Power Supply Watts...

[crisco]

So you got 250, 300 and 400 watts... besides cost, what is the diff between them? What advantage do you gain from buying a 400 watt case with that much juice? I have heard that Athlon requires more power, but 400 watts? Can I get by on 250? Why would I want that much, will it improve performance of my system? Or just increase my electric bill

 

[Guest]

An athlon needs 300W power supply because of the current the proc draws.You can use a 250W but you may well find that with the cooling fans and a cd rom going that the system restarts itself for lack of power.A bigger power supply will allow all your kit to draw the power it needs for best performance.

 

[Guest]

250W is average for the standard system you can buy off
the shelf with the typical goodies of HDD, CD, vid card,
etc. Now start to pile in an extra HDD, CDr/w, or something
like a Voodoo5 (with it's own connector to your comp's power supply no less) and you can see why ramping up to 300W minimum is a good bet.

As comparison, I saw an ad for a 'cheap computer' equipped with the usual stuff and a 150W p/s, how far past the POST do you think it will go? Especially when you decide it's
time to start adding things.

 

[Guest]

I'm in a similar situation. I'm about to put together a Tbird 700 on a Epox 8KTA Mobo with a Chrome Orb Socket A cooler.

I'm re-using the other stuff from my old system:

Voodoo3 2000
SoundBlaster PCI-32 (something with 32 channels)
An 8.5GB HD
Floppy drive
40xCD drive
A 250W Enlight ATX power supply
ATX Case

All of the problems I have heard so far are from people with Athlons plus some new graphic board such as the GeForce cards.

My survival plan for the next few weeks is to not use the case fan but leave open the drive bays and one side cover. I will use a clip-on AC fan to blast the heck out of the case.

If that fails, then I will have to buy a new power supply. The thing is, do I get a 300W or a 400W. The price of the 400W supplies is about 3 times that of the 300W supplies. Will a 300W supply allow me to add a GeForce2 card and possibly a DVD drive?

 

[Guest]

In my opinion, leaving the cover off your case is a temporary solution at best, get the Athlon fan ASAP.
As for your p/s, FYI Athlons typically come with a
300W+ p/s, so if you can afford it, get the 400W...
saves you any hassles of possible system rebooting
due to insufficient power.

 

[Arrow]

In your situation, a 300W should be enough, unless if you're really gotta put your computer into a stress test.

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http://zidane222.cjb.net" target="_new">http://zidane222.cjb.net</A></b>

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies. The purposes of disconnecting the front case fan and using an AC fan are to (1) save some power if i were to stick with the 250W PS and (2) to increase cooling. After all, the AC fan on the lowest setting is about 3 times stronger than the case fan.

However, I couldn't see any other way to save more power short of not having a floppy drive and taking out half of the 256MB of RAM, so I got a 350W Sparkle PS. It's approved for use with Ahthlons up to 1GHz. Well, that should put any worries to rest. As always, spending more money seems to buy a few seconds worth of peace of mind. :]

 

[Guest]

As noted previously, 400W power supplies are top-of-the-line of ATX power supplies and they command premium prices. A 300W Enlight can be had for $29. A 350W Sparkle goes for $50. However, the least expensive name-brand supply at 400W is $90+. Is 50W really worth the price jump of almost 80%? You determine where the sweet spot is.

As for planning for the future, all indications from AMD and Nvidia show that their new chips will consume less power. Also, I don't believe that I'll load up my system with more than 500MB of DDR RAM in the next two years (assuming I get a 760-baesd Mobo) because I simply can't afford to buy 500MB of DDR RAM. :]

 

[jclw]

I use an Enermax 350W P/S on an Athlon 900 system with two 7200rpm HDs, 1 CD, and one CDRW. It meets the new ATX 2.03 specs, is AMD approved, supports MoBo fan speed monitoring, has 2 temperature controlled variable speed (quiet) fans, and cost me $50 CDN (about $30 US).

Model: Enermax EG351P-VE

 

[Bubba]

I agree, I really enjoy my 450W Enermax PS. I picked it up at a computer show for $80. The only complaint I have is that the fans are temp controlled and since I have a few fans in my case the temp never really gets that hot. Consequently, my powersupply fans never go higher than 1800 RPM. But it has tons of connectors and the connector wires are long enough to reach across the room (well, maybe not that far). It is a really nice PS.

 

[darius]

Enermax EG351P-VE is 330Watts not 350

 

[yoda271828]

Where did you get it for so cheap? I was looking online for that same power supply: Enermax EG351P-VE, but I couldn't find it for less that $60 USD.

 

[JoeHead]

Seventeam ST-400GL 400 watt with a 384 max rating. Can't beat the quality. Gotit for $95

<b> Fragg at will!!! </b>