Enough power?

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · Aug 25, 2003, 06:24 AM

guys look at my stats below... tell me if a 350w PSU is fine for it? ive never had a problem.. but sometimes having less power can give less performance. mine runs awesome jus doing a check. when had a 250w psu on my old 800 athlon (whoever remembers) and got a 400w on it later i got 20 fps higher on it and smoother operation.

its only a check not having any issues

Dom · Aug 25, 2003, 06:28 AM

350w is minimal, a 420/430w PSU would suit you just fine.

***craig5320*** · Aug 25, 2003, 06:33 AM

it's quite a hefty load, and if you want peace of mind that your psu isn't effecting performace or gonna go with a bang i'd upgrade it, if it suits you as it is, leave it be, I'm running a similar set-up on a 350w and i've had no problems.

Matth · Aug 26, 2003, 10:56 PM

A good quality 350w is probably the equal of a cheap 400, 450, maybe even 550, so don't jump from the frying pan into the fire - if you need more power than the 350w Antec, you also need it from a name as good or better or you might be making a backward step!

Logla · Aug 26, 2003, 11:16 PM

I've made the mistake of buying a cheap quality 400watt PSU and regretted it within2 weeks. I had to go buy new motherboard cos of what that cheap crap did to my system.

With PSUs, it really, really pays to get the best you can afford and remeber - its quality not necessarly quantity (#of watts) your after.

Judas · Aug 27, 2003, 05:20 AM

I had an enermax 300 watt... that baby was good...

But get this... i ran the following:

AMD 600Mhz Athlon Classic Slot A
Abit KA7-100
512Mb of PC133 ram
16Mb Voodoo 3 3000 agp @ 220Mhz
SBlive Value
USR 56K Modem
3 80mm fans + slot fan (not includeing cpu fans or PSU)
Netgear NIC
CD-RW
CD-ROM
2 HDs
1 Floppy
And all the case options

Surprisingly, i was told my PSU would handle it.. (250 watt i was told)

i was really iffy...

Later, (about 1 year)..... i learned alot more about computers and decided to take a good ol look at my PSU..

I WAS RUNNING 125 WATT INTEL PSU

(was orginally for a celron 333 and 128mb ram with one HD etc)

I'm so lucky i didn't mess anything up.....

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · Aug 27, 2003, 05:22 AM

nothing beats the classic slot A man! 200 mhz FSB!

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · Aug 27, 2003, 05:23 AM

but yea so should i change... mine looks dependable i forgot which brand PSU...

and btw is there a damn bday thead for me? i dont want to be rude and not reply lol

Judas · Aug 27, 2003, 05:24 AM

Yes there is a Bday thread...

To me, i think a 300 watt would be MINIUM... i'd recommend a 350 for sure..... 400 would really be great....

Robert McClelland · Aug 28, 2003, 04:51 AM

You want be carefull you don't want fry your mobo if you have to much juice. I have 160 watts and runs great and runs cold

And I get 8850 by defult on my ait card

If your mother board is big ya then you need big power watt supply if small sick with smaller watts. If not you going fry your system up.

Asmoday · Aug 28, 2003, 05:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Robert McClelland
You want be carefull you don't want fry your mobo if you have to much juice. I have 160 watts and runs great and runs cold And I get 8850 by defult on my ait card If your mother board is big ya then you need big power watt supply if small sick with smaller watts. If not you going fry your system up.

Excuse me...but..what are you talking about??

...You can't hurt your mobo by having a psu with a high watt rating...can somebody who has English as a native language explain this to Rob here....(i'm not sure how to explain it correctly in English

)

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · Aug 28, 2003, 05:49 AM

aight... i jus want to be sure ah ill stay wit 350w watts then

and yes i visited the thread

Judas · Aug 28, 2003, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Robert McClelland
You want be carefull you don't want fry your mobo if you have to much juice. I have 160 watts and runs great and runs cold And I get 8850 by defult on my ait card If your mother board is big ya then you need big power watt supply if small sick with smaller watts. If not you going fry your system up.

You cannot fry a system or motherboard with to much power..... enless that power is not used properly...

The motherboard will automatically adjust it's needs to the power supply...however, when it comes to not having enough, that's when things go terribly wrong....

I replaced a 50 watt PSU with a 300 in my 90mhz tiny machine.... if anything, it works rather more cleanly because not only does the system have more power then need which releives the PSU from doing more work.... but because the brand of PSU i had gotten..... I can make any upgrade i want to without the worry of something going or using just a tad bit to much power...

As long as the PSU has it's set SAFETY standards and power Standards set right, you'll never go wrong with more power then you need.....

**MIG-31** · Aug 28, 2003, 07:39 AM

i had from last week a 300w jeantech psu that suddonly produced a very big blue flash from the back of my case follwed with a very loud bang!

psu started smoking had to quickly get the thing out of my pc due to it started smouldering aswell.duncked it in water the make sure it don't catch fire! also burnt my case.

hard to say if it developed a fault or were a little under powered due to all the usual to power 2 hdd's 2 case fans.

had to go out and fetch new psu & case a jeanteach black butterfly with a 400w jeantech psu.

rushed back in a little panic due to not knowing if it had taken anything else out but luckily it didn't (big sigh of releif)

and now everything seams to be running better since the change from a couple of days ago.

so i would probably prefer more power than whta i'd need for any upgrdes in the future than have less and risk loosing my rig.

butterfly case

Judas · Aug 28, 2003, 07:51 AM

You WANT to have more power then what is needed..... even more power then what is needed after some upgrades...... i take into consideration of what motherboard i'm buying (because in the end, it'll tell me what it's maxium is).. and what i'll end up considering as maxium...

From there, i buy on that.... what is the maxium CPU i can put in there...maxium ammount of ram....etc.... and then buy a psu...

I was going to go for 400 watts with my system but 350 had to do till i could afford 400 or more....

~~HawK~~ · Aug 28, 2003, 08:23 AM

I have about the same rig as yours, which had also a 350w (cheap) PSU
Changed for a 550watt (Qtec) and my system is runnin so much better
& 3dm2k1 went up from 9450 to 10665 (standard settings)

**Roadee** · Aug 28, 2003, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by BiGBrOWnPimpsta
aight... i jus want to be sure ah ill stay wit 350w watts then

and yes i visited the thread

Your power supply should be ok with what you are running, as long as it is a quality unit. Keep in mind just because it is called a 350w....doesn't mean that it is. Take a look on the data sticker, and see what amp rating is on each rail, as in 3, 5, and 12. Also if you are using MBM5 watch what your voltages are for each rail, if they are having a problem keeping the proper voltage rating, then it is time for you to upgrade before you burn something up.

If a power supply gets overloaded, it will fail, and can take your entire system with it. If you leave your computer on all day and you aren't home......you may not have a home to come back to. Something else I noticed is that you never mentioned what else you have hooked up to your system, as in USB devices and things like that. All of which require power. Each item you have in your computer will have a watt draw rating, though sometimes hard to find, and then you can just add everything up. If I am not mistaken, on the Enermax site they have a table listing items and approximate amount of watts needed for it. And you do have to include everything, keyboard, mouse, modem, fan controller, case fans.......everything. And add it all up for each voltage rail.

From what I have seen on various other sites, to include the Enermax and Antec sites, you should be running 400+ power supply with your system, the higher the better.

Check out this link for the AMD white papers to help you out.......also run a search on Enermax as well as Toms Hardware for power supplies, you will find some very useful articles.

AMD Builder's Guide

Hope this helps you out.

Aug 25, 2003, 06:24 AM	#1
BiGBrOwNPimpsta HH's #1 Hustla and Pimp Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Dirty Dot Posts: 7,717 Rep Power: 107 System Specs	Enough power? guys look at my stats below... tell me if a 350w PSU is fine for it? ive never had a problem.. but sometimes having less power can give less performance. mine runs awesome jus doing a check. when had a 250w psu on my old 800 athlon (whoever remembers) and got a 400w on it later i got 20 fps higher on it and smoother operation. its only a check not having any issues __________________ Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music \| Logitech Z-5500 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers \| 2 Lite-On 20x S-ATA Burners \| Logitech G700 Mouse \| Logitech MX5500 Bluetooth Keyboard

Aug 25, 2003, 06:33 AM	#3
*craig5320* HH Administrator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 8,568 Rep Power: 445 System Specs	it's quite a hefty load, and if you want peace of mind that your psu isn't effecting performace or gonna go with a bang i'd upgrade it, if it suits you as it is, leave it be, I'm running a similar set-up on a 350w and i've had no problems. __________________ HardwareHeaven on Facebook

Aug 27, 2003, 05:22 AM	Thread Starter #7
BiGBrOwNPimpsta HH's #1 Hustla and Pimp Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Dirty Dot Posts: 7,717 Rep Power: 107 System Specs	nothing beats the classic slot A man! 200 mhz FSB! __________________ Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music \| Logitech Z-5500 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers \| 2 Lite-On 20x S-ATA Burners \| Logitech G700 Mouse \| Logitech MX5500 Bluetooth Keyboard

Aug 27, 2003, 05:23 AM	Thread Starter #8
BiGBrOwNPimpsta HH's #1 Hustla and Pimp Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Dirty Dot Posts: 7,717 Rep Power: 107 System Specs	but yea so should i change... mine looks dependable i forgot which brand PSU... and btw is there a damn bday thead for me? i dont want to be rude and not reply lol __________________ Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music \| Logitech Z-5500 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers \| 2 Lite-On 20x S-ATA Burners \| Logitech G700 Mouse \| Logitech MX5500 Bluetooth Keyboard

Aug 28, 2003, 04:51 AM	#10
Robert McClelland PAX Tweaker, PAX Expert. Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Somewhere in Wood County Ohio Same Town :) Posts: 10,648 Rep Power: 196 System Specs	You want be carefull you don't want fry your mobo if you have to much juice. I have 160 watts and runs great and runs cold And I get 8850 by defult on my ait card If your mother board is big ya then you need big power watt supply if small sick with smaller watts. If not you going fry your system up. __________________ "XTREME AUDIO IS CRAP!" "There no support for it. It's crapist card on face of the earth it should be throw into the sun" http://www.speedtest.net/result/1949536385.png

Aug 25, 2003, 06:28 AM	#2
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	350w is minimal, a 420/430w PSU would suit you just fine.

Aug 26, 2003, 10:56 PM	#4
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	A good quality 350w is probably the equal of a cheap 400, 450, maybe even 550, so don't jump from the frying pan into the fire - if you need more power than the 350w Antec, you also need it from a name as good or better or you might be making a backward step!

Aug 26, 2003, 11:16 PM	#5
Logla HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 3,311 Rep Power: 0	I've made the mistake of buying a cheap quality 400watt PSU and regretted it within2 weeks. I had to go buy new motherboard cos of what that cheap crap did to my system. With PSUs, it really, really pays to get the best you can afford and remeber - its quality not necessarly quantity (#of watts) your after.

Aug 28, 2003, 05:49 AM	Thread Starter #12
BiGBrOwNPimpsta HH's #1 Hustla and Pimp Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Dirty Dot Posts: 7,717 Rep Power: 107 System Specs	aight... i jus want to be sure ah ill stay wit 350w watts then and yes i visited the thread __________________ Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music \| Logitech Z-5500 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers \| 2 Lite-On 20x S-ATA Burners \| Logitech G700 Mouse \| Logitech MX5500 Bluetooth Keyboard

Aug 28, 2003, 07:39 AM	#14
MIG-31 HardwareHeaven News Mod Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Nottingham,UK Posts: 56,821 Rep Power: 471 System Specs	i had from last week a 300w jeantech psu that suddonly produced a very big blue flash from the back of my case follwed with a very loud bang! psu started smoking had to quickly get the thing out of my pc due to it started smouldering aswell.duncked it in water the make sure it don't catch fire! also burnt my case. hard to say if it developed a fault or were a little under powered due to all the usual to power 2 hdd's 2 case fans. had to go out and fetch new psu & case a jeanteach black butterfly with a 400w jeantech psu. rushed back in a little panic due to not knowing if it had taken anything else out but luckily it didn't (big sigh of releif) and now everything seams to be running better since the change from a couple of days ago. so i would probably prefer more power than whta i'd need for any upgrdes in the future than have less and risk loosing my rig. butterfly case __________________ Please Post Your News Submissions Here Last edited by MIG-31; Aug 28, 2003 at 07:46 AM.

Aug 28, 2003, 08:23 AM	#16
~~HawK~~ Banned Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 2,092 Rep Power: 0	I have about the same rig as yours, which had also a 350w (cheap) PSU Changed for a 550watt (Qtec) and my system is runnin so much better & 3dm2k1 went up from 9450 to 10665 (standard settings)