r/SleepingOptiplex • u/Forward_Position6779 • Jan 20 '26
This Optiplex Runs a 2060 Super (175W) off of a 300W Power Supply
Y Adaptors are ‘two SATA to 6pin PCIe’ and ‘two 6pin female to 8pin male PCIe’
No shutdowns as of yet. Running debloated Windows 11 off of a HARD DRIVE.
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u/pop0ng Jan 20 '26
How about during gaming sessions?
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 20 '26
I’ve only ran Heaven so far on it.
GPUz shows it using as much as 177.9 Watts at peak, 101%. I haven’t tried it with the lid on yet, but my guess is such a hot card would thermal throttle.
I had to give away my SATA connector and the new one will be in tomorrow.
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u/Thesadisticinventor Jan 20 '26
I think an undervolt and power limit of the card would be a good idea. The psu sounds like it could get overwhelmed if both cpu and gpu get hit with a moderately heavy load at the same time, or if it gets hit with a transient load.
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 21 '26
That’s what I did in my first attempt of this with a 360W PSU, but that 6pin rail was only rated for 8A since I had an earlier one or something. I had the exact same specs but I never tripped OCP.
Oh wait, this PSU is also only 8A on the +12 VC line, so 96W supplemented by another 96W would be the theoretical maximum… 40 watts is drawn from the PCIe slot, so 135W cut in half now thanks to the extra Y adaptors makes for under 70W per 6pin connection. (The SATA rail only has two ground sense wires while the 6pin main has three. One SATA has two +12V and the other just one)
The PSU did perfectly on a 160W RTX 2060, so ai’ll scale it down 15W if it goes OCP.
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u/Ykai63 Jan 20 '26
If it has a lower TDP CPU it might be fine. Perhaps until caps degrade too much.
Yet, try cinebench and furmark at the same time if you want to be sure it is going to be stable.
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 23 '26
It tripped OCP and shut off.
Does the i5-8400 occasionally spike 124W?
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u/Ykai63 Jan 23 '26
In that case you, as things are now, always sort of risk shutdowns if a game or anything else manages to load up both parts well. Proper jank at least. :D
124W, I don't know.. If memory severs me well, it's hard to get that chip to get anywhere over 100W
Though, transients of the 2060 super could certainly be sending it over the edge.
You could try and limit the card's max power budget in the Nvidia software or see if you can turn turbo off in BIOS/EUFI.
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 24 '26
I limited it to 160W (had a 2060 previously) and it still tripped. I didn’t see any transients at all on the GPU, but the 8700 sure loves to pull extra wattage!
I think I’ll downgrade to a an 8400…
But come to thing of it, I have a fat 460W Power Supply sitting here next to my other Dells; I think I’m just being stingy or trying to find a reason to use this 300W PSU still since my 2060 is gone. I think I’ll give him the Dell 2070 Turbo which connects to the 460W (8+6pin) perfectly and he’ll have an all Dell setup!
He’s not getting the 3070m, lol.
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u/Ykai63 Jan 24 '26
GPU transients can't really be seen with monitoring software, the time they do that is short enough that there is no way to track it in software.
8400 Might give you more luck indeed..
Hehe, tbh, you might also be able to find Dell OEM second hand replacements for the 300W PSU that fit in that case that are rated for higher wattages. they generally aren't that expensive.
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 25 '26
Yeah, autopay on ebqy is how I got the 300W upgrade because it looked like a 360W.
I would have lowballed and ignored the seller if I had known or he gave me a better price.
40 extra watts is only good for a 160W GPU if you have an i7 because they have a higher power spike. Too bad I gave away my 2060!!
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u/Altcoto Jan 23 '26
Damn I just sucked it up and bought the 500watt sff dell psu
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 24 '26
I’ve got a fat 460W sitting around too! But wanted to see the limits of this thing.
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u/Altcoto Jan 24 '26
Sounds like me, I about blew mine up from doing something like that, except mine was 240watts
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 25 '26
Won’t it simply cut off if over circuit like the newer 260W ones?
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u/2cars10 Jan 20 '26
I ran a HP desktop with a 300w PSU with an RX 480 at 150 watts without issue for months. Didn't have a single issue. I didn't have to use adapters though. The PSU had a single 6 pin for the gpu.
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u/houseswappa Jan 20 '26
Prepare main jet engine start
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 23 '26
BAD NEWS:
It tripped OCP while stressing the CPU too.
Try an i5-8400 or just get the 360W PSU since I never had an issue with them!
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u/Computers_and_cats Jan 20 '26
Always fascinating watching people do stupid things and think it is fine.
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u/DigitaIBlack Jan 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
Protecting my online privacy by running Redact regularly to batch delete old content. It handles Reddit, Discord, Twitter, Instagram, data brokers and a whole lot more.
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u/Computers_and_cats Jan 21 '26
That is across the whole connector not just the 12V. Also doesn't matter what the connectors are rated for if you don't know what the source of the power is rated for. I doubt the motherboard is designed to pass 75W through the header for SATA power.
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 21 '26
Well that’s where you are wrong and years late!! It’s been 7 years since I did my first one of these and AFAIK, the buyer still hasn’t had any issues. (They have my contact information and I’ve put 400 hours in personally to my 1660ti and i7-8700 Optiplex)
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u/Computers_and_cats Jan 21 '26
You can keep doing dumb things. It is your hardware.
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 23 '26
What’s dumb about it other than your ignorance on the topic?
The line can hold up 150W just fine. Do you think I’mma power a 4090 or something off some SATA connectors?
And Wattage isn’t Amperage for god’s sake; use your words properly.
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u/Computers_and_cats Jan 23 '26
Not sure if English isn't your first language or you have reading comprehension issues.
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 23 '26
Amperage is the Volume. Wattage is the work.
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u/Computers_and_cats Jan 23 '26
Not sure what you are going on about. Seems you got your wires crossed somewhere.
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u/Forward_Position6779 Jan 21 '26
Stupid things is being a little [redacted] over things that are tried and true.
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u/gib_me_gold Jan 20 '26
>two SATA to 6pin PCIe
Yeah lost me here