Upgrade my power supply for my X51?

[taketheredpill]

Let me start off by apologizing for my ignorance, I know very little about computers, my son is very much into them for gaming so when we moved him to a new town in 8th grade, my wife and I bought him an Alienware X51 as a gaming computer as a way to say "sorry that we are uprooting you from your life". We bought the computer last March, and I don't even know how to tell if it's an R1 or R2, or what that means for that matter. Then for Christmas, my son wanted to upgrade his graphics card from the stock Geforce GTX 660 to the Geforce GTX 660 SuperClocked. While I will admit to being ignorant when it comes to computers as a whole, I am not completely useless, therefore, my son and I installed the GTX 660 SC ourselves. Now, when he plays games the X51 randomly reboots all the time, so after some investigating, it seems that the 330w power supply is incapable of handling the GTX 660 SC. I registered an account on this site because it appears that many of the members are very knowledgeable and friendly, so I was hoping someone could tell me what I need to do to fix the issue. Is there a different power supply that I could purchase with higher wattage? If so where would I find such a thing? Also, are there any other components that I will need to replace as a byproduct of changing the graphics card? I know it seems like such a basic question, where to find an upgraded power supply to fit our X51, but I just don't understand all the requirements and technical jargon associated with computer components and I don't have a lot of money to take it to a computer expert, so I was hoping someone would be kind enough to say "you need _______ power supply, here is a link to it" I don't have anything to offer you other than my gratitude and I truly appreciate any help that you would give me. I will be checking this post every few minutes, so if there is any pertinent information that I have not mentioned I can find it quickly, if need be. Thanks again.
-Jimi

 

[ejohnson]

Sounds more like a overheating issue to me.
Check temps while gaming then report back.

The 330watt psu has been proven up to a gtx 680, even dell sells them with the 670s now too.

 

[taketheredpill]

How would I go about checking the temperature? I'm assuming there is something I'd have to buy, also, where would I take the temperature?

Oh, I see, I can download a program, I'll do it now and report back. Thanks ejohnson.

 

[taketheredpill]

Sounds more like a overheating issue to me.
Check temps while gaming then report back.

The 330watt psu has been proven up to a gtx 680, even dell sells them with the 670s now too.

operates around 55 most of the time but has gone as high as 70 C. Does that sound like the issue then, overheating?

When I put the 660 SC in there were two plugs but one was not plugged into the original 660, should I have plugged in both to the 660 SC?

 

[STDVirus]

honestly upgrading from a 660 to a 660 sc is going to be very minimal performance increase. and not really worth it unless you are getting it for free. If you want a decent upgrade the 670 would be a great upgrade of for a little less the 760. and the 330w PSU is tested to run both those cards.

 

[taketheredpill]

honestly upgrading from a 660 to a 660 sc is going to be very minimal performance increase. and not really worth it unless you are getting it for free. If you want a decent upgrade the 670 would be a great upgrade of for a little less the 760. and the 330w PSU is tested to run both those cards.

Ugh...no it wasn't free....my son said it would make a big difference for him, I just believed him because I figured he knew what he needed. I guess in hindsight, I should have asked around on a site like this BEFOREHAND. What about the crashing that I mentioned earlier? Would the 670 make that stop happening? Thanks for the tips.

 

[ejohnson]

If the gpu has 2 plugs on it, I would plug both into it.

 

[avintegritgy]

If you don't have both the power pigtails plugged in that is most likely your issue. If The card has it, it needs it for power.

 

[STDVirus]

Are you sure that you have a 330w PSU and not the 240w? Honestly the 240w should still be enough to power the 660. What is the system specs and what all do you have plugged into it? If its restarting could indicate a power drain somewhere. The 660 is only a 140w card I have a 680 and its a 195w card and i also have it set to use 120% power so if you have the 330w PSU then you shouldn't be having a power issue. Another thing is make sure you have the latest drivers for your card not sure if that would actually cause a restart or not but i will cash driver crashes.

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Oh and one of the easiest ways to tell if you have a R1 or R2 is if you look on the back and look at the USB ports if there is 2 blue ones you have a R1 if there is 4 blue ones you have a R2. Just FYI

 

[taketheredpill]

I will take the panel off tomorrow and see if both plugs can be put in, the reason I didn't use both the first time was because the 660 that came out only had one plug in it, so I thought the other was for something else.

Im sure its the 330w because I did see that on the specs, maybe Avintegritgy is right, maybe its not over heating, maybe I foolishly didn't plug in the other plug and its starving for power? I'll look tomorrow and write back.

Also, I really appreciate all the help that everyone has been, I'm glad I posted this thread, there is a lot of knowledge here.

 

[STDVirus]

Oh yeah i didn't notice the part where you didn't plug in both plugs for sure that's your problem. It Has to have both plugs to work right honestly i'm surprised it worked at all only having one in. That's good easy fix

 

[taketheredpill]

Oh yeah i didn't notice the part where you didn't plug in both plugs for sure that's your problem. It Has to have both plugs to work right honestly i'm surprised it worked at all only having one in. That's good easy fix

So we opened the tower again and the 660 SC only had one port for one of the plugs, I guess that wasn't it. I was really hoping that that was what I had missed.

 

[STDVirus]

It only has 1 6pin? that's odd the ti has 2 6pin plugs. The only other thing i can think of is make sure your ram is in firmly. Unless your PSU is bad.

 

[taketheredpill]

It only has 1 6pin? that's odd the ti has 2 6pin plugs. The only other thing i can think of is make sure your ram is in firmly. Unless your PSU is bad.

Would the second 6 pin port be right next to the first? Or in a different spot?

 

[sway]

The sec port is right under the first one, New gpus are gonna have 2. It's not just an empty hole.



tappin from the neXus 5

 

[taketheredpill]

cool, got it

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Thanks everyone, for your help