

New Member
Hi,

I just installed a evga nvidia 7900 gt co and it ran fine for a while. Then the system crashed to the dreaded blue screen and upon rebooting I got an error message saying the card was not receiving sufficient power.
This is the error message: http://error.squares.net/archives/2007.01.21_01.png

On this forum and other sites, it says the 7900 gt requires a minimum 350w psu and I believe in my old Dell Dimension 4700, the psu is 305w, but there is no info written on the psu so I don't know for sure. The computer is old (I think from 2004) but I've been upgrading. My PSU is stock however.

I'm basically rebuilding my computer, starting with a new mobo. I just got an intel core 2 duo 2.2ghz and I'll probably get a new SATA HDD (500gb) in addition to my ancient 40gb and external 250gb. I also have a cd and dvd burner installed and two PCI cards.

So, what kind of PSU would I need to sufficiently power all these components.
I'm not OC'ing at the moment, but I may in the future. I'm on a low budget as I'm buying a lot of new things, so I'm looking in the $50 or under price range ideally.

Any recommended PSU's or possibly other upgrades?
Thanks!
 
Thanks a lot guys!
Ramodkk, thanks for the suggestion but that's a little pricey. Do you think that much power is necessary for a 7900 gt? I feel like 400w, 20+A or so should do? Am I wrong?

PabloTek, thanks for the list. My case is stock so it's not well ventilated, ruling out the Rosewill RP500's. The corsair is now $65 with the rebate. Would the Ultra XVS 500w be enough? It seems pretty solid...

Also, I need a PSU that supports this mother board: CLICK
I'm not sure how to figue this out, but the XVS said it supports AMD and Intel Motherboards, but does it support others too?

I'm clearly clueless, so additional help is appreciated... THANKS!
 
Never trust Dell's power suppiles. I would say this is a good choice to power up a 7900GT:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182017
When it was only $5 more than the 500W version, I'm inclined to agree, but that price difference has now ballooned out to $22, which in my opinion is too much to pay for an extra 50W on the same platform. The RP500-2 is a good option: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817182016, and even the Ultra XVS 500W will provide sufficient power given your budget.

If you can spend the extra money, I'd go for the Corsair VX450, though.
 
Looks like we crossposted. Take another look at my list of recommendations, I've just finished updating it. In particular, if you don't mind mail in rebates, the Antec NeoHE 380W is a very good option.
 
Thanks a lot for the advice ceewi1!

I truly am on a budget because I was planning on just installing a few new parts in my PC and now I've found out I'll need a new case, new mobo, new heatsink for my cpu, a new PSU and probably a new HDD soon.

Anyway, I'm always up for a nice MIR, and that makes the Antec NeoHE REALLY cheap, which is nice. On the other hand, the reviews on New Egg look pretty nasty. You can't always trust those reviews and problems would be expected at that price range, but I'm a little weary. I'm just looking for some confirmation that this PSU won't fail in a week or lack the necessary power needed for my system.

Again, thanks a lot. I'll check that list right away!
 
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