Bought a 6800GS 512MB, overheating problems?

[skoda]

Hi,

After musing for a while and consulting these forums, I finally bought a Gainward 6800GS 512MB Golden Sample.

After plugging the rather weighty card in (and unplugging one DVD drive and a hard drive to power it..) I turned on the PC, all fine so far.

I loaded up Half Life 2, managed to get it in 1280x960, high quality everything and 2x antialising, so I was happy with that.

Same sort of results in UT2004 and FarCry. Next I loaded up the Prey demo and it was looking beautiful, up to the point when it crashed (usual 'don't send' or 'send' error)

I didn't think much of this at the time, but later I installed 3d mark 03, 05 and 06. I was running 03, got to the end of the Lair test and my PC restarted

Same thing happend in 05 - did a few tests, restarted itself.

My specs are as follows:

Athlon 2600XP @ 1.9GHz
768 DDR RAM
Gainward 6800GS Golden Sample 512MB AGP
400W PSU with 12v

The main points I'm wondering are:

1. Do I need a more powerful PSU? Is the PC restarting because the graphics card isn't getting enough power?

2. Do I need a system fan in the case the help the air circulate around a bit?

3. Should I get both?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, it'd be nice to not have to worry about crashing and oveheating.

[vikeor]

check the temps of your card.

your PSU should be fine with that card

[skoda]

I checked my temps, just after exiting a game, and they were on green, about mid 40C, so it doens't seem like it's overheating. Bearing in mind that it's only restarted whilst doing 3d mark tests, it didn't crash or restart on UT2004, HL2 or FarCry, but then, I wasn't playing them for long anyway.

[jamesrt2004]

I'm guessing PSU .. you need to find out how many Amps it has on the 12V rail .. it should be on a sticker on the side .. but mine was doing that till I upped my psu then it was hunky dory

[skoda]

Yeah, it seems to point that way. I'm looking at some now >

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...1&v=3#infoarea

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...ationKey=11259

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...ationKey=11259

Also, I remember seeing glitches in the graphics in 3d Mark just before it crashed, would that point towards power problems? Oh, and in Prey, I has getting some motion lines/glitches, looked out of sync.

What do you think of those PSU's?

[jamesrt2004]

TBH low power can do alot of freaky things lol

this would be alot beter

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._Supplies.html
FSP Sparkle FSP400-60 Blue Storm 400W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-004-SK)
(£43.42 Including VAT at 17.5%)

great Psu made by a great company and not expensive
I have the 500w version of that psu and its great and quiet

[skoda]

Yeah, Overclockers are a good place.

Will 400W be enough though, baring in mind I need to power:

DVD-RW
DVD
2 x HDD
6800GS GFX
Floppy Drive
System fan

Thanks for your help so far, that PSU looks pretty sweet.

[jamesrt2004]

100% it will it's mostly not about Watt's anyway its about Amps on the 12v rail as most major things run of it .. and it definately has enough for that but if you want to be very safe and could spare the extra cash u could go for the 500W although the 400W will be fine

[skoda]

Cool, I've remembered something extra.. when XP had finished loading up after restarting, Nview manager comes up with something like:

'The SLI feature on your card has been disabled as you only have one card in your system'

Well, that's the jist of it. I find this strange as surely it is set to one card by default, plus I can't find the option anywhere in the Nview settings or the ExpertTool that comes with gainward boards.

Anyway, i'm looking at buying the following:

CA-004-SK FSP Sparkle FSP400-60 Blue Storm 400W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-004-SK)
£36.95 £36.95

CB-003-AK Akasa "Y" Power Splitter - DAYGLO Blue (CB-003-AK)
£1.95 £1.95

FG-003-AK Akasa AK-170CB-4BLS Crystal 4x Blue LED Fan (FG-003-AK)
£2.95 £2.95

Subtotal £41.85
VAT £7.33
Total £49.18

Looking good?

[jamesrt2004]

Sounds good to me