is 850 watts enough?

[Spawn-Inc]

ok so i thought i knew what i was doing but after reading the booklet on my new mobo, EVGA - NF68 - A1 680i, but it said for SLI with two 8800 series cards you should have at least 750 watts then it goes on to say the following.

if the power supply specifies two 12V windings (i.e. 12V1 and 12V2), add these numbers together to check against the specifications described above.

i'm looking at a Enermax Galaxy 850watt (DXX version if i can find a good place/price to get one) and it has 5 x 12v rails (i assume windings) so will that be fine?

the enermax says it can

once i have enough money or the 8800 series is older i would like a second one. i would also like to water cool down the road and overclock. i forgot to mention i would have a Q6600.

i know this isn't related but i don't feel the need to start a whole new thread. can you partition a harddrive with windows on it? i have a 250gb hdd with about 100gbs left and i want to make a 10gb partion. i want to install another copy of windows on it but with a different computer. i want to test my new motherboard to see if it works.

[.Maleficus.]

Yep, that's enough. More than enough.

And I don't really understand what you're trying to do with the partitioning.

[Spawn-Inc]

i'm not going to do it anymore but basically i wanted to test my new mobo for any problems. i've heard that if a certin code, 3e or something, that it means the mobo is dead. so i was going to take from my family computer the cpu, psu, and video card and put it in my case. then take some ram from my brothers computer and install windows on the partitioned hdd. i won't be geting more pc parts until i get more money which is hard to come by. if things keep going the same way then i'm not going to have my next part for 4-6 weeks.

[.Maleficus.]

i'm not going to do it anymore but basically i wanted to test my new mobo for any problems. i've heard that if a certin code, 3e or something, that it means the mobo is dead. so i was going to take from my family computer the cpu, psu, and video card and put it in my case. then take some ram from my brothers computer and install windows on the partitioned hdd. i won't be geting more pc parts until i get more money which is hard to come by. if things keep going the same way then i'm not going to have my next part for 4-6 weeks.

You got an EVGA board right, and the code you're talking about is on the little display on the board? If that's the case, you don't even need to install Windows. Pop in a stick of RAM, the processor and heatsink, and boot it up. If you get that code, then it's dead.

[Spawn-Inc]

really, good then makes things easyer for me! i will try it later on to night then. i +rep'ed you and would do it again but the spread the rep thing came up.

EDIT: well i did what you said and stole my dad proc and brothers psu, and ram and got the code "7F" it started up and was flashing all kinds of codes, to many to list or even right down, and it stopped at 7F. i looked it up and it said

POST error check -- check post error and display them and ask for user intervention

i had no video card so i'm not sure what it said on the screen, assuming thats what the message means.

[Moofaa]

It could have stopped because no keyboard was detected or something. Or probably the video card missing might have something to do with it.

[Spawn-Inc]

It could have stopped because no keyboard was detected or something. Or probably the video card missing might have something to do with it.

thats what i'm hoping. speaking of power supplies, how soon are video cards going to have 8 pin PCI express 2.0 ports? the 8800ultra i'm looking at doesn't have it but will the i guess 9 series of nvidia have them?

[.Maleficus.]

Yep, i imagine it was display related. Because you don't need a keyboard to be plugged in to boot.

Are you looking for future upgrades? Because when they become standard, I imagine they will have adapters for people using the "older" PSUs who still have enough power to run a new PCI-E card.

[Spawn-Inc]

Yep, i imagine it was display related. Because you don't need a keyboard to be plugged in to boot.

Are you looking for future upgrades? Because when they become standard, I imagine they will have adapters for people using the "older" PSUs who still have enough power to run a new PCI-E card.

ya i'm looking to have this rig pretty future proof. if parts die can you RMA it at anytime?

[.Maleficus.]

ya i'm looking to have this rig pretty future proof. if parts die can you RMA it at anytime?

EVGA has a pretty solid warranty. Register your mobo and with yours, I think it's set for life.