Antec Sonata Case Question

[D4L]

Question about Antec Sonata, it comes with 380W PSU and wanted to know if it will be sufficient for my system. My setup is as below:

2-3 HDs
2 Case Fans
1 BFG GeForce 6800 GT OC
1 CDRW Drive
1 DVD R/RW +/-
1 Floppy Drive
1 Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton)
1 A7N8X Deluxe

The case that I have now with the above setup is here I would appreciate some suggestions as to if I should change the whole case or just change the PSU to an antec or other better quality and reliable PSU. Thanks for you input!

D4L

 

[akira34]

With the 6800 series video card you'll need at least a 480W PSU. To me, that kills the 6800 series video cards. Getting the 6800 means you'll need to spend $100 (more or less) to get a PSU large enough to feed it the two, individual (not feeding anything else) lines from the PSU. The ATI cards have no such restrictions, and even the X800 only needs one power feed.

 

[Cannabis]

Should be ok. And a 6800nu or gt are supposed to work with a 300w psu. I'lll know definitly in week when I get my GT.

 

[akira34]

Where did you read that??? The 6800 (at least the ultra in the article I read) needed at least a QUALITY 400W PSU to work. The lower PSU's used to test with the card (in the article) crashed the system when they were tried out (when using 3d apps). The 380W Antec MIGHT work, but be prepared to replace it with a larger PSU.

 

[D4L]

Originally posted by: akira34
With the 6800 series video card you'll need at least a 480W PSU. To me, that kills the 6800 series video cards. Getting the 6800 means you'll need to spend $100 (more or less) to get a PSU large enough to feed it the two, individual (not feeding anything else) lines from the PSU. The ATI cards have no such restrictions, and even the X800 only needs one power feed.

What do you mean by "...get a PSU large enough to feed it the two, individual (not feeding anything else) lines from the PSU..." as I look at the card it only has 1 molex connector.

 

[akira34]

I've been seeing the reviews for the ultra card... Could be that the non-ultra only has the one connection on it. Check to see what the video card maker is calling for as far as a PSU is concerned. IF they list less than what you're getting then you should be ok. Either way, have enough $$ stockd away to get a larger PSU just in case.

Personally, I won't go with the nVidia cards... I've always had great results with ATI powered cards. Not so with nVidia GPU powered cards. The first nVidia card I tried had bad memory on it. I couldn't get the same model (didn't know they were blowing them out) so I had to go with a newer one that was worse performance wise. I upgraded to the 9800 Pro less than 6 months later and it's been a solid performer ever since.

 

[Mik3y]

cannabis is right akira, the 6800 nu and gt are supposed to work with a 300W quality psu. nvidia had to make it that way or else most people couldnt upgrade their video cards, especially if their computers were bought from dell or sony or even hp.

 

[D4L]

Yea well I was going to go for ATI 9800 Pro or XT but could not resist the deal I got on this card, don't know if you know this or not but BB had price mistake on their website and listed the card for 299.99 pre order, so I went ahead and ordered it and actually got the card. Right now I have a nvidia geforce card 32mb, i think 1st gen geforce card, runs very well on the sys can play almost all of the new games.

 

[Mik3y]

by the way, 380W antec is perfectly plenty for your system.

 

[akira34]

As I mentioned, I've only been seeing the ultra card in articles and such... It's good that they did make ones that didn't have the meter twirling requirements of the ultra. Still, the x800 Pro and XT won't require the same power feed as the ultra does. You could probably run an AGP and PCI video card on a smaller PSU than the 6800 ultra needs.

A pricing fubar at bb (or wb) is a good way to get the card. I'm going to wait until at least early next year before even thinking about getting a new video card. I need to keep my 9800 Pro for at least a full year (more being better) before replacing it.

 

[Operandi]

It will work just fine, howevever this is off topic but you might be better off with a say a 9800pro or similar card and a faster CPU say a 3200+. With your current setup your going to be pretty CPU limited.

 

[D4L]

Why do you say it will be CPU limited? I mean for the most part I will be using it for gaming, internet and othe word processing tasks. I have not OCed my machine but may do that however I am still trying to decide as to if I should go with Sonata or some other case.

 

[nick1985]

your fine

 

[Dman877]

That PSU will be fine. I'm running a HD, P4 2.8, 1 gig ram, 6800GT (OC), 2 case fans, tv tuner, dvd drive, and a bunch of usb stuff off the 300 watt aria psu no problem.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: D4L
Why do you say it will be CPU limited? I mean for the most part I will be using it for gaming, internet and othe word processing tasks. I have not OCed my machine but may do that however I am still trying to decide as to if I should go with Sonata or some other case.

It really depends on how your going to use it, but unless your going to be running 1600x1200 or 8xAA you'll never be able to get the most out of that card. In most games with your CPU a 9800 Pro or XT will be just as fast, so you'd most likely be wasting money.

You could either save the money and pocket the cash or get a faster CPU along with the 9800, which would give you much better performance then a 6800 GT with a XP 2500+. Take a look at this FiringSquad article to see what I'm talking about, note I linked right to the middle of it with UT benchmarks but it's prolly worth reading.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Originally posted by: akira34
Where did you read that??? The 6800 (at least the ultra in the article I read) needed at least a QUALITY 400W PSU to work. The lower PSU's used to test with the card (in the article) crashed the system when they were tried out (when using 3d apps). The 380W Antec MIGHT work, but be prepared to replace it with a larger PSU.

errr, no, not really, if your PSU has a strong 12v rail, you're fine.

 

[D4L]

Anyone with any suggestions to see how my PSU performing now and if its any good or not? Is there a program that will test my PSU??

 

[MrSmithers]

First off, I can tell you that the only difference between the 380 in the Sonata I bought and the TruePower 430 I have is 2 amps on the +12V rail. So unless you were already pushing the 430 really hard, the 380 should be just fine.

As to your second question, a simple way to take a look at things would be to grab motherboard monitor, configure it up (very easy, almost does it itself) and put your CPU under heavy load, run prime95 or something. Keep an eye on the rails and see if they stay stable.

Smithers