Do I need a more powerful PSU?

[Caffeinecarl]

I just upgraded my video card and all of a sudden, I'm getting BSOD's up the wazoo like you wouldn't believe. I've tried weeding out all the culprits of bad RAM, processor clocked too high, etc... but it's just not helping!

Inside my case I have:
Enermax 460W power supply with 33A +12v rail
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R motherboard
Intel Core2 Duo 3.0 GHz
4x 2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR-800 RAM
Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTS 250 (1 GB GDDR3, 256 bit)
ATI TV Wonder Elite TV&FM Radio tuner card (PCI)
2x Seagate Barracuda 80 GB, 7200 RPM in RAID 0 (SATA)
DVD RW (EIDE)
LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD Reader (SATA)
3½" Floppy diskette drive
External drive: WD MyBook 500 GB (eSATA)
1 12cm case fan
1 8cm LED case fan
2 red cold cathode lights

It bears mentioning that the processor was previously clocked at 3.6 GHz on stock voltage, but I reverted it back down to the standard 3.0 GHz after I first started getting all the instability. Previously, with my last graphics card (GeForce 8600GT) I was able to overclock no sweat, and didn't have the instability I'm having right now. Reverting back helped a little, but I'm still getting error messages at random intervals. Sometimes, it's when I'm seemingly doing nothing at all! Also, the CPU power socket on the motherboard is 2x4, but will accept a 2x2 connector such as the one on my PSU. Is the power draw on my card strong enough that I may have to either: Remove some RAM, change some settings, or even at worst, replace the PSU? Secondly, if I upgrade my PSU, will it most likely result in better overclocking headroom?

 

[JaredAudiophileGamer]

Your PSU is not puttin out enough power most likely try and borrow another psu and test it out, or remove everything except for the essentials, like cpu, mobo, hard drive, memory, and gpu. I think those 250s are rated at 500w minimum

This Should do the trick
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V $89.99

Or something a bit cheaper with less upgrade headroom

Antec Earthwatts 500 Watt Continuous 80+ Rated $69.99

 

[jamesgoddard]

With that system you need a PSU able to supply about 28amps on the 12v rail - ie your PSU rating is fine

 

[jamesgoddard]

PS you can chewck for yourself... http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

 

[jsc]

RAM won't matter. It's powered from the 3.3 volt PSU output.

 

[Caffeinecarl]

OK, so I found the root to my instability, and it wasn't my power supply. I should have known that because: my power supply wasn't getting hot, neither was anything else in my rig. Upon clearing CMOS, I'd get the error beeps every time, and without even realizing it, I'd pull out the offending stick of RAM every time to set the voltages to the correct settings. It would work... kind of. Vista 64 would reliably fail in any and every capacity. Normal mode, last good config, safe mode, safe mode with networking, even setup! Windows 7 32-bit worked FINE because of the fact that although the offending RAM was still in the machine, the operating system wouldn't touch it because it was out of range, therefore, it couldn't cause problems like it could under a 64 bit OS. I eventually ferreted out the offending module after installing only the one module with default settings and finding it still causing problems. Removed it, and cut myself back to just the good RAM I had leftover, and it's all good now, even though I'm only running 4 GB now. Oh well, it'll all be perfect again after a quick little RMA.