is 300w enough?

[Guest]

I have 300w case enough for me? I don't use many devices and won't use things like SCSI.

 

[Arrow]

Sounds enough hearing that you "won't use many devices," but it's probably a better idea to go through them with us.

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048" target="_new">http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048</A></b>

 

[Guest]

you mena you need full system specs?
ok, it's gonna be a long one....
300w case
Asus A7V KT133 motherboard
800Mhz Athlon (I also have 1.3Ghz)
448Mb of pc133 CAS2.5
GeForce2 MX 32Mb
Diamond Maxtor 30gigs HDD ata/100, 7200rpm
Sound Blaster Live! Value
56k Robotics modem
10x/40x DVD
Plextor 16x/10x/40x CR-RW
Creative Labs FPS1000 4.1 speakers
Samsung SyncMaster 955df 19 inch monitor

Future upgrades:
Radeon2
maybe more RAM
1.4Ghz tbird

Do I need 400w new case? I never had any problems with power yet. Case is good Actec or Altec...something like this, full tower I'd say. (bigger than mid tower at least)

 

[Arrow]

Nah, seems like you're fine with a 300w. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048" target="_new">http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048</A></b>

 

[mark_h]

i think if you put the 1.33 in you'll be about the limit of your 300w unit
your always better to have some spare capacity, i'd go for a 400w + enermax ect
there not very expencive (£40 uk approx)

 

[Crashman]

300 watts is all the power any user should ever need.

There, now when I'm famous, you can quote me, like they did with Bill Gates.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

yeah

<font color=blue>Your mouse moved. WINDOWS NT must restart for changes to take affect. Restart Now?[OK]</font color=blue>

 

[Toejam31]

Crash, I respect your opinion. You are a very knowledgeable guy.

But you are talking out of the other side of your head on this issue.

Is there something particuarly macho about stuffing your system full of components, overlocking like hell, and doing it all with a 200watt generic PSU? Inquiring minds want to know.

See ya ...

Toejam31

<font color=purple>My Rig:</font color=purple> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>

 

[dhlucke]

He said 300W and that should be fine unless you have several hard drives and a system full of pci cards.

<font color=red>Yeah, I took a crap on your lawn. Whatcha gonna do about it?</font color=red>

 

[Toejam31]

"He" should look and see how many amps a 900MHz Athlon and/or an 1.3 Thunderbird can pull at full load before recommending the specifications for a PSU. I checked out manarch's system spec's in a previous email he sent me, even before he responded to Arrow.

And no ... he didn't say, "He said 300W and that should be fine unless you have several hard drives and a system full of pci cards."

He said, "300 watts is all the power any user should ever need."

That's not the same thing. And not something I can agree with.

Here are the specs that manarch sent me:

"Athlon 900 MHz Thunderbird, Tyan 2390 MB (Via Chipset KT-133), 30 GB WD HD, Plextor 12X10X32X CD-RW/R, Pioneer 16X40X DVD. USR hardware fax modem, NVidia Geforce2 MX, SB Live Value, 300 W PS 640 Megs RAM."

manarch has enough components that it would be worthwhile for him to consider a larger PSU, especially since he likes to "tinker", and may well end up adding additional devices in the future. I would think that 300watts should be considered the bare minimum ... certainly not enough for any situation that might arise.

manarch also mentioned ...

"Future upgrades:
Radeon2
maybe more RAM
1.4Ghz tbird

Do I need 400w new case? I never had any problems with power yet. Case is good Actec or Altec...something like this, full tower I'd say. (bigger than mid tower at least)"

I took this to mean that he might upgrade soon, and he wished to know if he should consider getting a larger PSU when he adds the new components.

I can't think of any good reason why he shouldn't. A larger, more powerful PSU runs cooler, can actually be a big part of the entire cooling solution in a case, and assures that all components have clean power, without reaching the upper limit of the efficiency level of the installed PSU.

That's my opinion.

You don't have to agree with me, but be careful about correcting my reading comprehension level. Look to yourself, first.

Toejam31

<font color=purple>My Rig:</font color=purple> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>

 

[FatBurger]

You missed his entire point. He was making a parody out of Bill Gates' famed "640k is all the memory anyone will ever need" quote.
Although I've seen interviews where Bill denies saying that. Who knows.

------------------------------
My Athlon can beat your Ferrari off the line.

 

[Toejam31]

I kinda thought that was what he was doing, FatBurger. ;-)

But ... manarch is a new user, and needs solid advice. I like the guy, and I don't want him to get confused. He's really trying to hard to pick up this stuff, ya know?

However, I didn't miss dhlucke's point, which bordered on being too dumb for a response. And itty-bitty PSU's are one of my pet peeves. I have more PSU's on order for systems right now than processors. These new proc's are power-hungry, and getting the info out before someone starts having problems seems like common sense to me.

Oh, well ... maybe I need to lighten up! LOL!

Toejam31 (who needs a vacation!)



<font color=purple>My Rig:</font color=purple> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>

 

[Crashman]

I was indeed doing the parady thing. But I think 300 watts is indeed what Monarch needs for his system right now. If he decides later to add stuff to it, then he may need more, but by then hopefully he has enough experience to judge for himself what to use.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

 

[FatBurger]

Yeah, I agree...that you need a vacation. dhlucke maybe should have given more of an explanation, but I think that 300w will be enough for what Manarch has going on. As long as it's a good brand, which I'm sure he'll get.

------------------------------
My Athlon can beat your Ferrari off the line.

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

yeah.

<font color=blue>Your mouse moved. WINDOWS NT must restart for changes to take affect. Restart Now?[OK]</font color=blue>

 

[FatBurger]

Thanks for the rousing support, Ball_Mouse

------------------------------
My Athlon can beat your Ferrari off the line.

 

[Guest]

You know what's funny? The place I'm gonna order my new computer in a week or two sells the 340W for 20$ less than the 300W.

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

No, i don't own a mouse ball...logitech optical wheelmouse..

<font color=blue>Your mouse moved. WINDOWS NT must restart for changes to take affect. Restart Now?[OK]</font color=blue>

 

[dhlucke]

I have 300w case enough for me? I don't use many devices and won't use things like SCSI.

you mena you need full system specs?
ok, it's gonna be a long one....
300w case
Asus A7V KT133 motherboard
800Mhz Athlon (I also have 1.3Ghz)
448Mb of pc133 CAS2.5
GeForce2 MX 32Mb
Diamond Maxtor 30gigs HDD ata/100, 7200rpm
Sound Blaster Live! Value
56k Robotics modem
10x/40x DVD
Plextor 16x/10x/40x CR-RW
Creative Labs FPS1000 4.1 speakers
Samsung SyncMaster 955df 19 inch monitor

Future upgrades:
Radeon2
maybe more RAM
1.4Ghz tbird

Do I need 400w new case? I never had any problems with power yet. Case is good Actec or Altec...something like this, full tower I'd say. (bigger than mid tower at least)

Crash, I respect your opinion. You are a very knowledgeable guy.

But you are talking out of the other side of your head on this issue.

Is there something particuarly macho about stuffing your system full of components, overlocking like hell, and doing it all with a 200watt generic PSU? Inquiring minds want to know.

He said 300W and that should be fine unless you have several hard drives and a system full of pci cards.

You don't have to agree with me, but be careful about correcting my reading comprehension level. Look to yourself, first.

However, I didn't miss dhlucke's point, which bordered on being too dumb for a response.

<b>Ok, you've insulted me for absolutely no reason, so let me justify myself in plain language so that your thick head can understand the words that are coming out of my mouth.

Read the title of this thread. He asks if 300W is enough. He then goes on to list his components and he asks if 400W might be necessary. I then go on to say that 300W is plenty. Let me requote it so that you don't misconstrue what I was trying to say again:

He said 300W and that should be fine unless you have several hard drives and a system full of pci cards.

300W is plenty for what he has considering that he has only 2 pci cards and an agp card. He only has one hard drive and 2 dvd/cd-rw drives. I have more components than that and I'm running a 230W powersupply. Granted I'm not using that processor though, but my other computer has a Duron 800 and more components than that and it's on a 300W powersupply. It's fine. There are no problems. You will only need a larger powersupply if you want to have multiple hard drives and a case full of pci cards. At no point in this entire thread did he mention adding more pci cards or hard drives. Memory doesn't pull that much juice to justify a larger powersupply.

However, I will grant that a powersupply supposedly works best if you're only pulling 70% from it, but 300W is plenty for his needs.

So what is it that you are trying to do here? Enlighten us as to why he needs 100 more Watts. While you're at it why don't you explain again why you repeatedly insulted me for absolutely no reason!</b>

<font color=red>Yeah, I took a crap on your lawn. Whatcha gonna do about it?</font color=red>

 

[FatBurger]

Then why is your mouse sticky?

------------------------------
My Athlon can beat your Ferrari off the line.