Is 400watts enough for this AM2 Athlon x2 4800+ box

====Zalman ZM-400A-APF Specs====


AC Input Requirements
AC Input Range Voltage 100VAC ~ 240VAC ¡¾10%
Frequency 47Hz~63Hz
AC Input Current
(Rated) 115VAC 10A
230VAC 5A
PFC Type . Active PFC
Power Factor .. >85% (Typical) @115VAC
Inrush Current Limit
(@ Cold start at 25 ¡ÆC) 115VAC 80A
230VAC 120A
Efficiency .. 75% minimum @ 230VAC (Full Load)

DC Output Voltage Regulations (at Full load)
Vout Regulation Range
+5VSB ¡¾5% +4.75V ~ +5.25V
+3.3VDC ¡¾5% +3.14V ~ +3.45V
+5VDC ¡¾5% +4.75V ~ +5.25V
+12VDC ¡¾5% +11.4V ~ +12.6V
-12VDC ¡¾10% -10.8V ~ -13.0V
-5VDC ¡¾10% -4.50V ~ 5.50V

DC Output load Capacity
Vout Output Load Rating Combined Power
Imin Imax Ipeak
+3.3VDC 0.3A 28A . 235W 380W
+5VDC 0.1A 40A
+12VDC 0.0A 15A 18A .
-12VDC 0.0A 0.8A . 20W.
-5VDC 0.0A 0.3A
+5VSB 0.0A 2.0A 2.5A

DC Output Ripple & Noise (at Full load)
Vout Specification
+5VSB 50mV
+3.3VDC 50mV
+5VDC 50mV
+12VDC 120mV
-12VDC 120mV
-5VDC 100mV

According to the extreme power supply calculator (http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.js...) you're perfectly safe.

For your system, it recommends a PSU with a wattage rated in the 250w area, so you've got plenty of headroom to work with.

Ok. I'm having some serious stability problems though. My machine keeps freezing, and i have to restart windows xp pro. Also a few days ago, my pc froze and when i restarted windows, i was told that /windows/system32/config/system was corrupt or unreadable, so i had to install windows.

 

How old is the power supply?

When you next restart, go into the bios and check the hardware monitor. Specifically, check the CPU temperature, 3.3v, 5v and 12v readings and post here what they read as.

That is most likely a ram error or just a software error. When my ram had issues, it had symptoms of random restarts/BSODs.

Did you reformat Windows and are you still having the same issues? If so, as grave said, check the RAM first.

I have checked the ram with memtest, no errors.

At this point, my guess would be the PSU.

Cpu temp. 17C
+3.3V OK
+12v OK

doesn't state the exact voltage.  

And the power supply is about 2-3 years old.

Get a better psu
Zalman ZM400A-APF 12amps
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=205763

You should have 18 (at least) to 20amps

Ok, I'll buy a Zalman ZM600-HP.

Will a power supply like this, use all 600watts even I'm only using a few devices?

I'd check the windows control panel for any driver conflicts. Then I would unplug any devices you don't use very often from the power supply and see if the problem goes away. No point in spending money on the power supply until you're sure it's the problem.

No, it won't draw 600watts ... power supplies supply what the components running off them demand, nothing more. Having a higher wattage PSU than what your system needs means the PSU doesn't have to work as hard to supply the required power ... which means it's more efficient (power your computer needs and the power the supply draws from the wall will be a lot closer) and will also produce less heat, and deliver more stable voltages.

Zalman ZM300A-APF 8amps
Zalman ZM300B-APS 8amps
Zalman ZM360B-APS 26amps
Zalman ZM400A-APF 12amps
Zalman ZM400B-APS 12amps
Zalman ZM460-APS 30amps
Zalman ZM460B-APS 34amps
Zalman ZM500-HP 34amps
Zalman ZM600-HP 42amps

Hi, well I ended up buying the Zalman ZM600-HP.
I formatted my drive and have reinstalled windows xp pro sp2, installed all updates, now how do I test my system for stability?

Prime ?

Also SpeedFan says my core is62C...That was after i turned the computer and had no major cpu usage going.

temp1: 34c
temp2: 43c
temp3: 39c
hd0:33c
core: 14c
core: 62c
ambient: 0c


That can't be right can it? 62c is really hot.

I downloaded sisoft lite, gonna try the burn in test once i work out why the core field says 62c

I downloaded core temp 0.95.4 beta, and it reports my core #0 at 16c and core #1 at 18c

The first 'core' temp, on speedfan 4.33 matches core 0 on core temp 0.95.4

Hmmm, have i answered my own question?

Do you live in antarctica or something, because those temps are below ambient for many places or very close to them? I'd say the readings are off.

Which temps are you talking about?

16/18C from coretemp

I live in New Zealand. So no, its not the room temperature

Well I live in australia and considering it's nearly summer there should be no reason why your temps are that low unless you watercool and undervolt. Unless you live in a cold part of NZ, I don't know how close our temperatures are, but we are at about the same latitude.

My room is currently cold, but not THAT cold.
The BIOS is reporting a temp of arond 35C for the CPU

PSU requirements and ratings are all BS - an AcBel 400w will power an E6600 with 2gb, 2 hdd's and an 8800GTS 640mb fine - you got nothin to worry about.

I'd trust the BIOS temp readings. My 4800 runs @ about 40 C @ idle, & @ 50 C under load.

Watts are important but amps are as well. Your old PSU didn't have enough amps on the 12v rail to run all that gear. You should see a more stable system now.

My system is completly stable now, now to test AMD cool and quiet.

And kasperky anti-virus 7.0

The 2 apps/drivers i've had problems with in the past.

I managed to find out that the 2nd core temp is the temperature of geforce 8600GT which is passively cooled.(Heatsink, no fan)

I am seeing that there are a lot of discrepencies in terms of temp readings & how to obtain them. BIOS says one thing, Speed Fans says another, Asus PC probe says another. Other than using a temp sensor unit which is a cabling challenge, what is the best way to get true temp readings?

Well... Air Cooling depends on how the air can cool your system. So, Ambient temp would definitely affect the way your system cools itself, and also should indicate if the bios temps are off. If you can figure out your ambient temps, you can use/set Speed Fan to offset the temps to better match in a controlled idle temp. (usually 1C higher them ambient temps should be close)

I use a hand held IR thermometer to get a better understanding on what my PC case ambient temps are. The main thing is, your temps can not be cooler then the ambient temp from what I understand.

Hope that help some.

Usually my ambient temps range anywhere between 20 & 30 C depending on the time of year. In the fall & winter our building is way over heated (we live on the top floor). In the summer AC is on most of the time.

Heh, even with a good airflow, temps should or normally will be higher then room ambient temp. For example, right now (all fans crancked up to full speed),

room temp is :

78.8F or 26.0C

Around PC case is:

Front - 80.4F or 26.9C
Side (panel off) - 82.9F or 28.3C

North Bridge HS:

107.2F or 41.8C

Back of HS:

85.4F or 29.7C

Top of 8800 GTS (has HS fins on top)

97.5F or 36.4C

I have my PC running 1.2ghz (vCore is 1.26):

SpeedFan Offset Zero'd out: 70F or 22C (this temp should be what the bios reports in the health monitor)

You can see the other factors playing in my situation. I can only assume that the temps are not calibrated correctly since the ambient temps in the PC case are warmer then the CPU reading or Tcase reading on my E4400.

Pic with IR on the back of the HS:

CokeMD,

I'm running the same CPU overclocked to 2.7GHz with a TT V1 cooler. It idles around 32c-35c and under a full load with both cores being 100% it doesn't go over 53c. Also, you are extremely close to AMD's max temp for that 4800+ which is 65c, so I'd really be careful if you are getting 62c under load with a non-overclocked 4800+. Try using some Arctic Silver on the HSF, and if that doesn't lower the temps by 3-5c, you will probably want to invest in a good solid copper heatsink.