Installing Sapphire X1950XT

[John Saito]

I am upgrading my video card and I am stumped by the power connector. My power supply from PC Power and Cooling has the correct PCI-E connectors coming right out of the power supply. However, a sticker on the card's anti-static bag shows that you have to connect the video card to a PCI-E connector on a cable supplied with the video card, which then connects to the power supply and hard drive. Why can't I just connect the card to the PCI-E connector from the power supply, without involving the hard drive? Instructions are lame and do not tell why the recommended setup is needed. :confused:

[Rob]

Is the video card a PCI-E video card?

That description sounds like it is meant to be used by those that do not have the PCI-E power connector coming from the power supply. I think the video card should be able to accept your PCI-E connection directly from the power supply, meaning the PCI-E connector from the power supply is a 6-pin connector and the video card should accommodate this 6-pin connection being made directly to it.

[John Saito]

Rob

Yes. It is a PCI-E video card. Thank you for your quick answer. It was most reassuring. The manual on the CD, the quick start guide, and the manual on the Sapphire web site are all silent on this issue. I hope this short exchange on your forum might help someone else in the future. I will let you know how things go, but I am sure you are correct about this. I thought it may have something to do with the hard drive actually needing to share power with the video card, but all the other forums talk about how much of a power hungry card this is, so why would it share a power cable? Far better to have its own PCI-E cable, as I have with the Power PC and Cooling PSU.

John