From AMD site the required powersupply for 7950 is 500W.    whereas when using custom configurator in ibuypower.com    it is saying the 7950 requires 750W powersupply.  I currently have AMD HD 6850 on 700W powersupply. I am planning to buy 7950, so I was wondering if 700W is sufficient? or do I need 750W?  I have Intel® Core™ i5-2500 Processor (4x 3.30GHz/6MB L3 Cache) with 4GB RAM ( which I purchased from ibuypower.com some time ago )
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Note: This is intended to become a canonical post.  I got a dedicated graphics card of type XXX and it claims I need at least a YYY Watt PSU.   How big does my PSU really need to be?
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Can anyone please explain the math behind power supply wattage calculations?  I have a . It has 4 independent +12V rails max 18A each.  I'm trying to calculate, how much amps will GPU consume. I have an old NVidia 9600GT video card. In it's  it's written, that it consumes maximum of 96W. Do I understand correctly, that I = W / V = 96 / 12 = 8A?  The problem is, that my PSU has two 6-pin PCI-E power cables. And my 9600GT doesn't want to start up when it's powered by one. I can start it up only when I get power from two independent rails it seems. And  I purchased some time ago doesn't startup at all whatever I do.  I just want to understand the correct numbers so that I wouldn't do same mistake now when I need to buy new PSU.  It looks that despite my box is 700W, because of independent rails current limit it just cannot handle really consuming video cards. I purchased it like 6 years ago, though...
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Some of my friends have their hardware maxed out all the time.  Whether rendering huge 3d animations, generating Bitcoins, or running intense screensavers.  It makes intuitive sense that CPUs/GPUs running at full blast constantly will wear out faster than those used lightly.  Is this true?  Do I need to "conserve" my hardware, or will two video cards, both left on all the time but one idling and one maxed out, last about the same amount of time?  What actually causes CPU/GPU failure?  My friend says I should generate Bitcoins with my GPU, but that requires it to be maxed out all the time.  What difference would that make in my video card's lifespan?
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I have a computer power supply that I'm hacking together as a bench supply. For this particular model to power on, I need a minimum load across both +5V and +12V.  "Easy," I thought, "I'll just connect both +5 and +12 to my power resistor!" And it worked, but then I started thinking, what does it mean to have these two different voltages connected in parallel? If the voltages were the same, then I would be . But what about different voltages?  Also, what if I connected +5 and +12 in series, and then put a load on that? The equivalent voltage would be +17V; what would be the difference between that and parallel?  Or am I going about this the wrong way; should I put a separate resistor on each rail? It seems like I can do better than that.
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I've looked around for a good desktop rig to suit a 2K budget computer focused on graphic design/ rendering  capabilities, but I'm have trouble finding exactly the type of setup that I'm looking for. If anyone is a hardware guru and has a great understanding of how to extract the very best GPU power and Display quality from a budget, and don't mind throwing it into a new egg wish list for me, I'd truly be grateful. Here is the setup I'm looking for:   Triple, high quality monitor display Performance based on the idea that I'll need to handle high resolution and many layered images within photoshop Performance based on the idea that I'll be using Blender to render 3-D Designs, which is able to use GPU to render 3D models.  Performance based on the idea that I will likely have 30+ browser tabs open, be running text editors in the background, and be doing all of these things at once, and need the setup to be able to handle it all with no sweat.    I have a TB of external memory, so that should save some cash on memory that doesn't need to be accessed with a great amount of speed, but the 2K does need to cover the three high quality monitors, a large tower with room for upgrade, a disk drive, a mouse, keyboard, and USB ports.   *Edit:  I think the builds suggested here will be helpful many users seeking rendering machine setup suggestions. I hope this fit's the format, and of course, isn't a duplicate question. I've looked and not found a satisfactory answer anywhere on StackOverflow! I thank you all ahead of time for your suggestions!  New: Thanks for the suggestion to move this to superuser.com! I reposted it here:   Thank you for your answers everyone, I was able to change the terms of what I needed to search for to meet the 2K budget thanks to all of your helpful advisories. The user-base here is far beyond the quality and knowledge level of any website in the world, in my opinion. Thanks again!
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Is there any tool that helps to determine the weakest link of my current laptop hardware specification? Any online guide to help me choose nice balanced configuration for the new laptop?    I need to find the answers:  a) which component should be invested to increase overall performance the most? CPU? GPU? RAM?  b) which component may decrease overall performance and work as a bottleneck for the specific configuration?    The question is general and regards both to validating the current hardware usage (and its possible bottlenecks) and estimating the performance (and avoiding possible issues) of specs I'm going to choose and buy.    P.S. For the specific laptop I need to replace, the following software will be in use:    Windows antivirus, firewall, dropbox service running in the background mail app + web browser with a dozen or so tabs open from time to time: libreoffice apps, movies, games (both online and installed).
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So I'm wondering if anyone has any information about the Dell power supplies which have 3 contacts on the barrel.    I know the 3 are power, ground, and some sort of communication link. Does anyone know what the communication line is for and/or what kind of protocol it uses?  Thanks  EDIT The reason I ask is I'm considering trying to build my own semi-advanced charger (not for a laptop but something else... it's a long story) and while I'm sure I could figure out a charging circuit given the internet as a resource, I was wondering what they use the communication line for and if it's necessary for my purposes. It seems the answer is no since I will be the only one using my device and thus don't need to worry about people plugging in not kosher chargers...
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I have a Lenovo T480 with an Intel i7-8650U, which has the notorious problem of dropping itself down to 400 MHz whenever it feels like it, due to power limits.  For example, even opening an application that uses the Nvidia GPU (before it even fully loads) causes the machine to throttle down and the fan to slow or stop.  Intel Extreme Tuning Utility shows power limiting.  Adjusting the power limits lower in XTU doesn't actually help anything.  Neither does limiting the CPU usage to as low as 25% in the Windows Power Settings.  (The CPU never goes above 25%, but it still clocks way up to 3.8 GHz.)  I have outright disabled using the Nvidia GPU and instead stick to the Intel graphics, which helps but doesn't totally resolve the problem.  This is a system power limit of some kind.  Naturally, I'd rather use my computer at a slower speed for longer, than suddenly landing at 400 MHz.  It takes minutes for the Windows start menu to appear when I'm throttled at 400 MHz.  While I can't disable TurboBoost with XTU, I found that I could disable it with ThrottleStop.  With TurboBoost disabled, my CPU never goes above 1.9 GHz.  It also never goes lower.  No power throttling!  I can use my computer all day.  The down side of this is that when I'm doing normal things with spikey loads like web browsing, it would be nice if I could let that CPU go a bit faster.  It doesn't need to go all the way to 3.8 GHz though.  Is there any way to limit the CPU clock speed while in TurboBoost?
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I am trying to put a server together to install Ubuntu. I bought an Intel S1200v3RPS motherboard and plugged an Intel Xeon E3 processor into it. I purchased a 1U chassis from Supermicro with a power supply.  The power supply does not have a 5-pin cable to the motherboard's Auxiliary Power Supply socket. A bit of research did not give any definite answer on the need for the 5-pin connection. The motherboard does not power on and the CPU fan is off. I tested the power supply on a desktop Intel motherboard and it works fine.   I would like to buy a new power supply but could not find one which expressly stated that it comes with the 5-pin aux power supply cable. Any recommendations on a power supply unit for this motherboard would be helpful. Any comments on the problem would be greatly appreciated.
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My Motherboard is Gigabyte . It is written that PCI slots are  1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 1 x PCI Express x1 slot 2 x PCI slots   And I see one Graphic Card which is of following configuration.  Bus Standard        PCI Express 2.1 Model ID            Radeon HD 5450   Is this Graphic Card compatible with my motherboard?
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I'm using a repurposed ATX power supply for my hobby projects since it's got 3.3/±5/±12 outputs, all of which are really convenient. But one thing I didn't really think about until I slipped my probes across the pins of an opamp, since I've always dealt with commercial/proper lab power supplies in my school labs, was that an ATX power supply will gladly deliver lots of current if that 12V line (or any other) is shorted to ground. The poor LM318 didn't stand a chance. My meter and supply survived, but in the interest of not killing anything in the future, myself included, I was wondering what the best option was for short/overcurrent protection?  I was thinking of sticking some high wattage resistors at the output of the supply before connecting them to the rails of my project breadboard (I use a separate breadboard with terminal blocks for power, which the ATX supply connects to). The problem is if I'm drawing a lot of current (LEDs etc) this will sag the voltage on the line. And, for example, if I use a 1W 200ohm resistor on the 12V line, it limits my current to only 60mA - if I want more, I need some really beefy wattage resistors. I can probably work around the voltage sagging by using a voltage regulator (eg at 10V), but this all doesn't seem like the best way to go about doing things.   I'd appreciate some input from someone more experienced than I am.
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Can I "combine" the power of my GPU with my CPU to get more FPS in games and more power for programs ?   CPU: Intel i5 4690K which is OC'd to 4.3Ghz with the box cooler GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7750 Saphire 1GB GDDR5 Edition which is OC'd with memory at 1130Mhz and GPU at 820Mhz, these frequencies are achieved while gaming. My MOBO is an Asus Z97-K The CPU has integrated graphics.
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I ordered a new computer and - as always - I think about upgrading it before it arrives.  I thought about adding another graphics card, which would probably push the current PSU beyond its limits. What measures do I have to take care of to combine the powered rails of the PSUs?  I searched for this question and found no conclusive answer, what I've found so far:   some people strongly advise against it but don't provide a reason "don't risk it, simply buy a more powerful one". the power supplies will probably provide slightly different voltages, this will lead to the more powerful PSU providing most of the initial power until its voltage drops and the second one kicks in, too. some people advise using high current diodes. I have no problem with soldering on the wires of my PSU, but I have not seen any reason why I should do it in the first place and high current diodes are not that cheap, especially because I would need one for each powered rail on each PSU (8-10 pieces) there are some commercial solutions to this, like  which is basically just a relay that switches the other power supplies.   So, can I assume it is safe to connect multiple power supplies to power my hardware?
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Alright so I have computer currently with an Inateck "SuperSpeed" PCI-E expansion card with 4 USB 3.0 Slots.   Now we need about 16 pieces of hardware plugged into this machine from a far distance. Our current setup is USB 3.0 Extender that gets its own power that connects to a USB 3.0 hub where each has 3 to 4 additional USB 3.0 slots. Now imagine that for each of those 4 slots. The problem is, it that it is extremely unreliable. If you turn on the machine with everything plugged in we get the blue screen of death. Instead we have to plug everything in, in a very specific order. So that all 16 pieces of hardware are read.   Is there limits to what I am trying to do here? The computer is a simple Dell Inspiron 3650. Is the problem with the motherboard that comes on this machine?  If so what might be some hardware components that I need? Or maybe just point me into the direction of a motherboard that might be able to handle this kind of pressure.
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I came across this page which demonstrates that simply two lines need to be changed in order for Windows to detect the integrated gpu and use it:   Does the above work and if so is it possible to manually control whether the integrated or discrete gpu is in use? Also, would it automatically switch over from discrete to integrated and vis-a-versa when the load requirements change?
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I don't know where to address my question. It is about hardware - I need to know which is the recommended hardware (PC).  Which is the site in which I can ask my question?   My question will be:     Where to find info about hardware required to make hackintosh?   I need specific models of MB and CPU - for best compatibilty.
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After always being interested in learning more about electronics, I figured LED-strips would be a great start.  I'd like to power a 4 meter WS2812B-LED-strip (60 LEDs/m). These run on 5V and draw about 60mA per LED. That's 14.5A, or 75W. However, I've yet to find any power supplies for these figures, only imported industrial ones - which feels a bit scary with my limited knowledge.  I've understand that powering it through the Arduino is a bad idea, but what's the simplest and cheapest solution for powering it? I do have a bunch of old supplies for laptops and whatnot lying around.