Thank you guys for all your informative advice, an absolute tour the force of information. Nice to go back to using measurements such as volts and amps which I haven't revisited since my school days. Who can forget those circuit boards. I see now the importance that a good power supply is in today´s PC setup.
Well after some careful reading (thank you Freil for the link) I'm beginning to understand the label on the PSU, which in itself is great.
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In the photo above the 500W PS's +12V " rail can supply 16A. I don't know what the spec is for the 460 card. Plugging in multiple connectors doubles the amperage. i.e.: for my 590 card it requires 50+ amps of current and my +12V rails can supply 35A (1.2kW PS) thus it has two 6 pin connectors plugged into the card to meet this requirement.
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So if understand this rightly using "Amps multiplied by Voltage equals Watts" equation, then a single 12v rail @ 16a has a 192 Watt capacity, that box can then be ticked, I now have to add all the different components and add the combined usage while taking care of the rail limitations. Using the PSUcalculator website gives me a recommended PSU of 430 watts (This figure seems low so I will need to double check). I note that Darkwraiths 12v rails @ 35a combined gives a 840 watt capacity! Impressive stuff.
With this new perspective I decided to open her up again. Now I am a little perplexed, as there isn't a 2x2 4 cable plugged directly to the GT 9500, it seems connected directly to the motherboard as per the picture below. So does this mean that the 12v rail feeds the motherboard directly by-passing the card?
Which cable corresponds to which rail? Perhaps I´m getting a bit ahead of myself, as there is no need for this much detail, but one question seems to always lead to another.
As you can see, this thread has now morphed to a completely new beast, not so much now about budget card but more about specification requirements. It´s slowly becoming apparent that it might be worth spending more on a decent setup.
Here below is what Is the PSU that I believe will meet all the requirements, for only 80 euros it should hopefully avoid any pitfalls.
OCZ PC StealthXStream II 700 W
- 700W Configurations
- 150 x 140 x 86mm (W x L x H)
- ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V
- Main connector: 20+ 4-pin ATX
- Non-Modular
- High efficiency:
- 83% @ 115V (Typical load)
- 85% @ 230V (Typical load)
- 80+ Certified
- Overvoltage/Overcurrent/Short-Circuit protection
- Active PFC
- MTBF:100,000 hours
- OCZ PowerWhisper Technology
- 120mm ball-bearing fan
- 3 year warranty backed by OCZ's exclusive
- PowerSwap Warranty replacement program.
- 700W Connectors
- 20+4-pin ATX
- 4+4-pin CPU
- 6-pin PCI-E
- 6+2-pin PCI-E
- 6 x Peripheral
- 2 x Floppy
- 6 x SATA
- Output: +3.3V@25A,+5V@25A,+12V1@18A, +12V2@18A, ,+12V3@18A, +12V4@18A- 12V@0.8A,+5VSB @ 3.0A