Shuttle and A Radeon

[mikebradbury]

Hi Guys,

I have a shuttle SN85G4 which has a 240 watt PSU.
Is this adequate for a radeon 9800 pro?:afro:

[The__tweaker]

Sorry but I would not put such a power hungry card in that Shuttle with only 240W combined output.

In this review they are running a 9700 Pro perfectly fine with it so I'm sure it could be done but I wouldn't do it. They only test the system for a short period of time and can't really show how the psu would handle the load over a longer period of use.

Heat is another factor which you must take into consideration. Look at the picture, it isn't very good airflow in the case which is why I think those small form factors isn't suitable for high end hardware such as the 9800Pro. :2cents:

[minibubba]

it can be done, I know of one member here that is running it on less. Although it takes a very well build PSU to do that. I highly advise that you NOT attempt it and upgrade to a higher wattage PSU. You will be taking a big gamble running it off that little PSU.

[mikebradbury]

Hi Guys thanks for the comments.

I have just checked shuttles faq's and they recon the system works flawlessly underload for 3 days or more with a 9800xt, so hopefully i should be fine. (fingers crossed)

Why oh why dont shuttle just include a 350 or 400 watt psu though i mean come on....:afro:

[Wordbiker]

Yeah, I'm the guy that's running a 9800 pro and a P4"B" 2.66GHz on a Chyang Fun SFF with a 150W PSU. In everyday use it runs just fine, and even in games I've had no problems. The case is very hot due to its layout however, and I've had the GPU crash due to overheating while benchmarking. I can't say that I've had any problems attributable to low power, but I'm playing it safe(r) and have upgraded to a 220W PSU for powering the extra cooling measures I am implementing. I'd say rather than power your main issue will be heat with higher end cards. My system has a completely different layout than a Shuttle, different PSU manufacturer, and I run it with the case sides off for now. Your mileage may vary, but there are plenty of folks out there running 9800 pros and even 9800 XTs on their Shuttles. I would look into how they've solved their cooling issues.
Good luck with it, and welcome to TweakTown! :cheers:
I'm glad to see another SFF fan here in the forums. We'll show these doubting full-tower guys what a small machine can really do...:thumb: :D

[The__tweaker]

they recon the system works flawlessly underload for 3 days or more with a 9800xt, so hopefully i should be fine.

I'm sure your psu can handle it, but the question is for how long. Overloaded psu's often die within 6 month or a year and causes your pc to crasch, but in worst case scenario it can kill some of your hardware components at the same time.

If I were you I'd follow minibubbas advise to upgrade your psu, they aren't that expensive and it's much better than taking the risk of damaging your other hardware if the psu goes up in smoke after a year of torture..

Not only will that new card stress your psu to the max it will also substantially increase the temperature of the air which is supposed to cool the psu's inner circuits. :(

[b]Why oh why dont shuttle just include a 350 or 400 watt psu though i mean come on

Money.. :)

[Wordbiker]

Why oh why dont shuttle just include a 350 or 400 watt psu though i mean come on....:afro:

Simple reason...it takes up too much room, and it may not be necessary. I have seen some pretty extreme watercooling setups that required major hacking and re-configuring of the small case, and if one is creative, a larger PSU can fit, but I haven't seen many people do that mod. IMHO, with a small case it's just physically impossible to add enough peripherals to tax even a 220W PSU, as long as it's a QUALITY power supply, and actually supplies the power it claims in the specs. I honestly feel that many of the power-related problems that folks have had with PSUs are due to faulty but otherwise good-quality, or low-quality units that don't provide the power they claim in their rating. The faulty PSUs I have seen or dealt with have almost invariably been generic lightweight (lighter than even my 150W in fact) PSUs included with a generic lightweight case. Shuttle is a top tier manufacturer, and I'm sure that they use a quality PSU. I do believe that the PSU configuration they use is one previously made for servers, which HAVE to be reliable. The best news of all is...the popularity of "Cube" or Small Form Factor cases keeps growing along with the power demands of processors. I think we will see more powerful PSUs released that will fit the smaller form-factors. The new PicoBTX form-factor PSUs coming soon will likely reflect this.

[johnerz]

My son has a 9800 Pro 128 running in his shuttle, stock speeds (most of the time) stale and solid. In 3 months he has not had a single issue with the Radeon or Shuttle

[mikebradbury]

Thanks for your input fella's, very helpful.

I was previously running a 9600xt (256) in my SN85G4 with no heat or power problems. It was the fan on the GPU that finaly gave in so I sent it back and ordered the 9800 pro (128).

I think that the supplied 240watt psu should be more than enough to supply anything that could fit into the case and i am sure that Shuttle anticipated buyers to be running high end cards in its machines and tested accordingly.

The card turns up tomorrow so I will report back on my findings then.

Once again thanks for your advice.

:cheers:

[mikebradbury]

I am pleased to announce that the card works fine with my shuttle and have had no probs so far (touch wood).

Scoring around the 42000 in aquamark with this setup;

A643000+
512 MB Crucial PC3200
60GB IBM PATA HDD
SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 PRO
WIN XP PRO SP1

Temps have been CPU = 49C
PSU = 50C
BOARD = 50C

All under load.

The far cry demo works pretty good with Catalist direct 3d set to max quality and AA set to Maximum - Very Impressive.:woot: