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PSU Enough for My System?

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reignsupreme11   06-17-2009 at 05:25:01 PM

Hey all.

I've recently built a new budget system and powering all my junk I have a 500W Antec PSU. I used it before to power my old PC, and I've only had it for about 3 months, so I didn't think it needed replacing. It runs fine, but sometimes during demanding games my whole system shuts down. I'm assuming this must be a power issue. I know it could be a variety of electrical faults in my house, but my question is, should my 500W PSU be able to run the following system while playing a game like Fallout 3 on high settings.

AMD Athlon 7750 DC CPU oc'ed @ 3.11 GHz
2 x 2GB Corsair XMS2 Twin RAM PC6400 oc'ed @ 920MHz
Gigabyte MA78GM-US2H Motherboard
Hitachi Deskstar 500GB SATA HDD
WD Caviar 250GB SATA HDD (not in RAID mode)
Asus 9600GT 512mb video card
DVD-RW drive
CD-RW drive
4 80mm fans

I was under the impression that this should run fine, but obviously I could be wrong. Does this system suck more power than my PSU can supply?
Thanks

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dokk2   06-17-2009 at 05:31:26 PM
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PSU should be fine ?? but what about temps,usually a complete system shutdown means temp trouble,not always tho,???:)

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reignsupreme11   06-17-2009 at 07:56:40 PM
- 0 +

often yes. it's only happened to me once or twice but it happens to my brother more, because he games more. it's not a system shut down, i should clarify; it reboots. screen goes black, shuts down, and automatically reboots. i have a temperature gauge at the front of my chassis and i'm always monitoring the internal CPU, GPU and system temps. i'll check again thuogh

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johnnyq1233   06-17-2009 at 08:11:48 PM
- 0 +

You might be having some stability issues when loading the system down.
Have you stress tested this sytem with prime yet?
You could try throttling down you oc a bit and see if that makes a difference...
Hope this helps.

------------------------------ Intel C2D E8400 @3.0GHZ, Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L motherboard, 4GB OCZ vista platinum DDR2-1066 , Seagate320GBsataII 16MB HDD, BFG GTS250oc 512 GDDR3...3Dvision glasses and samsung 120HZ screen.
 Reply to johnnyq1233
theAnimal   06-18-2009 at 12:01:59 AM
- 0 +

reignsupreme11 wrote :

powering all my junk I have a 500W Antec PSU.



Which model? How old?

------------------------------ *How To Ask For New Build Advice*
HAF 922 | HX750
Rampage2Gene | i7 920 D0 | 6GB Gold 1600 | Hyper 212+
Caviar Black 640GB | HD3870
 Reply to theAnimal
geekstrada   06-18-2009 at 06:57:49 AM
- 0 +

W/o giving too involved of an answer, yes. Your card requires a 400w psu to begin with and it looks like you are powering quite a bit of other stuff as well. Running Fallout3 at full specs is probably taxing the hell out of your vid card and putting you near full load. Just my 2ยข

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Bronze CPUs badge jsc   06-18-2009 at 08:02:49 AM
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geekstrada wrote :

... Your card requires a 400w psu to begin with ...


No. That is a recommendation for the complete system. A 512 mb 9600GT only needs a little more than 60 watts.

So a good 500 watt PSU will be more than adequate. So which Antec 500 watt PSU? The Earthwatts are pretty good. I'd avoid the Basiq line.

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geekstrada   06-18-2009 at 08:42:33 AM
- 0 +

jsc wrote :

No. That is a recommendation for the complete system. A 512 mb 9600GT only needs a little more than 60 watts.

 

So a good 500 watt PSU will be more than adequate. So which Antec 500 watt PSU? The Earthwatts are pretty good. I'd avoid the Basiq line.

 

I guess you missed this part "W/o giving too involved of an answer"

 

And I concede the point that:

 
jsc wrote :

recommendation for the complete system

 

however a "complete system" is a nebulous term at best and a pointless one at worst. The OP has OC'ed the processor and memory, has 2 x sata drives, 4 x fans, 2 x optical drives. About a month ago I blew a 500w psu running a single 8800gt which recommends a 450w psu for a "complete system"... So my point stands. Trying once again w/o giving too involved of an answer, although you forced me to it. ANd in case you didn't notice the OP said their system was shutting down under heavy load. Sometimes spewing specs from a data sheet doesn't equate to real life.


Message edited by geekstrada on 06-18-2009 at 08:50:47 AM
Reply to geekstrada
topper743   06-18-2009 at 04:06:28 PM
- 0 +

Try this power calculator. The recommendations for a PSU from VC OEMs are for complete systems that would include their card not the care plus the rest of the system.

http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/

As said before theoretically your current power supply should be sufficient. Are you stating that the PSU is only three months old from brand new? One wouldn't think that it could be capasitor aging but it could be, or some actual problem with the PSU it's only manmade from the cheapest parts made as fast and cheapy as possible. Any chance you could swap it out just for testing? The problem could be the PSU depending how you have the 12v lanes setup and it could also be heat. Lose the 4 80mm fans for two 120mm non led adjustable fans, probably be quieter too. Try something like Rivatuner to raise the GPU fan speed. Since you have OCed the CPU it may need some tweeking in the BIOS, try backing down the CPU freq a bit. The correct bios settings for the OC might be more revelivent to your problem than the PSU.

Gentlemen no reason to fight over something as mundane as a PSU, maintain your bearing.


Message edited by topper743 on 06-18-2009 at 04:15:12 PM
Reply to topper743
reignsupreme11   06-18-2009 at 11:46:44 PM
- 0 +

Thanks alot, I'll give all these things a shot. it is an antec basiq. it's not a super new model i think it's an older, but i bought it new. I'm going to swap out for a different one if i get the chance, thanks a lot. bottom line is, i'm not losing any perfomance because of it, it's only happened twice. in the end, the 500W PSU should theoretically be enough wattage to power, unless there is some sort of fault with it, or any electrical problem in my house.

Reply to reignsupreme11
johnnyq1233   06-19-2009 at 06:11:45 PM
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Wattage isn't everything...What you really want is the +12volt rail to supply at least 30 amps.
I've got a Corsair vx550 power supply that has 42 amps on the +12volt rail....which is enough to power a GTX285.....
I've also seen 500 watt power supplies that barely have 25 amps on the +12volt rail....so quality is everything when it come to power...

------------------------------ Intel C2D E8400 @3.0GHZ, Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L motherboard, 4GB OCZ vista platinum DDR2-1066 , Seagate320GBsataII 16MB HDD, BFG GTS250oc 512 GDDR3...3Dvision glasses and samsung 120HZ screen.
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