PSU insufficient

[emus]

First off, Happy New Years Everyone!

Well my current PC died, so I had to order a new one (just the tower). I know I should have built one (used to) but:

A) I'm disabled and can only use one hand so getting on my hands and knees to assemble a computer is out of the question.

B) I don't have any friends or family members that could assemble one for me.

My budget was about $900 and i went with this: http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6970829

I know the reviews are only 3 and half stars, but the negative posts seem like they were from people who didnt have too much technical knowledge. Their main complaint was about the GPU crashing which can probably be solved with driver updates/rollbacks.

Anyways, my friend said the PSU that comes with this system is junk (Ultra 500W). So is he right should I replace it ASAP? Or is this PSU sufficient for the rig? If I need to replace it, what PSU do you recommend? Cheaper the better but I don't want to sacrifice quality!

 

[englandr753]

Hi Emus,

Have you posted here before? I have helped someone in a similar situation as you a few months back.

Anyway, your link appears to not be working/active anymore. Can you provide another link?

I can't tell what kind of video (onboard or graphics card) you are trying to run with that psu. Its not a great psu, probably about a 3rd tier unit but should work ok for most cards that fall under the 500 watt recommendation.

I think you should be able to use the ultra psu for a while until you can get a few extra bucks together later to do so.

Try to post another link and I will be glad to take a look to back up what I'm saying...

 

[rolli59]

If this is the PSU in question http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3255392&CatId=1079 it is not the best but not the worst either. It should be good enough to drive cards up to HD5770 or GTS450 range.

 

[emus]

Sorry it took so long to get back, was out late last night Fixed the link in the OP. The card is a 6850 but they supposedly consune less power than their predecessors. And yes I have posted here before although not about a insufficient PSU.

 

[rolli59]

HD6850 total system power under 300watts http://www.anandtech.com/show/3987/amds-radeon-6870-6850-renewing-competition-in-the-midrange-market/20 it should be fine.

 

[emus]

Wow only 300 watts for the whole system! That's good, the PSU had me worried! Thanks for the help!

 

[englandr753]

I meant similar as in being disabled and only able to use one hand, not a psu issue.

You will be fine with that psu although getting a nice quality corsair psu would be nice later on! =D

Run it until you can't or no longer want to...

 

[emus]

Best answer selected by emus.

 

[emus]

I meant similar as in being disabled and only able to use one hand, not a psu issue.

You will be fine with that psu although getting a nice quality corsair psu would be nice later on! =D

Run it until you can't or no longer want to...

Oh, yeah I include that information in all my computer related post, otherwise someone usually replies "you should just build your own pc" or something similar. I'm not trying to garner sympathy or anything, although I'm sure I do sometimes! And thanks for the advice!

 

[englandr753]

I remember that and I know its not to garner sympathy. I was happy to see you post again as I wondered from time to time how you were doing. I enjoyed talking to you the last time you posted.

Good to see you on again! Enjoy your new rig. It will be better than what most people have.

The first thing I would do with that system as soon as you get it set up is update all of the system drivers. It appears thats a MSI motherboard so identify the motherboard, go to their site and download and install their latest releases and install.

If you are comfortable with flashing the BIOS, you can check for their latest revision, use cpuz from www.cpuid.com to find the version you are running and update if necessary.

Lastly, go to AMD's website or the video card vendors website and download the latest driver and install that one.

I seriously doubt all the drivers are up to date on that system and it may iron out some of the kinks that some of the other reviewers were complaining about with that system.

I think you will enjoy that rig as it appears to be a decent build. You should bump up the cpu frequency to at least 3.0ghz but I would try for 3.2ghz as I think that stock heatsink should be able to cool well enough for that. Use a temperature monitor to keep an eye on your cpu, it should still idle around 105*F even after the overclock. That cpu OC's decently as long as your motherboard supports it.

That should give you some extra stability and a little more get up and go!

Let me know if you need any help with setting that up. Myself, or anyone else knowledgeable here will be glad to assist you with that. It's easy to do and you may already know how to do it....

 

[emus]

Thanks, and yeah the first thing I'm going to do is download all the latest drivers and Windows updates. I'm not too comfortable flashing the BIOS (have read some horror stories) so I probably won't resort to it unless absolutely necessary.

I've never OCed before (although I've thought about it) so if If you could provide instruction or redirect me to a guide on how to go about it, it would be much appreciated.