Some questions on upgrading free gear I got... - by lost_soul
lost_soul on 11/10/2009 at 04:23
I recently had a topic where I overclocked a geforce 6200 that I got with a free p4 3 ghz machine. Today, I visited a friend and he gave me two older video cards that will smoke this gf6200... a Radeon hd2600xt and an x1600xt.
In order to install one of these cards though, I will have to buy a power supply, which I can get for less than $20 Online. Which card should I use? Do either of these cards work acceptably well in Linux? I told myself I'd drill my own teeth before buying ATI because of the issues I had with their Linux driver, but one can't argue with free hardware..
These are AGP cards, so I don't think he could use them anymore (he recently upgraded to Core I7's).
TBE on 12/10/2009 at 05:00
Power supply for $20?:confused: Both cards recommend a 400 watt power supply. What size is your current power supply? You'd be hard pressed to find a $20 power supply that will give you a true 400 watts. Go with a name brand power supply, like (
http://www.pcpower.com/products/description/Silencer_420_ATX/index.html) PC Power and Cooling's Silencer 420 ATX. Five year warranty and great performance. You can't go wrong with any of the name brand power supplies. I've got a Antec 420 watt True Power supply that's been flawless since 2003.
The 1600 is better for gaming, and the 2600 better for high def video from say a blu-ray player. So if you're using Linux, I'm guessing you're not playing a lot of Direct X games. Go with the 2600 for Linux.
lost_soul on 12/10/2009 at 05:29
I do play some games in Linux like Thief with Wine and Doom III/Nexuiz/Penumbra/etc...
Here is one of the power supplies I found.
(
http://3btech.net/ch550wadufan.html)
The bit about being for consumers and not for professionals does make me a bit nervous though. :)
TBE on 12/10/2009 at 16:12
Well, it does have a 1 year warranty with it, so maybe it's not a bad buy for less than $20. At least as long as you're not relying on the system for life and death, and you have another means of computing if the power supply fails and you need to send it back. I might buy one of these for a system build I'm doing for a friend.
And for gaming, I was talking like Direct X 9.0 games or higher. So for Linux, I'd go with 2600
Al_B on 12/10/2009 at 20:32
I would personally avoid it. I've never used Chiefmax myself but a quick search on google suggests that it's bargain basement level quality. Test such as (
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=71) this one would make me nervous about using it (although it's not the model you're considering).
If there's one component of your PC that you shouldn't skimp on it's the power supply.
Renzatic on 13/10/2009 at 16:46
Quote Posted by Al_B
If there's one component of your PC that you shouldn't skimp on it's the power supply.
This. You go cheap with the power supply, and you could find yourself in a potential world of hurt here in the very near future. At best, it'll eventually crap out on you and you'll find yourself out of $20. Worst case, it throws a tantrum when it dies and takes your motherboard out with it.
Try to find something by Antec. They're solid, and won't cost you an arm and a leg like the enthusiast blocks will.
