"John" <John@TheStewartWeb.com> wrote in message
news:Y9GdnUZc3fQlaqnbnZ2dnUVZ_u6rnZ2d@centurytel.net...
> The "SLI Ready" logo on Power Supply boxes may make you think it is
> certified to run SLI, but that may not be so.
>
> You may find yourself in the same shoes as I am, when you are trying to
> diagnose motherboard problems and the MB techie asks how many amps your
> power supply can handle for 5v, 3.5v, etc. and then tells you it isn't big
> enough for the SLI video card you bought. "But, it said it was 'SLI
> Ready'" "Sorry, but it's not."
>
> So, where do you go to find out what Power Supply to buy? The Power
> Supply people don't tell you. The motherboard people say to ask nVidia.
> nVidia says they don't provide technical information for video cards, they
> just make the chip that goes in them. The video card people won't tell
> you. And from each of these sources I have found some that did not know.
> My motherboard supplier techie said, "Here are the amps we'd like to see
> ..."
>
> Now, many are going to say, "Why didn't you look at _____ site?" Well, I
> never found _____ site, that's why.
>
> But eventually I did find this site; note that it's not nVidia.com:
> http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html
>
> There, notice that there is a different selector for GTX, GTX, and other
> configurations.
>
> Oh, you say, I'll just send my power supply back if I find this out later.
> Oh, no you won't. The supplier has this little tag that says they will
> only take it back if it is defective, that you are under the
> manufacturer's warranty, which does you a whole lot of good if you bought
> the wrong power supply! You now own an EBay item.
>
> I concluded that I was stuck with my power supply and replaced it while I
> am chasing down motherboard problems in my new system. In so doing, the
> new power supply died. Yippee! I sent it back as defective and was in an
> excellent position to ask for an upgrade, which I got. The original power
> supply was 600 watts, the new one is 850 watts. In looking back on how I
> went about it, there is no way I would have found the right site to look
> for the right product.
>
> One big problem with the SLIzone site is that it appears to be out of
> date. Here are all these hot cards coming out and the power supply people
> are racing to put big enough products out there and they have the dreaded
> "SLI Certification Pending" status, which means you don't know if it is or
> if it isn't. So, like me, you buy it anyway, because by now you know what
> kind of specs you need. Hope it works. Thanks a lot, nVidia, for not
> finishing the project!
>
> So, what happens if you don't buy a big enough power supply? One engineer
> explained that you should be able to boot up all right. But when your
> video card starts pumping, the power supply won't be able to keep up and
> will then shut down. Supposedly, they build them so they won't smoke.
>
> So what's needed? First, the "SLI Ready" logo ought to say which SLI card
> the product is certified for. That is a MUST! Secondly, since the SLIzone
> site is running behind, they ought to provide the specs for certification
> so we can see what the vendor claims for the product before they
> accomplish certification. Now, nVidia is probably saying I don't know
> what I'm talking about, and they're right! It's their job, not mine. But
> they didn't do their job. Why don't they come out with a working plan?
> That plan ought to meet the problems I've described in this paper.
>
> Right?
err no....cos the SLI logo means it can run SLI which is correct...I had 2 x
leadtek 8800gts card in SLI config and my PSU (Enermax Liberty 500watt) ran
them easily, then I upgraded to two Gainward 8800GTX cards and it would run
in SLI even though the PSU stated it was SLI but the 8800GTX cards have 2
PCI-E power adaptors per card so I needed a new PSU...simple really
--
Scottyİ