Need some advise

[KTimm]

I have been looking at this card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143046

And this power supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817171018

I was looking at the power supply because my old one is only 350 watts. I am trying to keep this whole upgrade under $300. In the specs for the card it says it needs a 12v current ratin of 20 amps or more. Does having 2 12v16a equal 32 amps or am I way off on this? Also it says it needs and availible hard disk drive power dongle. Is this something that comes with the power supply? Is this really all worth it or should I hold off for a new system? I only play sim racing games rfactor and nr2003. I am just looking for better performance in rfactor. Here is what I have. Any help would be great for I know very little about this subject.
Mother board- MSIK8N NEO
Processor - AMD64 3200+
RAM - 1.5gb pc3200
current card - FX5700LE

 

[PorscheMaD911]

You could just go for a 7600 GT. They're cheaper, and I've got an Antec 350W power supply, and it handles mine perfectly. Gives nice graphics in GT Legends, GTR, RFactor etc too.

 

[JPB]

Yea, he could go with the GT, but the 7800GS that he is looking as probably assumes he has AGP and not PCI-e. I think the psu your looking at and the video card would go very well together. However, the option is there for a X1950 Pro agp.

 

[john49]

I did a test, my computer isn't top of the line by any means, but... it is a A64 3400, Abit An8 motherboard,ddr400,Ati 1800XL pci'e video, dvd burner and cd rom, one ide hard drive, 2 usb's connected, 2-120 mm fans, 2-90 mm fans.
This motherboard also has two small fans built onto it that blows out the rear of the case. I hooked up a power supply from a Dell, a 215 watt psu. It has one 12 vt, rail and says 18 amps.
Had to use a adapter 20 to 24 pin mother board connecter, adapter for the pci-e video card, the psu did have a 4 pin mb connector tho.
Turned it on and everything worked ok, i tried games of NFS Carbon, FEAR, and PREY, tho i could tell performance was low, no problems,reboots, or anything, and checking voltage, 12 volt never went below 11.50, other voltages stayed at what they were with no load.
Just goes to show i think a lot of us, including me, thinks we have to have way more power than what we need. Sure i know, and wouldnt want to use this psu full time, but it did work.
I did this while waiting on my new psu to arrive, a Fortron 500 watt. yes when i put the new one in, it ran better by a lot, it has 2 -12 volt rails of 15amp and 16 amp. Seat of the pants "feel" is a lot better. Stable 12+ volts no matter what. I know this isn't by any means a scientific test, but just to show how small a psu "will" run a computer that isn't "too" old.LOL
I have also saw many reviews of the Fortron 500 running ati19xx video cards without problems, and stable. So i know its plenty for my 1800. if ya want to know exactly what psu it is, i got it here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104934