Video Card Compatible with PSU?

Arcnarenth · 08-01-2008, 12:07 PM

Hey there. I'm probably not as tech savy as I should be so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. It's been a long while since I last cracked open a PC for an upgrade and things seem to have changed quite a bit...

I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 530 (That might be my first mistake

) along with an eVGA e-GeForce 8800 GS 384MB DDR3 card. The card came with a connector that attached to the card and has 2 white male 4 pin IDE plugs at the opposite end in a Y configuration.

Inside the computer though, the cables connecting the DVD Drive and HDD had entirely different connection plugs on the end. There are still 4 cables feeding into the plug, but it has a thin black 'card like' end instead of the white 4 pin IDE type. I'm going to assume this is an SATA cable/plug. Am I right here?

So, in short I have a video card that won't connect to my PSU. Attempting to power up the computer without having the card powered results in a loud and shrill sustained beep from the computer.

After a bit of searching, I found an adaptor between a 15 pin SATA Male and a 4 pin IDE female, but this part seems to be intended for an IDE HDD. Is this what I'm looking for or did I goof and get a card that is incompatible with my system?

**manic** · 08-01-2008, 01:12 PM

Thats just a standard molex connector. The same power connector
thats plugged into a ide, hdd or a ide cdrom drive. Just get a splitter
and come off of your ide power connector. Its not a big deal. If you
have a case fan, and its running you can split off of it. Many different
ways of configuring....Just hope your psu is strong enough to power
the card, that should be the main concern.

08-01-2008, 12:07 PM	#1 (permalink)
Arcnarenth Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 1 OS: Windows Vista	Video Card Compatible with PSU? Hey there. I'm probably not as tech savy as I should be so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. It's been a long while since I last cracked open a PC for an upgrade and things seem to have changed quite a bit... I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 530 (That might be my first mistake ) along with an eVGA e-GeForce 8800 GS 384MB DDR3 card. The card came with a connector that attached to the card and has 2 white male 4 pin IDE plugs at the opposite end in a Y configuration. Inside the computer though, the cables connecting the DVD Drive and HDD had entirely different connection plugs on the end. There are still 4 cables feeding into the plug, but it has a thin black 'card like' end instead of the white 4 pin IDE type. I'm going to assume this is an SATA cable/plug. Am I right here? So, in short I have a video card that won't connect to my PSU. Attempting to power up the computer without having the card powered results in a loud and shrill sustained beep from the computer. After a bit of searching, I found an adaptor between a 15 pin SATA Male and a 4 pin IDE female, but this part seems to be intended for an IDE HDD. Is this what I'm looking for or did I goof and get a card that is incompatible with my system?

08-01-2008, 01:12 PM	#2 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 5,257 OS: xp	Re: Video Card Compatible with PSU? Thats just a standard molex connector. The same power connector thats plugged into a ide, hdd or a ide cdrom drive. Just get a splitter and come off of your ide power connector. Its not a big deal. If you have a case fan, and its running you can split off of it. Many different ways of configuring....Just hope your psu is strong enough to power the card, that should be the main concern. __________________