Power supply problems

Heyas (cross-posted to Coolers and Heatsinks)

I recently added a couple of fans to my case, and (stupidly) didn't think much about power requirements. But when I went to boot up yesterday, a message came up during POST that my Hardware Monitor had detected an error, F1 to check or ESC to continue. I hit F1. In my Power section, under Hardware Monitor, my +5v is reading between 5.25 and 5.4 (between 5.3 and 5.4 it turns red) and my +12v is reading up to 13.5 (also red). So I figured that I must have maxed out the power supply. I disconnected a couple of fans (2 x 120mm fans) and things calmed down to normal, but the problem returned. Even with everything turned off now the +5 and +12 sometimes still redline in the BIOS. I have tried connecting it directly to the wall socket (it is connected through a UPS usually) but that didn';t do anything. My question is two-fold:

1) Did I pooch my power supply? If I leave things running so high, could I pooch any of my devices, ie. cd-rom, mobo, cpu, etc?
2) Would a bigger power supply get rid of the problem? I am going to go out after work today to get an Enermax 535 watt. Hey, why not go big? :-)

For specs, here is my machine:

Aopen HQ-08 case
Asus P4T-E mobo
Intel P4-1.7 ghz
512 MB RDRAM
Maxtor 60gig HD
Maxtor 40gig HD
Acer DVD-ROM
Acer CD-RW
1.4MB Floppy drive
Asus GF3 v8200
Creative Labs SB Live! Value
ATI TV Tuner card (to be replaced with something else)
10/100 NIC
2 extra USB ports (included with mobo, taking up a slot in the back)
Stock heatsink/fan on the P4
Two 80mm 12V Fans
One 60mm 12v Fan
Two 120mm 12V Fans
And I _think_ the power supply is 300W

So what's the consensus? Did I pooch something in my PS? Can I run my machine for limited periods of time (I run a small business and need to print paycheques ASAP, should only take 5 minutes of up-time)? Will the new PS help?

Thanks for any and all replies. I should have been paying more attention to how much power I was gonna be pulling. Lesson learned.

TheSmokey

Heyas

Thanks for the explanation. I replaced my psu with an Enermax EG651P-VE FMA 550 watt. Solved all my problems. Except the noise, but I'm putting a rheabur together for that ;-) Thanks for the help

TheSmokey

I agree. My Enermax is very quiet too. I think the noise most likely come from GPU or CPU fan.

Thats odd, I too have a 550W enermax PSU and its as quiet as a mouse. Its the slightly older version where the fan speeds are controlled by temperature.
As the Unit never runs anywhere near full load, it runs quite cool, the fans run slow and its silent compared to other noise making devices in my case like 7200rpm hard drives.

Even when it does run at full speed its barely above a whisper. (And its not even a whisper PSU LOL)

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