slidedexter

hello guys
my system is
p4 2.4ghz 6600
2gb kingsdon
mainboard asus commando
video xfx 8800gt
3 hard drives
400w fortron psu fsp400

windows xp

my problem is:
i just bought my xfx 8800gt 512mb alpha dog edition
and i installed it expecting to see the scores i saw in the reviews about framerates of the latest games
but i ended up with half of it

my 3dmark06 is showing 5182 marks
crysis goes like 10 frames per second in hig settings and all else

then i unpluged 2 of the harddrives and the score was 7500 wich was weird but its still not the 11500 that sould be for this card
the cpu score from the 3dmark06 was around 600 tough

then i realised that when i start my pc they star fine but then it starts jamming so i installed a pcprobe and realised my cpu temp goes yo 80 degrees and my cpu fan is staying at 900rpm no matter what i try to do qfan no qfan everything

so the question is is it from the power supply or from the cpu i dont want to spend any money on something and then realise its not from it
thank you all

koala

Hi, welcome to TSF

You should have a good quality 650W PSU to run an 8800GT, especially with more than 2 hard drives.

Your Fortron 400W only has 15 amps on the +12V line, which powers the graphics card. PCI-e cards need about 30A. Can you borrow one to test?

Run SpeedFan at startup with no other programs running and note the temperatures and PSU voltages, then again while 3DMark is running. Post back with both sets of figures.

slidedexter

thank you so much for the quick reply
i think ill buy the psu anyway and then ill test it
the question is is it possible to get slower framerate because of it or not
thanks

koala

A weak PSU will cause overheating of some components like CPU, graphics card and RAM which can lead to low framerates and artifacts in games. Having only 15A on +12V is almost certainly the cause of your problem. When you removed the extra hard drives this increased the power going to the graphics card and the 3DMark score improved slightly.

Do you need any advice on which PSU models to look for?

slidedexter

yes please that would be great i want to get one that can handle up to 4 harddrives and a SLI 8800gt in the future
thank you

koala

Enter your full system specs into this power calculator, including all drives, fans, USB devices, etc and the extra SLI card. Set the 'Capacitor Aging' box to 25%. Click the Calculate button, then add 30% to the total to allow for PSU inefficiency and post back with this figure.

Each new component you add or upgrade increases your system's power requirements, so you will probably need a 750W if you plan on upgrading any more. It will be about $140 for a 750W, less for a 650W if you decide not to go SLI. We can give you a better idea of which PSU to go for when you post back. What's your price limit?

How many case fans do you have and how are they positioned? There should be at least 2. One at the front pulling cool air in and one at the top rear blowing warm air out, with a clear path from front to back to allow the cool air to pass over the motherboard.

slidedexter

well i have o ussue about the price so ill just go for the best my probelm is i have only 1 fan on the cpu and thats it so i checked the speed fan and its showing terrible results like 70c on cpu 57 on hdds 55 on ram so i think ill get the asus vento case for better airflow

koala

Make sure the case can take 120mm fans. They are quieter and more efficient than the standard 80mm ones.

What card did you upgrade from? Did you uninstall the old graphics driver before updating to the latest one?

OK, I'm logging off soon, but I'm sure the others will chip in with some PSU suggestions

slidedexter

i upgraded from nvidia 6600 ddr128 and i uninstalled it

1 g0t 0wn3d

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817703009