I was working on upgrading a computer here and after buying RAM, a video card and a power supply for it, I gave up on it. It was an old Dell with proprietary connectors on the motherboard harder to match than finding Bigfoot. And more importantly, I finally realized it is just not a good enough motherboard to bother with. So I am giving that to my friend who is running win98 se on about a 150MHz processor with about 64Mb RAM, circa 1998 machine. She rarely uses it because she can do her serious internet tasks at work. But that old Dell with XP and a 920MHz processor and the 512Mb RAM I put into it will be a vast improvement for her.
But that leaves me with the video card and the power supply I bought for it and I really am hoping to put these in the refurbished computer that I just got for myself.
MOST OF ALL;
I need to find out if the power supply I got will work with the motherboard in this computer.
System information tells me this about the processor/computer:
AMD Athlon (tm) XP 1800, 1.49 GHz, 384Mb RAM.
The power supply that I have and would like to install can be viewed at
www.highpowersupply.com.
It is a 400Watt peak output supply;
Model SI-A400M2
At their website
http://www.highpowersupply.com/product-ps-sia400M2.html
alongside this power supply
it says: "Recommended for AthlonTM XP systems."
I did not buy it from them, I bought it new, unused, at eBAY for $24. But at the time I bought it, I was intending it for a different computer than the one I now hope to use it in.
Some of the voltages this supply provides are given at the web site (and they are listed on a sticker on the supply itself as well):
Output
Volt Load MAX Regulation Ripple
1. +5V 25.0A +5% ~ -5% 80 mV
2. +12V1 10.0A +5% ~ -5% 120 mV
3. +12V2 15.0A +5% ~ -5% 120 mV
3. -12V 0.5A +10% ~ -10% 150 mV
4. +5VSB 2.0A +5% ~ -5% 80 mV
5. +3.3V 17.0A +5% ~ -5% 80 mV
But I don't know what voltages this motherboard requires. I don't know the outputs of the power supply that is currently in here. Maybe it is already 300Watts, I don't know.
Next, the video card:
I bought that power supply to provide
the power needed by this video card:
Sapphire X1650PRO (VPU)
Ati Radeon graphics
512 Mb DDR2 memory
AGP 8x (AGP version)
The system requirements on the box
say "AMD AThlon 64/K7/Athlon XP with AGP 8X (0.8V), 4X(1.5V), or universal AGP bus configuration
(8X/4X)
I saw an AGP slot in the motherboard
when the technician opened the case for me when I was buying it. So that looks promising.
And whatever it means, Device manager lists a
"SIS processor to AGP controller."
I don't know much about motherboards and have not even tried to search about this one online. I might not understand what I find even if I find it.
The person on eBAY that sold this video card (new, unused) said it was recommended to have 350 Watts for this. But I see NOTHING on the box that indicates the need for that much power. Not even in the installation instructions. Surely they should mention that requirement if the card really needs that much power.
Here is another question:
If the power supply I bought is not compatible with this motherboard, would there be any risk
of running that video card without a 400W power supply? I DO NOT RUN PROGRAMS THAT put high demand on Graphics cards. The only "games" I run are old commanche 4 (and other) circa 2001 helicopter simulations. They do require SOME game type graphics calculations, but these things ran on computers in the year 2000, so we know they can't demand TOO much from the graphics card.
Summarizing my questions:
1. Is this power supply compatible with the motherboard in this computer?
(and what other information must I provide
so you can determine that?)
2. Is there any risk if I run the video card without putting in the 400W power supply - as long as I am not running graphics-intense modern games?
Thank You!