GeForce GTS 250

Dan Sanchez

Hi all, Im kinda new to this building pc's but I have it a long time so this is the 1st upgrade.
I bought the said graphics card(120euro) but it wont display on the monitor so I thought it was the power supply on my pc which is 300w and it says on the card box that I need 550w to run it.
Ive lookied on komplett and I think my best bet would be a 650w from Corsair?
Its 83 to collect from Blanch.

Oh and Im running Vista on a HP pc and have two hard drives and a couple of slots for usb. Says Intel VIIV on the front? Its a core 2 I think.

Also the card has two square black sockets on the end but only one power wire? Why is there two?
The wire is split into 1 black(pci express?) into 2 white inline four sckets(agp)

Effluo

Those psu ratings are very generous.

Me thinks that your psu (the 300watt) is probably why it's not working though.
Especially cause it's prob a "no-name" brand...

Also bad luck paying 120 for the graphics card
Where did you get it?

edit:
Just reread your post there and it seems as though you may not have connected it up right to begin with...
The gts 250 seems to require 2 6pin pci-e power connectors.

That cable you were referring to was the molex to pci-e converter.

For your psu to run that card, you would have had to put the pci-e power cable coming from the psu into one of the slots on the graphics card.
Then i'm supposing your psu only has one pci-e power connector, you would have to connect two molex cables from your psu to the converting cable that you got with the graphics card.
Then insert the connector to the graphics card.....

I still would recommend you don't use the graphics card with that psu however as it prob wouldn't run it anyway and may damage your pc.

I don't want to recommend a psu cause, frankly i don't know if those molex to pci connectors work very well.
If they do then this corsair 400watt would do fine for €44
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=404885

basing this power assumption on this review
http://www.guru3d.com/article/palit-geforce-gts-250-2048mb-review-test/3

Otherwise you could get this
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=404889 for €66

Dan Sanchez

It says I need 550w to run the card on the box though? I bought the card in Peats.
I know its a bit old now but it should run the latest games fine. The card cost around the same on komplett.
Do you think I should just get a 550w psu?

Dan Sanchez

I didnt notice your edit there, thanks.

Effluo

Either search yourself for "proof" that those molex cables work ok or just waiut here and see if anyone else knows

Dan Sanchez

I dont get it why would Geforce sell a card wth two sockets on the end and only one plug?

Solitaire

Those recommendations on the box are a sack of [CENSORED]. A stock GTS250 uses under 7A (84W) of 12V power. I seriously doubt your OCd card will add much more than 8A of additional 12V draw on the PSU. Unless you have a very old P4-based PC with a PSU with very low 12V output you should be just fine. Not sure what kind of PSU that HP came with but the 305W Deltas on many Dell rigs of similar vintage had plenty of 12V capacity and didn't blink twice when users went and stuck in 9800GTs and even HD4850s

And that card is retarded - it barely needs even one PCIe connector, so why insist on two?!?! I don't see that card needing over 150W of juice somehow! :rolleyes: FYI nVidia uses two PCIe connectors on the old 9800GTX+, but dropped one of them on its more frugal GTS250 die-shrink (otherwise being the same card). My guess is that a couple of OEMs (*cough*EVGA*cough* :P) were so lazy they used the exact same PCB and didn't even yank out the second PCIe connector - not that the old 9800GTX+ needed the other connector anyway!

Dan Sanchez

So the GTS250 is just a jumped up 9800. The fans spin up but no picture.
Hopefully it'll run Modern Warfare 2 easily. I should try to overclock yes.
The psu I have now is Liteon? 300w. Im scaling down my needs now, maybe Ill get the 450w corsair, and maybe buy an extra pci to molex cable and plug both sockets on the card in?

Dan Sanchez

Can anyone tell me the difference between the Corsair450w VX Series and the HX Series?
Is the HX much newer?

jonny72

Dan Sanchez wrote: »

So the GTS250 is just a jumped up 9800. The fans spin up but no picture.
Hopefully it'll run Modern Warfare 2 easily. I should try to overclock yes.
The psu I have now is Liteon? 300w. Im scaling down my needs now, maybe Ill get the 450w corsair, and maybe buy an extra pci to molex cable and plug both sockets on the card in?

Not sure if you are using XP or vista, but in XP you right click on the 'my computer' icon and it should tell you what processor you have.

If its a slow processor, then the graphics card might be slightly bottlenecked, and not run at full speed. If your processor is core2duo then hopefully it should be okay.

Google and youtube everything you don't understand. Even check on youtube how to install a graphics card with 2 pci/molex cables just to get an idea, also youtube how to install a PSU before you dive in and do it.

If you haven't overclocked before don't try it just yet, often it just yields a small difference with high risk if you are inexperienced. Wait until the card is running, try out some games and see how it is.

Also, make sure you have the latest Nvidia drivers on your machine. Just go to the nvidia site and drivers download.

Dan Sanchez

Oh and Im running Vista on a HP pc and have two hard drives and a couple of slots for usb. Says Intel VIIV on the front? Its a core 2 I think.

Core 2 6600 at 2.40ghz

Ill wait until I try to OC it as it should run fine when I get it going.
Thinking of just ordering the 550 anyway just to be future safe. Ill get googling again.

Effluo

Dan Sanchez wrote: »

Core 2 6600 at 2.40ghz

Ill wait until I try to OC it as it should run fine when I get it going.
Thinking of just ordering the 550 anyway just to be future safe. Ill get googling again.

Don't be a fool, just order this.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=404889

It'll run your system with plenty to spare...

Also when installing it maybe you could read the manual.
It's very clear in that what you have to do.

Actually putting computers together isn't hard, it's the choosing of components that catch people out.
With this psu i fail to see how you could make a mistake.

jonny72

Dan Sanchez wrote: »

Core 2 6600 at 2.40ghz

Ill wait until I try to OC it as it should run fine when I get it going.
Thinking of just ordering the 550 anyway just to be future safe. Ill get googling again.

Grand! that processor is fine.

Dan Sanchez

Thanks for all replies so far, its been helpful, I have alot of Q's I know but heres another, what difference will it make if I get the 550w it wont overload anything wll it? I thought each component will just take the power it needs from the PSU. Im just thinking ahead because I could make more power hungry changes in the future.

AlmightyCushion

You could put a 1KW PSU and it would be fine. Like you said the components just take what they need.

Dan Sanchez

Im just trying to figure out pros and cons, I'd say most of you here have probably gone over this before, Ive checked other threads and they say higher wattage might be too noisy.
It says 550w on the box but would most here agree that the 450w from Corsair would run it fine?

oMega_2093

I have a 9800 GTX+ on a 550W Corsair PSU and it's fine, so I guess 450W must be enough fr your GTS 250. However, I won't rely on it, 550W non-modular is the same price I guess:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004

Dan Sanchez

Can anyone tell me the difference between the Corsair450w VX Series and the HX Series?
I was recommended the HX earlier but after some searching on the Corssair site I found the VX is the new model but they seem exactly the same.(both 450w)

AlmightyCushion

Not much between them. The HX is modular, that's pretty much it.

Dan Sanchez

Im getting tired of looking around now, time for bed soon.

I think Ill take your advice Efluo and order the 450w HX Series in the morning. It has modular cables that store away or something, its older but thats why it costs an extra fiver and is the only difference I can see.
450 should be enough even if the cards box says I need 100w more, in general(other various googled sites) people are saying it wont use that much.

Cheers Cushion.

AlmightyCushion

Modular power supplies are pretty sweet. I'm still pissed I decided not to get one when building my current pc.

great

i have an asus 9800gtx+ and the box said 400w and its running no probs on a 500w psu

Dan Sanchez

Well Ive ordered the 450w HX model to pick up, its free to pick up and I dont mind going to Blanch. Hopefully its as powerful and efficient as people say.

i have an asus 9800gtx+ and the box said 400w and its running no probs on a 500w psu

Im sure it will.