ATI HD 4670 issues

samo8076

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Hi guys i recently bought the new ATI HD 4670, i installed the card and ever since iv had problems with my wireless connection and external harddrive. If i have both plugged in the PC fails to start, if i have just one plugged in the PC boots but is seriously slow, i also cant see my xbox 360 anymore via the network. The 2 are connected via USB.

These issues have only started happening since i installed the card. Any ideas whats going on? Could this be a power issue?

Cheers
 
cheers for the reply...are replacement power supplies easy to install?
 
cheers for the reply...are replacement power supplies easy to install?

Hi samo, sorry to hear you're having troubles with the new card. Definitely sounds like your PSU is struggling to serve the card and supply your USB ports on top. (For what its worth, the HD3850 you were looking at would have been looking for even more juice).

Installing a power supply is surprisingly easy. If you open your case and have a look at where all the connectors are, they pretty much only fit in the right places. You said you had a standard width tower if I recall, so you should have a standard ATX power supply, which is good.

Do you know what wattage your current PSU is? It should say on a label on the side of it. I'm guessing it's low - 300W or so?
 
Hi Clunk, yeah the power supply is the standard 300w. What would i need to upgrade to? Im new topc upgrades so sorry if im asking simple questions, good news though i can now run crysis on High settings and stalker at pretty much max :)
 
Hi Clunk, yeah the power supply is the standard 300w. What would i need to upgrade to? Im new topc upgrades so sorry if im asking simple questions, good news though i can now run crysis on High settings and stalker at pretty much max :)
Well glad you're happy with the card - told you it was the business ;)

Right the first thing with PSU's (you aint gonna like this) is don't buy cheap. "Value" PSU's are usually well below their stated wattage and are far more likely to be noisy/have a short lifespan. As well as sellers' own value brands, also avoid cheap name brands like Sumvision, Winpower, etc.

Next, it depends what your plans are. Can you see yourself doing any more major upgrades to your PC? You've done the graphics card - this and the processor are the two biggest guzzlers of power in a machine. If you're going to be happy with your HD4670 card for a long old time, then really a good brand 400-500W PSU will be plenty for you.

You would only need to go any more than that if you're likely to upgrade to a high-end graphics card or change your motherboard and go SLI/crossfire (two graphics cards running in tandem), or upgrade to a very power-hungry CPU.

For your system as it stands, and still allowing for basic upgrades (additional drives, RAM, PCI card or additional USB devices), a decent but affordable PSU is the Hiper 4S425. It's rated at 425W (but has a maximum output of 495W). Ebuyer, Aria, Scan all do this model for about £20-25. I've used a couple of these in new builds and they are just the job. Typically though, I've just checked a few sites and they're out of stock!

If any major upgrades are likely in the future, then look for a 500W+ power supply by a good manufacturer (eg Corsair, Antec, OCZ). You'll be looking at £40+ for these, but it's an investment in the health of your PC.
 
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Or......................buy an externally powered USB Hub.

Cheap and cheerful solution brought to you by the BOGOF man!

At least it would be proof-positive fault finding exercise.
 
Or......................buy an externally powered USB Hub.

Cheap and cheerful solution brought to you by the BOGOF man!

At least it would be proof-positive fault finding exercise.
That's not a bad idea at all, at least in the short term.

Mind you, if your PSU is that close to its maximum output anyway, it's never a good thing - so if you do go this route, I'd save toward a better PSU anyway.
 
ahhhh cool, think il go with upgrading the psu though. £40 seems pretty fair to me, how about his one

iCute Titanium ATX Power Supply > Maplin

as for future upgrades i can see me sticking with the HD4670 for a while or until my pc cant run the latest games, i have been thinking about upgrading the processor to the most powerful i can get for the motherboard i have
 
ahhhh cool, think il go with upgrading the psu though. £40 seems pretty fair to me, how about his one

iCute Titanium ATX Power Supply > Maplin

Ugh no - if you're prepared to spend £40 then make it a good one. That one only has 20A on the 12V rail (the 12V rail or rails are the ones powering your CPU and video card) - you're looking for at least 25A combined, and ideally around 30A. This information isn't freely availbale on a lot of cheaper/unknown brands. Is there a reason you're looking at Maplin? Looking at their £20-50 section, they don't have one recognised PSU manufacturer in the list.

My suggestion for a £40 budget is this:
Hiper 580W Type-M Black PSU - SLI Certified with APFC - Ebuyer
It's a quality unit (I have one running almost silently in my main pc) with plenty of overhead for you. Looks nice too.
 
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i think il have to go with the Hiper 4S425, i cant find the 580w anywhere and i can of need the new power unit now.
 
i would go with something along the lines of a 700w PSU, that way its peice of mind and future proof
 
i would go with something along the lines of a 700w PSU, that way its peice of mind and future proof
A decent 700W PSU would be total overkill and cost £60-70.
A cheap (£20-30) 700W PSU would be a piece of ****, not achieve anywhere near that wattage safely, and be prone to failure with no decent warranty.

Seriously, a good quality 400-500W PSU is more than enough for all but higher end systems. But the emphasis is on good quality. If you've ever felt the weight of a cheap and nasty PSU and felt the weight of a decent one, you'll know what I mean. The difference in component quality is scary (eg between the Sumvision 450W I regretfully bought and my replacement Hiper 425W PSU) when you consider that this device is the heartbeat of your £300+£X,000 pride and joy.
 
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A decent 700W PSU would be total overkill and cost £60-70.
A cheap £20-30 PSU would be a piece of ****, not achieve anywhere near that wattage safely, and be prone to failure with no decent warranty.

Seriously, a good quality 400-500W PSU is more than enough for all but higher end systems.

Absolutely - my Antec 550w Trupower I bought 5 years ago for £100 has worked flawlessly with all the loading I give it.
2 x dvd writers
2 x HDs
8800 GTS gfx card
 
Just get this one ferchrissake :cool:

Corsair 450W VX 450W PSU - ATX12V v2.2 - Ebuyer[/URL]
An excellent PSU yes, if you have £50 to spend...
But then for that price I'd probably recommend the Hiper HPU-M580 for a few quid less and a bit more juice (and also a well built unit). Although I agree Corsair are damn fine PSU's.

The thing is, this isn't a new build and the original poster was not originally in the market for a PSU - just a decent but affordable video card upgrade. The PSU is an unbudgeted extra expense, hence my suggestion of the Hiper 4S425, which is a good brand 425W power supply which will do what he needs and do it well for around £20. If he is looking to invest for future upgrades etc, I would indeed recommend spending upward of £40 for higher wattage (but still decent brand) PSU.

The main point is to steer clear of the "high wattage", "high value", "highly explosive" budget variety.
 
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dont get too hung up over brand, just look at what specs are - I bought a Huntkey sli 550W psu from ebuyer some time ago turns out they actually make a lot of the expensive kit and were selling it direct now - had it over a year now and has been flawless running 6800gts in SLI and now my 8800GT.
 
dont get too hung up over brand, just look at what specs are - I bought a Huntkey sli 550W psu from ebuyer some time ago turns out they actually make a lot of the expensive kit and were selling it direct now - had it over a year now and has been flawless running 6800gts in SLI and now my 8800GT.
Good stuff. But each of those should work great on a decent 400W PSU too.

A brand name is by no means the be all and end all, and there are indeed lesser known but still sturdy and good spec PSU's about. It can be a bit of a lottery mind, and a potentially expensive one at that.
 
The 4670 is not a power hungry card. It doesn't even need an external power plug.

I have a 325W PSU running a power hungry X1800XT without incident (years).

AS for PSU's the Corsair's are gorgeous and rock solid as they are mostly rebadged SEasonic's (750W is by Channel).

I am looking at the new Enermax's with Bronze 80Plus awards (& BlueANgel, etc).

The 385W model reaches 87% odd efficiency around about 200W (claims 88%+) which is more than enough for a CPU (65W to 100W), yr 4670 (60W tops), HDD (20W), optical drives (15W), mobo & RAM (30W).

Obviously if you wire in 6 HDD's and run lots of external USB powered devices then the req goes up but still 350W looks like a pretty stacked system.
 
I have an Ati 4670 in my desktop ( 300psu) runs fine so far. According to all the tests it runs at a very low wattage even on full load and thus needs no external power connection. My desktop did come with an Nvidia 9500 GS, so I wanted a biut more grunt for flight sim. However, my 9500 GS seemed to run flight sim at better frame rates. i haven't tried any first person shooters yet apart from Far Cry which runs beautifully. Anyway back to task, what I'd like to know is why maufacturers insist on putting pissy little psus in new machines making it difficult to upgrade cards? I mean shouldn't a 500 PSU be industry standard...that would handle most single cards easily plus give people ample room to add extra drives etc.:lease:
 
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