Duron with 250W supply. How bad?

[Guest]

I'm running the new Duron 850 mentioned in a previous post, using my old case with a 250W supply. I've heard that AMD -strongly- recommends at least a 300W supply. Everything is running fine, it looks like. I asked around a bit, and if the supply was overloaded, the voltages would drop. Anyone have any relevant experiences?

 

[Guest]

250W is more than enough for any duron. All the durons are useing less than 40W even on heavy load.

 

[FatBurger]

Good to hear it. I just bought a Duron 800 and motherboard to go in my server (used to be a P2), and I was worried about the PSU (250 watt)

Apple? Macintosh? What are these strange words you speak?

 

[phsstpok]

It mostly depends on what video card and how many PCI cards you are using as well as the +3.3 volt rating on you power supply. If you were to have an old TNT2 card, a Geforce256, or a Voodoo5 card you will probably have problems because the cards are power hungry. (There are probably other cards that consume a lot of power but those are the ones I know of). I don't have numbers on the others but the Geforce GPU can consume up to 40 watts (more if overclocked). 40 watts means the card would draw 12.1 amps on a 3.3 volt line. Now, some 250-watt PSUs are only designed to supply 10 amps on that line, and some 300-watt PSUs only 14 amps. In either case, this is not enough. <A HREF="http://www.geforcefaq.com" target="_new">WWW.GEFORCEFAQ.COM</A> recommends a PSU that can supply at least 20 amps (probably continuous not peak) for the combination of a Geforce plus an Athlon.

The Duron draws less power than an Athlon but the suggestion is probably still very good advice.

p.s.

Read this article to learn of the potentional problems of an inadequate power supply. (Ignore the pricing and price/performance information. The article is a little dated).

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1128" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1128</A>

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by phsstpok on 06/11/01 02:07 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

That's somewhat comforting. I'm using a GeForce2-MX, which based on it's little heatsink, can't be sucking in too much power. As for PCI cards, all that's in there is a NIC and an SB Live.

I was more worried about when I start copying a CD directly, and both drives spin up. That would load down the supply quite a bit I'm guessing, but no issues so far... I think I was just being paranoid.

 

[killall]

yeh the duron should! be fine... just dont go for a voodoo 5 cuz that eats enough power to power a duron or two... but anyway all things cosidered ou really need a 300w+ supply on athlons faster than 1000mhz and on p4s

you do not strengthen the weak by weakening the strong

 

[phsstpok]

Not too much to worry about on the +12v line which are used by drives and fans, unless you have like 6 drives and as many cooling fans, etc.

I think the Geforce MX's only consumes 10 watts which translates to only 3 amps on the +3.3 volt line but you still have to watch out for PCI cards and SDRAM. I can't remember whether the CPU draws from 3.3 volts or 5 volts.

For only about $65 USD you could buy an Enermax 350 watt PSU and eliminate all power worries.