Will my PSU handle it all!

[acs1 0]

If you look at my sig gives all the details of my system! I ahve had my GeForce 2MX die on me and have ordered a new Gainward GeForce 4 4200 64mb version. I am just making sure that my 300watt PSU will be able to handle it or shall I buy another one.....if so what make!!!

 

Hope it all makes sense

 

Adam

[Bursar 0]

I doubt it. The Epox boards have very poor power regulation features.

 

If you use Motherboard Monitor, check out your 12v and 5v voltages. You'll probably find that like mine, they are a fair bit lower than they should be.

 

I have an Enermax 350 watt PSU and it that doesn't help either. If you have a PSU that has adjustable pots inside them, you can tweak up the voltages a bit. Otherwise you'll need something with more oompf I'm afraid.

[matty 0]

rubbish ..i have a much more powerfull system than yours and it runs fine on a standerd 300watt supply. just make sure your power is p4 amd approved..as the owner of my own computer shop im constantly being asked is my supply up to the job..and i always say if its 300watt its fine..and ive never lost a supply yet.

 

my system specs are as follows.

 

AMB XP 1700

512 RAM

JETWAY V266B MBOARD

ATI RADEON 64MEG

CREATIVE 5.1 SOUND

16x DVD ROM

CD-RW 8x

2x 20GIG HDs

56K V/92 MODEM

FEW CASE FANS

VOLCANO 7 PSU COOLER

AND ALL THE NORMAL STUFF.

 

and i have a standerd amd approved case and cpu.

 

so no you dont need a upgrade and dont let anyone tell you different.

[Jerry Atrik 0]

300 watts is pleanty fine for that. remember on SOME boards if u oc the processor it also oc's the agp buss. adding power to the agp is pretty bad... specially if your vid card is oc'ed.

[acs1 0]

Thanks for all your help....I will find out tomorrow when the card arrives!!!

[Brian Frank 0]

If it's an Enermax PSU, you might want to consider getting a new one as these and Epox boards seem to have a major issue when paired togehter.

[Bursar 0]

Quote:

If it's an Enermax PSU, you might want to consider getting a new one as these and Epox boards seem to have a major issue when paired togehter.

Thank you, that was the point I was trying to get at, and not the 'your PSU is underpowered' one.

It's to do with the mobo and PSU combination.

[acs1 0]

It was a PSU that I bought with my case quite a while ago now!

Back in the days when I had a slot A Athlon.....it is not an enermax PSU but I am unsure of the make!

[matty 0]

if its 300watt leave it..all this crap about bad psu and board support is pants,,if it is 250watt then thats a worry but 300watt can handle the most demanding setups.

[Bursar 0]

Quote:

if its 300watt leave it..all this crap about bad psu and board support is pants,,if it is 250watt then thats a worry but 300watt can handle the most demanding setups.

It's not pants at all, I have an Epox 8K7A+ mobo and an Enermax 350W PSU, and my voltages are low. I'm not the only person with this problem either. If a "300W PSU can handle the most demanding setups" do you think that they make 500W PSUs just because they can?

[matty 0]

no its cos people like you will happily buy it..ive never had a psu over 300watt and i dont think i will in the near future.]]

 

as a owner of a shop i see alot of psu probs ..as long as its a good make your laffing.

[BladeRunner 0]

I think you'll find that Bursar is attempting to explain a problem with a specific combination of PSU/MB.

He is not saying that a 300watt PSU will not be up to the task, however the particular combo he is talking about is known to have problems.

 

I've known Bursar for a long time, in fact we worked side by side for one of the biggest UK PC manufacturers so he is extremely competent in both hardware & software issues.

I don't think I've ever seen Bursar say anything which is "pants".

 

As for your statement of "They only produce PSU's >300watt because they know people will buy them for the hell of it" I believe this is extremely false.

[Cynan 0]

Erm, I don't want to get involved in this really but I am wondering how a PSU/MB combination can effect anything.

 

The PSU just provides power to a MB so what can posibly be happening with an Epox boards and Enermax PSU thats different to using it with any other board?

 

It just drains more power on some of the voltage lines? If that were the case, then surely all PSUs would fall down with such boards and not just Enermaxs.

 

On a personal note, I must admit I do agree with the notion that PSUs of a large size are purely made because there are ppl out there that will buy them - though I would say a 350watt supply would be the limit.

 

(Seriously, add up everything in your case and work out how many watts it all uses. It'll be no where near 350).

[matty 0]

i beleive your talkin crap..bursar may no about computers but i no somthin myself . and i no for a fact that 300watt is ok..so that is what im sayin.. the lad dont have to fork out cash just so some smug git can drive a faster car.

 

edit by clutch

Deleted inappropriate comment. Curb your attitude bud.

/edit

[CrazyKillerMan 0]

Quote:

The PSU just provides power to a MB so what can posibly be happening with an Epox boards and Enermax PSU thats different to using it with any other board?

Well it could be the specific setup. Output and input impredances, along with output power may have something to do with it. To bad though, I like my enermax (glad I didnt buy that board recently).

Quote:

i beleive your talkin crap..bursar may no about computers but i no somthin myself . and i no for a fact that 300watt is ok..so that is what im sayin.. the lad dont have to fork out cash just so some smug git can drive a faster car.

Heh, I think that you are a 'no-nothin,' how can you own a shop when you are a child.

...and onto more important matters....
acs1, make sure it meets the ATX 2.03 standards, you may need something more than a 300, but probably not by far. I ran:
1.2 tbird
ati 8500
2 - 7200 ata133 HDD
3 - 7200 ata100 HDD
LG Burner
Pioneer DVD
RAID Card
Sound Card
nic
on a 300, but then it blew up. So I grabbed an enermax whisper 431 watt. It may be overkill, but I wont have to worry about getting another PS if I want to go duals / more storage.

Differences between some 300's and others can be night and day when it comes to clean power.

[Brian Frank 0]

If it's a good brand name (it should say somewhere on the unit) it should be fine. A bigger PSU is never a bad thing.

 

Matty, I trust these guys more than I trust you. Also, your bad grammer doesn't help you look like the intelligent type here. 2nd the difference between 300, 350, and 400W PSU's is not a massive difference anymore. The Epox boards/Enermax PSU's are a known issue, and if you doubt me, go check the Epox forum over at AMDMB. Please educate yourself before telling professionals they don't no nuthin'.

[JP- 0]

Personally, i think that in this case the board/psu combo could be an issue, but....ive seen it many times on msg boards, ppls saying "my system is unstable, could it be my psu?" and then about 10 ppl saying yes when its quite obviously not

 

In any 'normal' board i would say that 300w is fine, but if ppl say there is an issue with the board then there probably is

 

 

See you say why do they make 400, 500w psus. Equally, why do they ship top of the range Dells with 125w psus?

 

Anyway, just my 2p.

[BladeRunner 0]

and i dont care if you worked with him or ****ed him..you no nothin

 

LOL

I think the word you were looking for Mr. Shop Owner was "Know" rather than "No"

It's pretty standard grammar & spelling.

Oh, and the word nothing has a "g" on the end, although I can probably put that one down to the 'cool' way of spelling things.

 

You may want to listen to your peers now and again, they have a lot of information and things to say and what's more important is that they don't usually charge you for it either.

[clutch 1]

First, the original offensive line has been addressed in the previous post and I don't expect anymore problems. Next, the PSU choices that are available have good reason to be. Most systems are matched to their respective power supplies when they come from OEMs which explains why they:

 

A. Have lesser component cost as they don't need the juice, and

B. Tend to be unstable when multiple drives and heavy duty graphics cards are thrown in (or better yet a bunch of fans).

 

There can be rare times where if components are unfortunately matched, that they might exhibit issues even when there doesn't appear to be a good reason. For instance, if a motherboard had incredible amounts of power filtering and stabilizing control (denoted by the numerous, large capacitors on the mobo) then it will probably work with just about anything and not have any issues. However, if the mobo has mediocre power management and it's matched with a not-so-hot PSU, then you might see problems when you start loading it down with more devices that draw directly off of it. It all comes down to voltage stability across the rails. I have been using my PC Power and Cooling 300W unit for a while now, and wouldn't have repalced it with my Sparkle 350W PSU had it not been for the revised ATX standard that I needed to support my new P4. The larger units that have been mentioned, like the 400W-500W ones, tend to inherit this stability because only the better manufacturers would bother to make this level of PSU and those makers will use components that can maintain the high level of line voltage integrity needed by today's high demand systems.

 

So, to wrap up, get a good PSU and it will power just about anything within reason. But, the more gadgets you want to power off of it, the greater demand that you are expecting of the unit.

[matty 0]

edited by clutch

Grow up, kind sir.

/edit

[acs1 0]

Well I have now got my GeForce 4 and it is running with no problems and my 5volt rail is holding steady at 4.91v.....I will upgrade when I get rid of my Athlon and buy my P4 soon hopefully...thanks for all your help..!!!

 

Adam

[SHS 0]

I don't see anything wrong with you have now but Acs1 Q: how old is your psu?.

matty you need to ligthing up a bit

[acs1 0]

My PSu must be about three years old....cannot remember exactly but I was buying a 700mhz slot a athlon at the time

[SHS 0]

being it about three old you upgrade it anyway