need help, will my psu damage my gpu?

[Alex10110]

Help!! So I bought a pre built gaming computer back in 2015 and I'm looking to start slowly upgrading it. I have the opportunity to get the zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Amp edition at a steal. And I'm wondering if it's compatible at all with my PC. The first thing I noticed was that on my 650W psu there is only one 6 pin pci cable, and one 4pin pci cable. But the card requires 2-8pin pci cables. Should I upgrade my psu or will I be able to manage with buying the adapters? Pardon my ignorance, I'm not all computer savvy just yet. Here are my specs. I might've missed some important ones.

System: AMD FX-6300 3.50GHz Hexa-Core | AMD 970 Chipset | 16GB DDR3 | 1TB/8GB SSHD

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX960 2GB | 24X DVD±RW Dual-Layer Drive

Expansion Bays/Slots Total(Free): 3(1) Ext 5.25in|1(1) Ext 3.5in|5(4) Int 3.5/2.5in|1(1) Hot-Swap Dock | 2(2) PCI|3(2) PCI-Ex1|2(1) PCI-Ex16|4(2) DDR3

Chassis: Inwin BUC 101 Mid-Tower Case

Power Supply: LSP ultra 650w ATX power supply

The name of the pre built computer was the CybertronPC SOKOM-I Gaming Desktop

 

[Pick2]

My first rule is Never Ever upgrade a pre built Box ... Except maybe up the memory a little ... or the hard drive , but that's it.

http://www.portvapes.co.uk/?id=Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps&exid=threads/ultra-lsp650-650w-power-supply-good.2247863/

 

[Alex10110]

My first rule is Never Ever upgrade a pre built Box ... Except maybe up the memory a little ... or the hard drive , but that's it.

http://www.portvapes.co.uk/?id=Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps&exid=threads/ultra-lsp650-650w-power-supply-good.2247863/

So even if I changed out the psu and got a new case you still wouldn't recommend it?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I agree with Alex on his First Rule of Thumb, for a couple reasons, and then some. To tell the truth, the only OEM boxes I've paid for were purchased at latest by 1995, except for a 2007 Gateway E-475M laptop I bought used, upgraded and DIY refurbed in 2014.

But before applying any hard and fast rules, you should be able to trace available information to decide which motherboard CybertronPC used in that model you purchased. For instance, a Gateway Pentium 5 system I acquired in 1995 had an Intel board code-named the "Zappa" board. Once you have that information, you can look at any reviews or additional indications about the board's performance, but if it's a good mainstream board, and you don't think to overclock it TOO seriously if indeed the BIOS allows for that, you might just settle for that enchilada.

Otherwise, you can upgrade the RAM and the storage. You could actually get a more powerful PSU. I haven't ever bought one of the "Boutique" advertised systems from IBuyPower, CyberPower, Alienware -- to name a few and there are others. You could drop $4K on some of those systems. I'd have to do some personal cost-accounting to verify, but I could spend that much on my own parts, and I've never bothered to bench mine against theirs. I'm proud of my experiments and configuration successes and innovations if you could call them that.

Depending on the specification constraints determined by CybertronPC, it also seemed like a Rule of Thumb that a bigger PSU would be a first step -- if we're talking about standard ATX or similar that would fit the case. That would assure that any other peripheral storage, RAM upgrade, I/O devices like USB3 and front-panel multi-functions would not put the existing PSU on the brink.

This really depends on how much you want to sink into an upgrade. And if it were me, I might do the research and consider the parts I might add, keeping a list of the potential outlays. I'd also develop a wish-list of parts that might gut everything but the case if the case has enough potential. If ;your upgrades are only for storage, RAM and so forth, the upgrade wins hands down on total outlays. Not familiar with the AMD FX-6300, but I remember a year when they released an "FX" line of chips. On the one hand, it's hexa-core. Look for comparisons with Sandy Bridge or later. If it at least comes up to that generation, it makes more sense to hold it a bit longer, spend a little but temper your outlays with this logic. If you purchased it in 2015, it is probably not at the end of its lifecycle or currency.

The other options beyond that are obvious, and probably already mentioned here.

I'm not much ashamed of my ignorance of AMD product history. I am sure you can build good AMD systems. I have other reasons for sticking with Intel, not least among them simplicity in my household maintenance plan.

 

[XavierMace]

If you aren't having any issues with your 960, the 1070 will likely be fine. It IS a crappy power supply though.

However, that FX-6300 is already your bottleneck. Putting a 1070 in that box is just a waste. The FX-6300 had poor single thread performance compared to Intel's offerings when it came out 5 years ago. That hasn't changed.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/...34.802778419.1503718413-1554477987.1497692611

 

[BigBadBiologist]

Also, when you say that the PSU has "one 6 pin pci cable, and one 4pin pci cable", the 4 pin is a motherboard (CPU) power lead, not a video card lead.

 

[Torn Mind]

The reason to not upgrade the GPU is that an FX-6300 will already bottleneck the 1070, not because it's a prebuilt. The other reason is that AM3+ is a dead end platform and you are already at the single-thread ceiling; upgrading to an FX-8350 will only improve multi-thread performance. Ryzen or the Intel options all require new mobo+CPU.

The PSU should be upgraded even without a GPU upgrade for the purpose of it not killing everything when it fails.

These gaming OEMs are more likely to put garbage PSUs in their systems than traditional OEMs like Dell because they need the profit margins and aren't in as a resilient state as company like Dell. .

[rant]Back in the day, building a computer actually meant performing skilled tasks like soldering to "build" them. Now, it's just assembling parts; which is something factory workers do for companies like Dell. But it strokes people's own egos regardless[/rant]

 

[Torn Mind]

Otherwise, you can upgrade the RAM and the storage. You could actually get a more powerful PSU. I haven't ever bought one of the "Boutique" advertised systems from IBuyPower, CyberPower, Alienware -- to name a few and there are others. You could drop $4K on some of those systems. I'd have to do some personal cost-accounting to verify, but I could spend that much on my own parts, and I've never bothered to bench mine against theirs. I'm proud of my experiments and configuration successes and innovations if you could call them that.

Alienware is Dell, so it not like iBuyPower or Cyberpower. Boutique shops generally do offer the option to the buyer of utter garbage as their lowest end PSU for those idiots concerned mostly with aesthetics while Dell would at least put in a worthy $40 unit capable of dying quietly in 5-7 years of hard use.