X800 power question.

[imation]

my friend is giving me his x800 after christmas when he gets his x1950. My computers motherboard has pci-e slots but the PSU doesnt have the power cord for it. I know they have the adapters and all that. But my question is how much power does this card take? Whats the worst that could happen if its underpowered? My PSU only has like 300 watts. Im planning on soft modding it so i can unlock the extra pipelines. thanks i advance.

[grumperfish]

If it's underpowered (300 watts is on the very low-end, even if it's a quality unit -knowing the brand and model would be helpful here) it will likely reboot or the screen with go black randomly, and general system stability will probably go more or less out the window. I made an x850xt run on a 250W hipro psu once but I had to disconnect pretty much everything but a hard drive, so I don't really recommend it.

If you're not overclocking you might be alright, but if you're going to unlock it and whatnot you may want to look into a beefier unit just to be safe. You didn't mention how many optical and hard drives you'll be running as well as any fans which would be helpful in determining whether you'd have enough power.

Regardless, a solid 450-500W fortron unit would be a good choice that wouldn't be extremely expensive.

[imation]

its a hipro PSU. i have one dvd drive, one sata hard drive, its a hipro PSU, no other fans other than whats on the psu and cpu.

[imation]

ok so whats the worst i can do to the computer by trying this x800?

[-_{MoW}_-Assasi]

Underpower it and it not boot up?

Or if its a crap PSU, i MAY blow up :p (Dont let that happen)
I woulda thought 500w would hav been the standard if you bought that type of system, A64 3500+ etc