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Cheapest decent power supply for 7800gs and 1.8ghz AthlonXP?

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Brando

Brando

Member
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Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Hi. I'm trying to upgrade a pc to play games for as little as possible for a young kid who's a friend of the family. He has about $200 (which may as well be $2000 to him since he worked his butt off for it) to make something out of...

AthlonXP 1.8ghz
256mb ddr1-333
ECS AGP 4x mobo
80gb Hard drive
Whatever crap ps came with the system

I found a 7800gs for $120 after MIR and I think I can round up 2x512mb ddr for $40 if I'm lucky (dads spare). That leaves almost nothing for the power supply that he'll almost surely need. Any ideas? Thanks!
 
That 7800gs is going to be horribly bottlenecked by that CPU, I would get this instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127219

Here are a couple that would be good enough for such a system:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371003
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104901
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104031

This is a good one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006

The dad will like that one for lower power bills
 
Thanks for the info. Do AthlonXP's have less performance than Athlon 64's for the same cpu speed? Somehow I thought they were close. Back when I had a 2.2ghz AMD 3500+ skt939 with a 7900gt I got about 8500 in 3dmark05 if I'm remembering correctly. By my skewed logic that makes a 1.8ghz amd about right for a 7800gs. I'll look into it before purchasing for sure. I came across a possible candidate for power supply. What say ye? Fortron 400w $39 free shipping.
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-FS400PN
Heres the same one on newegg so you can see specs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103013
 
The Xp is not as efficient as the A64 in many areas. The XP has limits in how the memory latencies go and other tidbits. Clock for clock, the A64 is the stronger design.

With that 4x AGP and the XP. Your going to bottleneck that card. The 4x AGP not as bad as the slower CPU without the speedy ondie memory controller.

Keep in mind. The 05 is not a dependant on the CPU as 01 was. When your gaming your going to be doing much more random things and need the RAM more often then a benchmark will pull.

On an XP setup. Look for a strong 5v rail and will give at least 28 amps on the 12v. That should power a mid-low setup just fine.
 
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Thats a nice PSU for that system since it has more on the +5V than the ones I had picked and the AXP will be powered from +5V.

I believe the AXPs are about 15% slower per clock than the A64s, my old AXP at 2.1-2.2 was slower across the board than my Opty144 was at 1.8
 
The 462 3200+ was about equal to the 754 2800+ in terms of gaming and the like. Even though the speeds of the 2800+ are slower. That is an easy compare. For the differance between the two sockets.

3200= 400fsb 2.2ghz

2800= 400fsb 1.8Ghz
 
Ok so I'll go with the fortron I found. I think you've also convinced me on the video card. The problem I've come across now is posts stating the 7600gt is far better than the gs for some reason. I found the gt for about $30 more but it says agp8x where as the gs says 8x AND 4x. I guess this is the wrong place to ask a video card question but I already made a thread...Then again the gs is probably still good enough. Decisions. Thanks guys.
 
Long as the card supports the slot, it will go backwards. Sicne some cards will want to feed off the slot, some off the molex. in most cases you should be fine running a 8x card in a 4x slot. I do it with my 6600GT on the 2400+ system I have. My X850XT PE does not even run in it. Talk about bottlenecking a card..

Myself I would use a lower 8 pipe, 256bit card and push for more RAM. :thup:
 
Much appreciated. I'm gonna go with the cheaper 7600gs, the ram, and the 400w fortron. Might even oc the card for the guy. He saw me playing doom3 roe on my pc today and got all googley eyed. He's gonna flip when it's running on his own comp. Thanks again.
 
I would walk him thropugh how to overclock. Not do it for him. :D More benfits in that.

Show a man how to fish come to mind.

Make sure that gs does not want to feed off a 450 watter. I think 400 is fine though. Also if you can find one. Look for a 256bit memory card, not to be mistaken with 256megs of memory.
 
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The 7600gs will be fine on a 400 or even a 3-350 watter, the PCI-E version doesn't even require an external plug (PCIE delivers 75W through slot as opposed to AGP which delivers 65).
 
You lost me on the 256 bit memory card thing. Do you mean 256 bit memory interface? Thats the only spec that sounds similar in the card description and all the 7600's I can find say 128 bit memory interface.
 
Yes, I do mean the 256bit memory interface.

Having that will give an advantage in how the card operates. Since your CPU/system bus limited. You might as well give the card itself an advantage. Though, usually 128 is the lower end for video cards. They do make 64bit, but I would of mentioned poor choice in cards already. Having the faster (video) memory interface will benefit in a few ways. I just wanted to make you aware that 256bit might give a slight boost in the actual card performance.

The 128bit is fine, but if you happen across a 256bit card that suites the build...
 
I went ahead and suggested the 7600gt instead of the gs. Everything I've read says it's much better for not too much more (ddr3 instead of ddr2) and he's still more or less within budget. He's gonna be stoked.
 
funnyperson1 said:
Thats a nice PSU for that system since it has more on the +5V than the ones I had picked and the AXP will be powered from +5V.

I believe the AXPs are about 15% slower per clock than the A64s, my old AXP at 2.1-2.2 was slower across the board than my Opty144 was at 1.8
Click to expand...

I think you're right, about 10-15% slower, at least that's about the difference in folding.

I also give a thumbs up for the power supply you've chosen. I'm running Fortons in all of my custom-built systems and I love them!
 
I moved from an AXP 2600+ @ 2083MHz to an A64 3200+ @ 2000MHz

Boy it made a difference :p
 
I don't think the motherboard has the 4 pin 12v. It's an ECS K7VTA3
Seems like it's close on the 3.3v and 5v to the FSP400-60PN you suggested though. The one I found shows 30a on 3.3v and 28a on 5v. The FSP400-60PN is 28a on 3.3v and 30a on 5v. Seems close enough (I hope).
 
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You have to go by the combined 3.3v/5v rating for an older system like that, not the specs on the two rails alone... try to shoot for over 200W for that AXP rig.

The ATX-400PN has all the power on the 12v rails, and barely any on the combined 3.3v/5v - it will be crossloaded on an older rig, which will shorten its lifespan.
 
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