Upgrade Help. - Hardware & Software

About a month ago I bought a 2nd ATI 5770 and I had plans to crossfire them, but some problems occurred. One, I do not know if my power supply will handle it. Two, I have no idea if my motherboard even supports it. Third, video card does not fit in to the video card slot as suppose to. Any help?

Post your computer specs and tell us what PSU model you're using. This should be common sense if you want us to help, can't understand how you missed that.

PSU - CPB09-001B Processer - Intel Core i7 870 2.93GHz Ram - 8 GB Motherboard - 0G3HR7 Graphics - ATI 5770 1 GB If I'm missing anything else I took a screenshot of speccy. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/qM9UQ.png[/IMG]

Problems: 1) A HD 5770 crossfire set up peaks at 357 watts alone. Since you're also using a generic dell PSU your PSU isn't sufficient enough for it. 2) [url=http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/studio8100/en/cs/cs_en.pdf]From what I can find your motherboard only has 1 PCI-E x16 slot.[/url] Even if you got a proper PSU there's no way you're physically doing Crossfire/SLI. 3) That CPU is running incredibly hot. I hope it isn't like that when idle. You didn't research before buying. Your option is to return the HD 5770 or build a new computer. If you want the latter route then ditch the motherboard, PSU and case (if the case only supports BTX factor motherboards, or you want to buy a higher quality case). Carry everything else over onto the new build. If you do plan to go through this route then feel free to post about it in the PC Building section.

After I found out that the card did not fit, from there I realized I did not do my research that well. If I was return the 5770. Which I will most likely do. If I bought a new PSU with enough power to handle a brand new card and not just 2 cards by themself. Would that be a option?

[QUOTE=Yummy Pie;34985526]After I found out that the card did not fit, from there I realized I did not do my research that well. If I was return the 5770. Which I will most likely do. If I bought a new PSU with enough power to handle a brand new card and not just 2 cards by themself. Would that be a option?[/QUOTE] That is another option which I somehow completely overlooked. You'll also be doing your system as a whole a good favour by giving it a good PSU to draw power from. I've been out of touch lately with the HD 5 series cards so be sure to check benchmark comparisons and estimate whether or not getting something recent will be justifiable for the price. From what I'm aware of the only thing you should be wary of is the measurements and making sure they will fit inside your case. What GPU are you looking for and how much is your total budget?

I have a pretty high budget, so money wont be a problem for me. Most likely I will return/sell the 5770 that I bought and buy a 500w PSU and as for graphics card, I will look at cards and look at the required power needed to support them. I was planning on getting a ATI 6870. Which requires a minimum of a 500w PSU and then buy a 500w PSU which runs for about $50.

Personally I'd recommend and wait for Nvidia to release their new series card this month (Kepler GK104). Since money isn't an issue for you then the estimated $250 card is speculated to outperform the $450 HD7950 and put it in direct competition with the $550 HD7970. Of course results will tell when it's officially out. You also won't need a drastically high wattage PSU since a single 6870 only pulls 280 watts under load. PSU choices can be vast and confusing but we can help you get the best quality and performance you need for your choice of GPU.

I'll wait and see what Nvidia releases this month, but in meantime while I wait for that. I should probably get get the best PSU I can that will fit in my case.

[QUOTE=Yummy Pie;34985829]I'll wait and see what Nvidia releases this month, but in meantime while I wait for that. I should probably get get the best PSU I can that will fit in my case.[/QUOTE] I don't recommend buying so soon. You should definitely revise your options though and see what works out best for you. You don't need to go overkill with the PSU.

Uhm, first can we address why your CPU is running at 176F/80C? That's a bit warm, even if you were at 100% load. Stock fan?

I wasn't planning on getting a new PSU anytime soon, I was just saying that I should look around sites and see what they have. [editline]4th March 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Coridan;34985855]Uhm, first can we address why your CPU is running at 176F/80C? That's a bit warm, even if you were at 100% load.[/QUOTE] To be honest, I really do not know why my CPU was so hot. I turn my computer off at least twice a day.

[QUOTE=Yummy Pie;34985860]I wasn't planning on getting a new PSU anytime soon, I was just saying that I should look around sites and see what they have. [editline]4th March 2012[/editline] To be honest, I really do not know why my CPU was so hot. I turn my computer off at least twice a day.[/QUOTE] Well, that's supposedly the recommended temperature limit for those chips. That's detrimental to the CPU if it runs that hot all of the time. Did you have a game or a bunch of programs running at the time?

The only programs I have running everyday when I turn my computer on are Steam, my razer mouse software and my keyboard software. Also I don't keep games running at all.

Turn the computer off, unplug it and open it up. Check to see if nothing is obstructing the fans and airflow in the computer, remove any built up dust if possible (you can use a vacuum but I aid caution and highly recommend a can of compressed air instead).