Power supply

[talinthas]

Heya folks. I just got a new GeForce 6600 gt oc video card, and boy is that thing a power hog! after plugging it in, my computer takes 339 watts just to turn on, and since my current power supply is 350 watts, you can see where that would be a problem. So now i'm in the market for a newer better thing, but i havent the slightest idea of how big i should go, or what brand to look for or anything.

anyone have advice?

 

[Allanon]

OCZ, Tagan, Antec and Zalman all produce high-quality power supplies with rock solid outputs. The wattage depends on if you plan on going SLI with that GEforce 6600 gt. I'd recommend a solid 400 to 450 for that single GF card combined with a heavy processor, 1/2 harddrives, DVD burner and a normal soundcard. But if you go SLI I'd go for a 500+ watt to be on the safer side.

EDIT: Mmm, Tagan seems to have gotten some bad press from Tomshardware site with regards to faulty power supplies. Still from my experience (I have build 7 PC in the last 4 months) they're a good 'budget' offering.

 

[talinthas]

thanks. i went and bought an antec 500w smart power (or maybe true power, i can't remember- its in the car still). I run two HDDs, two optical drives, and an audigy 1.

what does SLI mean?

 

[solkan_uk]

SLI is a method of putting two identical graphics cards together to get more power. Sort of like the old Voodoo cards used to do.
I beleive it is a ATI method and NVIDIA are releasing their own equivilent later, but I might have that reversed... (I work in Software hardware is kind of peripheral to me - get it, ok bad joke).

 

[KenM]

Nvidia has SLI right now. ATI is working on it.

 

[talinthas]

ah. yeah, i'm not nearly that hardcore. Hell, if not for the pity of the editor in chief of computer gaming world, i wouldnt even have this geforce =)