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| November 14, 2012, 2:44 pm |
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Sony VAIO VGC-RA840G Power Supply Question |
will1
Rank: Sony Fan
Joined: Sep 30, 2007
Posts: 3
From: Arizona
 |  Posted: 2007-10-01 00:29
I was wondering if someone could provide some technical assistance or advice on upgrading the power supply for my Sony VAIO VGC-RA840G. According to specs, this desktop comes with an ATI Radeon® X300, 128 DDR SDRAM video card and the Power Requirements is 364.7 watts max. / 100-240V ~7A (50/60Hz). I assume this is the power supply's rating. I purchased new software that requires a better video card to run. Then, I purchased an ATI x1650 Pro video card but noticed it requires a 550 Watt or better power supply to run. Can anyone help me figure out if my current power supply can be upgraded to the 550 Watt requirement? More specifically, can I purchase an aftermarket power supply rated at 550 watts or better and plug it in with no problems? And, will output voltages from the new power supply damage any of the Sony installed hardware or motherboard? Thanks.
[ This message was edited by: will1 on 2007-10-01 00:32 ]
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NiteHawk
Rank: Ultimate Sony Reviewer
Joined: Oct 25, 2001
Posts: 2596
From: Poughkeepsie, New York
 |  Posted: 2007-10-01 12:02
Welcome to the forum. The power rating of 550 seems kind of high, so I checked and found the minimum rating to be around 350W for the ATI x1650 pro.
You should have no problems upgrading your video card with your current power supply. Besides, I've been hearing horror stories that the only aftermarket power supply that will work is from Sony. 
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will1
Rank: Sony Fan
Joined: Sep 30, 2007
Posts: 3
From: Arizona
| Posted: 2007-10-01 13:38
Thanks for the reply NiteHawk! Where did you see the minimum power requirement for the Diamond Viper X1650 PRO video card?
I haven't opened the box but the system requirements on the outside say "550 Watt power supply or greater, 38 Amps on 12 volt rail recommended PCI-E compliant power supply required, (ATX 2.0 or higher). Called Sony tech support and they refused to give any advice/assistance on upgrading the VAIO.
I'm am worried if I upgrade the power supply to 550 watts or higher the plugs may not be the same if they are proprietary or worse, if incorrect output voltages are sent to other hardware or motherboard. If the X1650 Pro will work on less wattage than what the box says I'll be in business.
 Thanks, Will1
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jttar
Moderator
Premium Member
Rank: Sony Master
Joined: Feb 28, 2003
Posts: 9156
From: Chicago,IL, USA
 | Posted: 2007-10-01 22:05
On 2007-10-01 13:38, will1 wrote:
I'm am worried if I upgrade the power supply to 550 watts or higher the plugs may not be the same if they are proprietary or worse, if incorrect output voltages are sent to other hardware or motherboard.
Will1,
Greetings and welcome!
Apparently, the specs for the ATI X1650 vary depending on where you look. At the ATI Diamond Pro site HERE, it lists needing a 420 watt power supply or greater. Hmmm?
I personally would follow NiteHawk's advice and try the video card with your existing power supply and see how it performs.
If you do decide to upgrade to a more powerful power supply do not be concerned with having the wrong output voltages to you existing hardware or motherboard. The higher wattage of the new power supply will not increase the voltage to the existing components, it still will only supply 12V on red and 5V on yellow wire connectors. The advantage of a higher wattage power supply is it's ability to run more hardware like extra CD/DVD ROM drives or additional Hard Drives etc. or as in your case a higher end video card.
Joe
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will1
Rank: Sony Fan
Joined: Sep 30, 2007
Posts: 3
From: Arizona
| Posted: 2007-10-02 12:29
Thanks Joe,
You are correct. The power rating/specs are different in DIAMOND website vs the box. I'll look over the power supply and give it a try. Just wanted to make sure cause I read several horror stories on forums related to upgrades.
Will 
[ This message was edited by: will1 on 2007-10-02 12:45 ]
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jttar
Moderator
Premium Member
Rank: Sony Master
Joined: Feb 28, 2003
Posts: 9156
From: Chicago,IL, USA
| Posted: 2007-10-02 19:50
Will,
Please post back and let us know how the ATI X1650 works in your VGC-RA840G. Your results may be able to help other forum members in the future.
Best of luck.
Joe
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Cmurder
Rank: Sony Fan
Joined: Nov 03, 2010
Posts: 3
From: seattle
 | Posted: 2010-11-03 05:07
Did the ATI x1650 Pro work with original power supply? And did you have 2 of em inside or just 1? I'm thinking of getting two ATI x1650's for my outdated vaio.
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Korsair2012
Rank: Sony Fan
Joined: Oct 02, 2012
Posts: 1
From: San Francisco
| Posted: 2012-10-02 15:27
Well it's 2012 now and I needed to upgrade my video card.
I was hoping that someone else would have replied. I ended up upgrading last night to: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/PNY+-+GeForce+GT+620+1GB+DDR3+PCI+Express+2.0+Graphics+Card/5594316.p?id=1218670821938&skuId=5594316
24 hours later it's still running and the power supply seems to be holding alright. I wanted to improve the graphics since I was planning to use this system as a DVR. The 840 has 8 TB of storage (across 3 HDDs) and the PS seem to be happy. I did upgrade to Win 7 and I removed the two cards that were in the PCI slots.
For the digital tuner I am using an HD Homerun and then using the ethernet connection to rececived the digital signal.
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