that annoying guy who has questions about crysis and his psu...

what's up, everyone.

i just bought a new comp after vacillating over whether i wanted to build my own or buy a hp workstation with 3yrs warranty, and i decided on the latter. specs are:

"HP" x38 mobo
e6850 3ghz cpu
4gb ddr2800
2x250gb hdd (raid 1)
sapphire 3870 w/512 mbgddr4
PSU is 80plus HP 475w

the comp is gonna be at my doorstep prolly by this wednesday and i'm concerned about my psu...i dloaded my product manual and frankly, i don't know how to read voltage specs. it showed a hypothetical system config that was somewhat comparable to mine (6850, 2gb ram, quadro fx 1700, 2x 160gb hdds) but i dont know how much power ram or hds drain nor do i know how much power my 3870 will drain (quadro 1700 doesnt require ext power cable and only drains 42w)

i'd appreciate it if someone told me whether my system would be able to stably support the 3870, for while i plan to eventually upgade my psu and throw in another 3870, i'd rather not fry anything right out of the box (esp after having depleted funds for this guy)

any input would be greatly appreciated

Hmm.....i probably would get a better one, youll most likely be able to squeeze by with no oc'ing. But i would get one before you get another card.

you might be ok.. my cpu at 3600mhz running prime small ffts pulls 400w from the wall at full load, the gpu isnt doing anything at that point really. my cpu at 400x8 running small ffts and running the crysis gpu benchmark also pulls about 411w. thats with my rig in sig. so you should be ok..

I'm sure that if you get a new PSU you will be kissing your 3 year warranty goodbye, and as far as I can tell, that would be the ONLY reason to go to HP for a gaming system. If it's covered, just run it till it dies (and I highly doubt it will, HP knows what they're doing ). If you are adding another card later, call them first to see what they say.

Check if they can tell that you voided their warranty by replacing the PSU first

I'm not sure if an "HP" 475W can handle overclocking.

hmm, i shouldve realized that changing the psu could void the warranty, many thanks for bringing that to my attention.

another hmm; i don't plan on ocing this guy immediately since i have absolutely zero knowledge on that subject, but "squeezing by" is how jacobman described it... so does that mean that it would be okay with stock power, or that its performance would be inhibited by its lackofmore?



i found in the dloaded manual the power consumption to the system most comparable to mine (e6850, 2gbram,2x160gb hds, quadro1700) - 115 VAC - 162.3w 230 VAC - 159.6w, 100 VAC - 163.2w

does anyone know what VAC stands for/means? hope this is somehow relevant to figuring out my pwr needs...

AGPcaveman said:

i found in the dloaded manual the power consumption to the system most comparable to mine (e6850, 2gbram,2x160gb hds, quadro1700) - 115 VAC - 162.3w 230 VAC - 159.6w, 100 VAC - 163.2w

does anyone know what VAC stands for/means? hope this is somehow relevant to figuring out my pwr needs...

Click to expand...

VAC stands for Volts AC, it basically means the voltage you are operating at from the wall. If you are in the US -> 120VAC, EU -> 230VAC.

thanks roofles, knowing that i think I'll be fine, my manual says not to exceed 414w for a certain amt of rails but i've estimated that to be around 360-80w. now to wait for the comp to show up at the door...

Upgrading a GPU and PSU would probably void warrenty unless you send it in or take it to an HP rep to place the equipment in the system. I know some companies are picky to what you can do to there PC's, but out of all of them I think HP is very lienent on what can be done to them. At least in a work enviroment it seems like we switch and upgrade stuff all the time but I know they are still under warrenty.