My Computer beats all odds!! 200 WATT generic PSU FTW!

[Xecutioner07]

Ladies and Gents, i just wanted to let you all know of my amazing feat. I bought my Computer in 2002, a HP computer that came with the following

PC in 2002:
2.53 GHZ P4
2 Fans
512 MB of Ram PC 2700
2 optical drives(DVD-ROM and CD-RW)
80GB HD 7200 RPM
Integrated graphics card
Floppy
Onbaord sound
200 WATT GENERIC PSU

Now over the time, i needed to upgrade my computer, and soon i began researching, wanting more parts for my computer, but EVERYONE would say you cant run any other parts because of your weak PSU. Well, i didnt listen, i was stuborn, so i went on, in 2004 i upgraded to a 9800pro, and it worked!!!!, then 512MB of extra ram to 1 GB and it worked!!!! Now last week, i went to get a Creative XFI, i really thought my PSU would beat all odds again, and it did without a hitch!!! My love it, and its completly stable!!!! Though from time to time i hear a little weird fan noise lol!!!! SO far its been running perfectly for years!

PC NOW:
2.53 GHZ P4
2 Fans
1GB of Ram PC 2700
2 optical drives(DVD-ROM and CD-RW)
80GB HD 7200 RPM
9800pro
Creative XFI Xtremem music
Floppy
200 WATT GENERIC PSU

 

[ArbY]

Why not see how far you can push that little thing?

All you need to do is upgrade a few components. Hmmm...
ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe + Core 2 Extreme X6800 + 4GB DDR2-1066 + two (2) NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 in Quad-SLI + five (5) WD Raptors in RAID array + Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite 7.1

All you need is a little faith, and a lotta money!

 

[Xecutioner07]

I think ive pushed it enough. Is there anyway i can check the rails on this thing? I bet there very low lol. :lol:

 

[177ine177ine]

Should say on the label on the PSU

 

[waylander]

It should say on the psu, i would check the voltages in bios as well to see how stable they are...

Staying stable when adding ram and a sound card doesn't surprise me as they don't run off the 12v line.

The 9800pro is not that demanding either.

I wouldn't add too much else, especially anything that runs off the 12v rail such as hdd's, extra optical drives or fans.

 

[kmjohnso]

Not that amazing that it runs stable. The max power usage of that setup using all the components at 100% utilization would be <250W (using eXTreme PSU calc). I think most people just prefer to spend the couple extra bucks for a bit of safety.

 

[Xecutioner07]

Well on the PSU it says this

12V---/6A

the company name of the PSU is Hipro.

 

[AntiHax0r]

OC that northwood... maybe that will bring it down

 

[oldgreyhead]

Maybe you brighten up the inside of your pc by planting some seeds in that dirt at the bottom of your case.

:lol:

 

[Xecutioner07]

I was thinking of putting some tulips in the case, the dirt seems very full of nutrients! :lol:

Though i cant OC the P4, the HP crap mobo blocks it and i cant OC it.
I did OC the 9800pro though.

 

[ArbY]

Is there anyway i can check the rails on this thing? I bet there very low lol. :lol:

Yeah there is, and it's a fairly painless procedure.

First things first. Extract the PSU from your case and remove the metal top (or lid). This should expose the innards of the PSU (what we're interested in are the capacitors at this point).

Get a piece of aluminum foil, about 4 x 2 inches.
Proceed to wrap your primary index finger with the foil. You'll want to try and cover as much surface area as possible during this procedure, namely the tip of the finger.
This foil will act as an insulator during the test.
Acquire a light bulb (best if 55W or greater). If you have an extra laying around the house, that'll work ... or you can unscrew one (temporarily) from a light socket or lamp.
The light bulb will provide the voltage readings.
Use some thermal paste and spread a thin coating over the surface of your tongue (~0.0001 in.). If you don't have any thermal paste on hand, licking the residue off your current Heatstink/Fan will suffice. This may seem a bit awkward, but you need only to avoid swallowing for just a few minutes more at this point.
Place the light bulb in your mouth, achieving a centralized resting position on the tongue.
Go back to the lidless PSU.
Locate the largest capacitor and proceed to place and hold your primary index finger against it. The light bulb should illuminate almost instanty. The brightness of the bulb should directly indicate the efficiency of electrical flow through the PSU.

Report back your findings here!


There is a more "tasteful" method in which the light bulb rests in a different spot. Though I won't explain it, nor would I recommend it if you've eaten an extra spicy cheese enchilada.

 

[dean7]

Fairly painless, huh? If xecutioner suddenly quits posting on these forums, you'll feel bad buddy

 

[Xecutioner07]

Though really, i cant check the voltages in the BIOS, its a bad bios lol.
I forgot to mention that the hard drive is also a upgraded version.

I wuv my little PSU.

 

[Mizerie]

Is there anyway i can check the rails on this thing? I bet there very low lol. :lol:

Yeah there is, and it's a fairly painless procedure.

First things first. Extract the PSU from your case and remove the metal top (or lid). This should expose the innards of the PSU (what we're interested in are the capacitors at this point).

Get a piece of aluminum foil, about 4 x 2 inches.
Proceed to wrap your primary index finger with the foil. You'll want to try and cover as much surface area as possible during this procedure, namely the tip of the finger.
This foil will act as an insulator during the test.
Acquire a light bulb (best if 55W or greater). If you have an extra laying around the house, that'll work ... or you can unscrew one (temporarily) from a light socket or lamp.
The light bulb will provide the voltage readings.
Use some thermal paste and spread a thin coating over the surface of your tongue (~0.0001 in.). If you don't have any thermal paste on hand, licking the residue off your current Heatstink/Fan will suffice. This may seem a bit awkward, but you need only to avoid swallowing for just a few minutes more at this point.
Place the light bulb in your mouth, achieving a centralized resting position on the tongue.
Go back to the lidless PSU.
Locate the largest capacitor and proceed to place and hold your primary index finger against it. The light bulb should illuminate almost instanty. The brightness of the bulb should directly indicate the efficiency of electrical flow through the PSU.

Report back your findings here!


There is a more "tasteful" method in which the light bulb rests in a different spot. Though I won't explain it, nor would I recommend it if you've eaten an extra spicy cheese enchilada.
Your directions on this procedure are quite detailed. You must have tried it once already :lol:
Was certainly funny though, would love to see some newbie try it and give us the benchmarks on it.

-Miz

 

[bigsby]

Yeah, I'm actually surprised that you can run a computer with such a small PSU, and yet some people have gargantuan killawatt PSUs, it's just something I don't understand. In my computer (see sig) with it's uber sexy, power guzzling Prescott core, and all that other jazz, runs on a 310 watt PSU, and yet when I plugged it all into a power calculator, it gave me like 450 watts or something rediculous. I've run hard drive, cpu, ram and graphics card (when overclocked since it's the only thing I can oc (stupid dell)) burn in things all at once, and I didn't have a crash or anything. I think that most of the time, people go way overboard on their PSU, but then again, my next computer (which the sexy p180b case came today) is gonna have a 520 watt PSU, so I'm gonna have to shut up, lol.