Video card power requirement

[snct]

I'm putting together a SFF Shuttle XPC system, starting with the bare bones box, with a 240W PSU. I placed an internet order for a Nvidia FX5200 video card with 256MB of RAM. Upon arrival, I opened the packaging and saw on the front of the box that the card requires a 250W power supply .

My question is: How inportant is this? Will my system be overloaded from the power draw of the vid card, or what? Ten watts difference... I read an online review of my Shuttle system, and they used a ATI Radeon 9800Pro (256MB DDR) for their test. Wouldn't a high-powered card like that have the same requirement? Any useful comments are appreciated, TIA.

[jro]

It depends really on what else you are putting in there. HD's suck up alot of juice but if you are just putting one big one in there along with the Radeon, then you should be ok. Provided you can't stack up the system with PCI cards you should have some extra juice. It is baseline but I think you will probably be ok. Then again, if you start getting weird reboots, you can most likely look to the power supply as the problem.

[snct]

This is what I have slated for the system so far:

*Maxtor 250GB HD (7200rpm), 8MB cache

*Nvidia GForce FX5200

*Plextor DVD+/-RW drive

*Un-named video capture card (for the one available PCI slot), or USB

*1-512MB DDR 400 RAM (for one of two memory slots)

The system's got onboard sound and networking, which I would think takes less power than a bonified PCI card does (?). I'll look at Shuttle's site to see if they offer replacement PSUs. Possibly an upgrade could be an option; else I'd have to get a video card that doesn't have the high power requirement.

[Fatal Error]

Every thing that takes power should have a lable that says what it draws (watts/amps) just add them up! You will have lots of wiggle room.
How often do you expect to use everything at the same time?

[snct]

Every thing that takes power should have a lable that says what it draws (watts/amps) just add them up! You will have lots of wiggle room.
How often do you expect to use everything at the same time?

Point well taken :mrgreen: . I'll give it a go, and just sell the vid card if it gives me problems.

Every thing that takes power should have a lable that says what it draws (watts/amps) just add them up! You will have lots of wiggle room.
How often do you expect to use everything at the same time?

You also have to be able to plug in the coffee maker and the defibulator

[Fatal Error]

USB coffee maker? Mark you have made me a happy man. Will you be selling them or should I look on "Think Geek"?

[snct]

USB coffee maker? Mark you have made me a happy man. Will you be selling them or should I look on "Think Geek"?

Everything having to do with caffeine can be found on Think Geek... Everything!!! :mrgreen:

<Steve goes to play with his Smart Mass>

Thanks for the responses guys. The DVD drive came in today, but Tiger Direct is still dicking around with my RAM. DON'T buy from Tiger Direct, if at all possible. Even if it's through Amazon... The good prices aren't worth the anxiety of wondering whether you'll actually GET your parts or not :roll: .

USB coffee maker? Mark you have made me a happy man. Will you be selling them or should I look on "Think Geek"?

Unfortunately, the only thing I can find is a USB Coffee Cup Warmer.

However, I found a link to a guy who sells a USB board that you could incorporate in to a coffee maker..... not to power it, just to turn it on and make coffee.

[maccorin]

i made a 350 PS blow up with about the same as what your talking about... + an extra vid card

so... i would look into getting a 400W PS if i were you.