Radeon 9700 power question

[Hukuis]

I've decided to go with a Radeon 9700 Pro for my newest build, and I
have been wondering if it's necessary to use the y-cable that shipped
with the card, or if I can simply plug in an unused power connector for
a 3.5" floppy? I can save a considerable amount of money buying a card
without the adapter, and as far as I can tell from looking at the ATX
power supply specifications, there is no difference in the voltages
carried between a molex connector and a floppy-type connector.
Thanks in advance,
-Hukuis

 

[Chris Pound]

I've decided to go with a Radeon 9700 Pro for my newest build, and I
have been wondering if it's necessary to use the y-cable that shipped
with the card, or if I can simply plug in an unused power connector for
a 3.5" floppy? I can save a considerable amount of money buying a card
without the adapter, and as far as I can tell from looking at the ATX
power supply specifications, there is no difference in the voltages
carried between a molex connector and a floppy-type connector.
Thanks in advance,
-Hukuis

It has to be a molex connector and not a floppy connector as the pins
are different. It's best to use a non-sharing molex connector straight
off the PSU anyway rather than use the ATI supplied Y adapter.

 

[John Smith]

Hi
I think the 9700 uses a floppy connector,
in that case an unused floppy connector is ok
They switched to the molex connector on the 9800 series

Smiffy

 

[R. J. Salvi]

I've decided to go with a Radeon 9700 Pro for my newest build, and I
have been wondering if it's necessary to use the y-cable that shipped
with the card, or if I can simply plug in an unused power connector for
a 3.5" floppy? I can save a considerable amount of money buying a card
without the adapter, and as far as I can tell from looking at the ATX
power supply specifications, there is no difference in the voltages
carried between a molex connector and a floppy-type connector.
Thanks in advance,
-Hukuis

An unused power connector for a floppy will work fine -- if you have a free
one -- but be sure you have nothing else sharing that particular cable. And
yes, the voltages and pinouts are the same for either floppy or molex
connector (Red = 5V, Yellow = 12V). The 'Y' cable is packed with the card in
case you don't have an available floppy power connector, in which case you
can tee into an available molex connector.

 

[Hukuis]

Okay, the floppy connector works just fine, but now I have another
problem. ATI reccomended a 300W power supply for the 9700, but my
Antec Solution Series 300W PSU is barely putting out enough juice with
my system stripped down to the bare minimum.

In my normal setup I have:
K7S5A Pro (rev 5) Mainboard
Athlon XP 1900+ Processor w/ Antec heatsink and 80mm fan
ATI Radeon 9700 OEM
512MB PNY Optima DDR400
Seagate Barracuda 80GB 7200RPM HDD
Generic CD-ROM
Generic CD-RW
Soundblaster PCI128
D-Link 524l PCI wireless adapter

To make the system boot, I have removed the floppy drive, CD-ROM, and
sound card, and have disabled almost all of the onboard hardware
(Parallell, Serial, AC97 Modem, etc.) in the BIOS, but the 9700 is
still pulling too much juice. I can hear the onboard sound crackling
(something it never did before) and I think that can be attributed to
low power. Can anyone reccomend a solution for this problem? I have
been looking at a Rosewill 500W PSU on NewEgg, but I just don't have
the cash at the moment.
Thanks,
-Hukuis

 

[Killa]

Dude, yeah get more juice for that badboy 300W is the min i think. Maybe a
400 - 450 W

 

[Hukuis]

Would it be better for me to get a high quality name-brand 450 Watt
(e.g. Antec TruePower) or a cheaper 600 Watt supply? There's a 600 at
NewEgg for not too much money, but it's a Powmax, and from what I've
heard they aren't known for their quality.
Thanks for the help,
-Hukuis

 

[Trinity]

Would it be better for me to get a high quality name-brand 450 Watt
(e.g. Antec TruePower) or a cheaper 600 Watt supply? There's a 600 at
NewEgg for not too much money, but it's a Powmax, and from what I've
heard they aren't known for their quality.
Thanks for the help,
-Hukuis

Go for the high quality 450w.

 

[Hukuis]

Would the 450w supply provide the same amount of power as the 600w? Or
is the reason you recommended it because there will be fewer
fluctuations in the voltages?

 

[ofn01]

Would the 450w supply provide the same amount of power as the 600w? Or
is the reason you recommended it because there will be fewer
fluctuations in the voltages?

I am not the biggest expert in this area, but recently was looking into
getting a 9700 Pro or 9800 Pro but opted for a 9600Xt because I didn't
want to upgrade my 300W fortron power supply.

What I did read is that those cheapie 500-600W power supplies basically
give out a lot less than a good quality 450W ones AND their voltages can
be unstable AND when they go they can take a lot with them.

I read that you should make sure that there is stuff like over-voltage
protection etc. etc. Best to do a search on it, but from what I read
they recommend not going with cheap power supplies, no matter what the
wattage.

So in short go for a good quality 450 I think...

 

[ofn01]

I am not the biggest expert in this area, but recently was looking into
getting a 9700 Pro or 9800 Pro but opted for a 9600Xt because I didn't
want to upgrade my 300W fortron power supply.

What I did read is that those cheapie 500-600W power supplies basically
give out a lot less than a good quality 450W ones AND their voltages can
be unstable AND when they go they can take a lot with them.

I read that you should make sure that there is stuff like over-voltage
protection etc. etc. Best to do a search on it, but from what I read
they recommend not going with cheap power supplies, no matter what the
wattage.

So in short go for a good quality 450 I think...

Oh another thing is to check out the amps on each rail.
I see your solution series has low draw on the 12V rail - not sure if
this is what is ultimately impacting the radeon (I don't know which rail
it gets its power off)

http://www.antec.com/specs/sl300s_spe_EU.html

It has only 15A on the 12V rail and I believe these days (more-so on
pentium systems), they recommend at least 18-22A. Also they recommend
good values on the 5 and 3.3v (not sure what the minimum is).

 

[Trinity]

Would the 450w supply provide the same amount of power as the 600w? Or
is the reason you recommended it because there will be fewer
fluctuations in the voltages?

Well, it's the amp rating on each rail that the PSU puts out that is
important and not the total wattage it is capable of so yes it's about
stability of voltages on each rail and not total watts. No home PC
needs 600w - yet. I suggest you do a search on Google on power
supplies and amp ratings instead of wattage. I have two PC's, one uses
an Antec 400w and the other uses a Zalman 400w, both are rock solid
PSU's and I have no stability issues due to low power. One PC is P4
3.0ghz w/ 9800pro and other is P4 2.2ghz w/GF4 Ti4200.

 

[Trinity]

It has only 15A on the 12V rail

Yea, I wouldn't touch a PSU with only 15A on the +12v rail. You get
what you pay for.