(no subject)

[plonq]

My video card has finally stopped complaining about the power levels.  I played around with cable configurations for about 15 minutes last night until I found an arrangement that it liked.  I did a couple of power cycles to make sure that it wouldn't change its mind, but this time it seems to think that it has adequate current to run at full speed.  I cycled the machine again this morning, but once again it was still happy.

Looks like I won't have to return the card after all, but if I ever decide to go with the dual cards in this computer I may have to get a second power supply.  I'm guessing that this card sucks at least 85W  O_o

That's a lot of heat to dissipate - and I had to disable my case fans to get the card working.  That seems kind of self-defeating at some level.  I'll have to keep a close eye on the heat levels.  Things will improve down the road when I switch from IDE to SATA hard drives - which will free up a few power leads.

Comments

[gedrean.livejournal.com]

Honestly, you should not need to disable case fans when running a video card with that big of a PSU. This screams to me "Bad card". Honestly, an nVidia card does not offer enough of a gain in my eyes to warrant a device that takes more power than the CPU

[plonq.livejournal.com]

I probably don't need to leave them disconnected. I did it in the short term just to try and get it working. The amount of power that the case fan(s) suck is negligible, but they added a layer of complication to the wiring that was making things awkward at the time.

I'm going to hook one of them back up again tonight and see what happens. The CPU and Video card don't seem to be tossing a lot of heat, but you could cook an egg in the flow coming out from the power supply (well, it's not quite THAT hot, but it's pretty warm).

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Jeebus! Something wasting 85W all the time in addition to the (big amount of) power the computer already consumes, my wallet would be bleeding thinking of the electricity bills :P

[atara.livejournal.com]

And just think - we have two high-end computers running all the time. :) I don't think my computer sucks quite as much juice, but it's probably close.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

That's one of the reasons why I keep my 'server' behind the generations...
It's on /all/ the time, I don't want it sucking my power that much... of course it does anyway, but less :P

[atara.livejournal.com]

Well - our heat isn't electric, we only have a small air conditioner on in the summer (and only then at night), and electricity is cheaper here in Manitoba than anywhere else I know of (Manitoba exports power to the US and other parts of Canads)... It's actually not that bad. :)

[nrasser.livejournal.com]

heh..you guys have teh dirt-cheap power. We pay around $100/mo for juice and we aren't even running A/C (yet).

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Our electricity didn't used to be that expensive, it's gone up though, I don't know how expensive it is right now... Certainly cheaper than in the US
I think we were exporting power to them too.... or was that just water?

[tamarik.livejournal.com]

I believe the specs for the 6800GT is that it pulls about 65 watts on the +12V rail.

If you can easily swap cards with minimal hassle, I'd go ahead and try a different card of the same make/model. It sounds like you got one that seems to be a bit finicky on power. I'd only do that if this just bugs the bejeezus out of you.

As for case fans, I typically try to hook them up down the power line from the HD's or CD's. They don't really bother too much with them.

[nrasser.livejournal.com]

Pick up a cheap fan controller and run your case fans directly from a power supply cable...you should be able to run them at a slightly reduced voltage setting and not have power issues, while gaining nearly all of the ventilation benefits.