[Jalida]

Hi,
I've installed a second Nvidia 8800GTS video card and at the moment Im using the adapter that allows me to plug the 8800 into two molex plugs to supply it power.

My PSU is a Raidmax Volcano 630w unit but I've long since lost the instruction sheet and possibly one or more of the cables.

The original PCIe cable out of the PSU has two plugs on the end of it, I would naturally assume this is for SLI (because I know that this PSU stated somewhere that it is SLI ready), but don't want to use the one PCIe plug for powering two video cards unless this is how they all work.

I can't see the back of the unit without pulling it out which would be a major chore due to all the cables being ziptied nice and neat everywhere, so is it normal that one PCIe power cable supplies two video cards? Or would you guess that there must be another PCIe plug on the back of the unit and I've probably just lost the other PCIe cable?

Thanks,

[Roisen]

Your PSU.

That's really all I can do for you.

[thideras]

Originally Posted by Jalida

Hi,
I've installed a second Nvidia 8800GTS video card and at the moment Im using the adapter that allows me to plug the 8800 into two molex plugs to supply it power.

My PSU is a Raidmax Volcano 630w unit but I've long since lost the instruction sheet and possibly one or more of the cables.

The original PCIe cable out of the PSU has two plugs on the end of it, I would naturally assume this is for SLI (because I know that this PSU stated somewhere that it is SLI ready), but don't want to use the one PCIe plug for powering two video cards unless this is how they all work.

I can't see the back of the unit without pulling it out which would be a major chore due to all the cables being ziptied nice and neat everywhere, so is it normal that one PCIe power cable supplies two video cards? Or would you guess that there must be another PCIe plug on the back of the unit and I've probably just lost the other PCIe cable?

Thanks,

I don't quite understand the confusion here. The power supply has PCIE connectors, use em

I see what you mean with the connectors, I don't that is used for SLi, I think it is used on video cards such as the 8800GTX where it needs two of the PCIE power connectors.

IMO just use that connector as it probably has a seperate rail for the video card.

[ViperJohn]

Originally Posted by thideras

I don't quite understand the confusion here. The power supply has PCIE connectors, use em

I see what you mean with the connectors, I don't that is used for SLi, I think it is used on video cards such as the 8800GTX where it needs two of the PCIE power connectors.

IMO just use that connector as it probably has a seperate rail for the video card.

It doesn't. It is a plain Jane split rail 12V1 @ 18 amps / 12V2 A 16 amps power supply. If the power
supply is fully ATX 2.0/2.1 compliant then the only thing 12V2 powers is the 4/8 pin motherboard aux
connector which feeds core 2 of a dual core CPU and core 2, 3 and 4 of a Quad core. Everything else
12V comes off 12V1.

Viper

[thideras]

Originally Posted by ViperJohn

It doesn't. It is a plain Jane split rail 12V1 @ 18 amps / 12V2 A 16 amps power supply. If the power
supply is fully ATX 2.0/2.1 compliant then the only thing 12V2 powers is the 4/8 pin motherboard aux
connector which feeds core 2 of a dual core CPU and core 2, 3 and 4 of a Quad core. Everything else
12V comes off 12V1.

Viper

Good to know, thanks!

[Jalida]

Thanks for the information. The problem is that the volcano can't supply enough power for the two Nvidia 8800GTS cards. The PSU only has one PCI-e plug on it, and if I plug both 8800's into that one cable, the PSU will turn off the computer when playing 3D heavy games. A temporary work around is to plug one of the video cards into one of the peripherial plugs so that they aren't both on the one PCI-e cable. As I understand it, the 8800GTS's would like to have 26-28A each and this PSU only supplies 18A on each 12V. So it's not adequate (I've since found out) to supply the recommended 52A of power.

Im heading out next week to get a better PSU so that I can have my video cards get full power.

[smokie mcpott]

the amps 'required' by the 8800's is not 26-28 a piece.. thats 26a for the whole system... about 14a? per card. you dont need 52a necessarily but you do need a better PSU