Bought new GFX card, PSU not enough power, advice needed..

[leohopkins]

Hello everyone,

Recently I bought a new graphics card "An Nvidia GTX 560Ti" to play my famourite games (namely F1 2011). - I should have read the box! It needs a 500w power supply and the one I have is 400w.

It's fine running windows under normal conditions, but as soon as its starts processing heavily (i.e I load up a game) - the PC Reboots as the graphics card tries to draw too much power.

I cannot really afford £80+ on a new PSU, so I thought of an alternative solution; but before I try it, want to know what others think?

Keep my current PSU in the machine, feeding the machine. but buy a (cheap £30) additional 400W PSU with kettle lead to feed ONLY the power on the graphics card. - Yes this means the "unsightliness" of having the side panel off and another PSU by the side of the machine. but - would this solution work?

Any advice would be great!

thanks;
Leo

 

[RHochstenbach]

It is never advisable to use a cheap power supply, as these will mostly fail. See if you can find a used power supply (a corsair or enermax PSU).