hero4682 Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 hello, i just bought a new video card but it requires 450 watt power supply while i only have a 420... will i be able to rock this card at 420 watts? and another thing, behind the power supply theres a switch set at 115v which can be changed to 250v (i think it was 250v, but around there)... should i change some of those numbers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soloman02 Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 No, Do NOT change the 115/220 switch from 115 to 220 if you live in the US. You will destroy your power supply and most likely all your components. Many people think that watts of a PSU is the end all spec by which you measure requirements by. While it is a vital spec to be concerned about it is not the only one, nor the most important. The Amperage rating on the PSU is very important as it determines how many devices you can have connected. The 3.3V and 5V rails have so many amps you no longer need to pay close attention to them on new PSU's because they usually have over 30 amps for each. The 12V rail is used by most devices you alld to your PC such as Hard drives, cd Drives, Fans, the Motherboard, and the Video card. my PSU has one 12V rail with 18 amps and with all the stuff I have below, I have had no problems. That said, I am most likely pushing my PSU close to its limit. Oh and I belives my 7900gs required a 450 watt PSU as well. Like I said before, it is not the Wattage that matter it is the Amperes on the 12V rail as well. If you have a PSU with more than one rail, you will most likely be fine. I have a 420Watt PSU running this: AMD athlon XP 3700+ @ stock2GB PC3200EVGA nvidia geforce 7900GS @ stock2 80GB hard drives2 DVD-RW drives420 watt Thermal Take PSUOnboard LANOnboard SoundWindows XP pro 32bit2 120mm fans, 2 80mm fans, and a HDD cooler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impmallet Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 hello, i just bought a new video card but it requires 450 watt power supply while i only have a 420... will i be able to rock this card at 420 watts? and another thing, behind the power supply theres a switch set at 115v which can be changed to 250v (i think it was 250v, but around there)... should i change some of those numbers? What was your new video card? Also, if you could supply the model number on your current PSU. As long as your have the proper amount of amperage(love that word) going through your rails and aren't hosting a mass of optical drives and hard drives, you should be fine. Let me state this again though, MAKING SURE THE 12V RAIL(s) HAVE THE REQUIRED AMPERAGE IS PARAMOUNT. So, once I have know which graphics card and PSU you have, I can look up the technical specs and give you a more precise answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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