PSU needed- Magic Smoke stolen by NVidia 8800GT

Well, today I upgraded my GFX card, with my ATI 3780 not working properly under Ubuntu how I liked, I got an 8800gt 1gb.

An hour after plugging in, everything turns off and the PSU blows out smoke, POP. It's too hot to touch too.

SO, I'm calling on all your wisdom.

I'm thinking a 600-750w PSU should do the trick. I don't want to spend a shedload, but I also don't want to put something in my system if a) nothing works because its all had 250v pumped through it or b) is just going to cause another overload.

I have two hard drives, one DVD drive, an Nvidia 680i motherboard, core 2 duo 8xxx processor (I forgot the model) and an Nvidia 8800gt graphics card.

What would you suggest right now?

Try putting the same watt psu in your computer with the ATI card (if you have to buy one, I suppose it's not worth trying) just to see if your computer still runs.

Check that the 12V rail can output at least 20A. 25A would be better for futureproofing.

What's the 12V output on your burned out PSU?

(I mean, obviously its zero now - what's it say on the side of the PSU?)

I dont have a spare PSU to try, or any longer an ATI graphics chip, i'm afraid.

The minimum requirement for the 8800GT is a 400W PSU. The 8800GT just doesn't need the juice that it's bigger brothers need - such as the 8800 GTX.

nVidia do not state any particular PSU, other than 400W min.

I think anything from 550W above should be fine.

There are conflicting requirements regarding rails though, depending on a card's third party manufacturer.

Fortunately, this is a common question on the internet and Googling finds hundreds of threads all asking the same question. Although, most of those threads do not provide a definitive answer, they are full of people who respond by stating the PSU they have in their system and that it works fine.

I'd assume that the 3rd party card manufacturer will put the PSU requirement on their website or in an online manual/spec sheet. If not, then Googling the actual card should reap rewards - ie for ASUS it would be ASUS EN8800GT 1GB.

Get a ThermalTake Toughpower 750.

your old 3870 uses less power at idle but more on load in Watts:

Idle:

HD 3870 = 125
8800 GT = 165

Load:
HD 3870 = 214
8800 GT = 209

So shouldn't make much difference with the new card really.

Heh, you've had more cards in 2 years than I've had in 7 I think :)

Yeah I know, I investigated and It looks like the PSU fan failed somewhere over the past couple of days, so the card change makes it just a coincidence. Crazy.

If I had known my PSU was about to konk out, I would have bought a new PSU instead of getting a more compatible graphics chip. Ugh.

Corsair 620w modular is nice.

Hmm, I've found a few cheaper but branded models, thermaltake for instance. I just found out my Mobo is fried so I don't think it really matters anymore. :-(

Sniffage.

"puki" feels your pain.