Hey all,

I had an old power supply laying around and decided to check my suspision on the power issue.

I am running my hard drives and DVD and all the fans I could hook up from a secondary power supply. The main power supply is only powering the motherboard, the videocard and 1 fan.

In XP I have not have any problems yet, still have to try Windows 7 and let you all know.

I already ordered a 700W supply OCZ700MXSP, got good reviews and has 3 rails with a total of 50A support. At least power should not be the issue anymore.

Richard

Hey Richard!
Yep, you are on the right track.
430 watts with 20 amps on the 12 volt rail is very light for your rig.
I didn't realize you were running such a light PSU, and I'm surprised you don't have more problems!

I have several systems, but I have to wonder about the OCZ you ordered.
I'm sure it will be sufficient, but I have a 700 watt OCZ GamerXstreme with 4-12 volt rails .. 18 amps on each. (72 total)

I believe the one you ordered is actually dual rail with 25 amps on each.
The 3rd. 12 volt rail is a -12 volt if I am reading correctly.

Modular is nice though.

I also always look for a PSU with active PFC which yours has.

BTW:
If you ordered from Newegg, there is a $30 rebate on that PSU.

Good luck with getting everything sorted and running properly!

Yep the $30 rebate made the deal for me, you can order the 600 with $20 off, but it's the same price. Never had the modular, so we'll see.

After reading again, it is 2 rails with 50A. This should be more than enough for me though.

I'll keep you all updated if it works.

Richard

It will work just fine!
Plenty of power for what you need.

One word of caution!
Make sure everything is working as it should before you send in that rebate!
Newegg will not take any product back once you remove the UPC code from the package.

Their normal policy is usually 30 days for refund or exchange.
Removing the UPC code kills that policy.

I no longer buy any product with a rebate from Newegg for that reason.

I look for instant discounts and free shipping!!

I did have to return an OCZ PSU recently that shorted out after over a year of use.
OCZ was excellent about replacing it, except I had to pay for shipping to them.
Still not bad .. $10.90 to replace a PSU that was over a year old.
(3 year warranty)

I have had problems with OCZ rebates in the past though, so just don't do rebates any longer!

Keep us updated!!

Thank you for the information.

I will wait as long as I can with sending the rebate. It's a OCZ rebate of $30 making it a good deal.

I'll make sure everything is working, now I can't wait till it get's here, I'm home with a foot injury and will probably do a full re-install when everything works.

I'm thinking about booting into a SSD and keeping the pagefile and other temps/history/ documents on a hard drive I just bought.

I needed I have another smaller hard drive for a dual boot, so I can play this game if it doesn't work on windows 7.

But that is for another forum.

Thanks for all the help and I'll report back when the power supply is in on Thursday.

Richard

Hey Richard!
One other thing that may help in the future:

I use a program called Acronis that has saved me several times.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...Item=N82E16832200008

It makes a mirror image of your hard drive and can be restored to the exact state it was before any problems.
I always use it before I install a new game or program, or even a game patch or update.

Microsoft Netframe recently messed up one of my systems that created numerous problems and I was able to reinstate it to exactly how it was before the issue happened.

You can also install a new hard drive and clone your your old one to the new.
Many other functions that are very useful.

When I build new systems, I use Acronis as soon as I have the it up and running.
Then back up again, before and after installing drivers and Windows updates.

It sure beats having to reformat and reinstall everything if you run into a serious problem!!
It is best to save the image to a second hard drive or a different partition.

You can also create a boot disk in case of the very serious issue where you can no longer boot to Windows!

Note:
I think you are smart enough to read through the reviews and realize that some of the bad ratings are do more to peoples inexperience than the product itself.
(I am using Acronis on 6 computers are present)

I'm not promoting this product as there are others that will likely do the same thing and everyone has their preferences.
Acronis just happens to be the one I use and am familiar with.

You can research to make your own decisions!

I will be interested to see if this works for you.

If so I will check to see what kinda of power supply my Brother-in-law has and maybe see about an upgrade.

The strange thing is there is no issue running other 3d games, so why would this one overstress the PSU?

If other games are running properly, it likely isn't a PSU problem unless Vegas 2 is a power hog on CPU and GPU.
You would likely need good test equipment to determine what the power draw is under load with V2.

Found this online that may help understand the functions of a PSU.
I'm not sure it is all 100% accurate, but most of the basics are good and maybe give a better understanding of how they work!

Everything You Need To Know About Power Supplies

Well i'm having those problems too. But I really don't know what it's going on. When the Game starts it goes to the black screen, but it keeps with the sound running. I can even hear the mouse when pass through the selection part, but can't see even a light.

You don't mention your system configuation.

Did your video card pass the minimum requirements?
If it did, try updating your video drivers to the latest version.

I posted a link in this thread to Direct X redistributable with instructions.
You might also try that.

Well I don't know exact wich it's my configuration. But I do have a Toshiba Satellite A215-S5837.

But I'll update my drivers to see if it works.

I'm afraid you are fighting a losing battle with that laptop!
It has onboard graphics and there is no way to upgrade.

You might want to consider a decent desktop system with a good PCIe graphics card if you want to run modern games.

Here is one reference I found on your card:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/A...ss-X1200.3775.0.html

This card is very weak even if it wasn't onboard!!

As far as I know, that model has a Radeon IGP that only has shader 2.0 support, and I'm not certain, but I think the game requires a shader 3.0 capable one.

You are correct BTOG.
Both Vegas 1 and 2 require shader 3.0.

I can't seem to find many specs on this card, but it is onboard, and it is very weak.
Even if you could get Vegas 2 to run, it would be unplayable even at lowest settings.

Ahm, dmn't, well Thanks a log guys, I was trying to play anything more hardcore on my laptop but now I see that I'll have to keep playing The sims, Call of Duty and PES 2009, lol.

thanks a lot for the help