How many watts is your power supply?
- Thread starter Wedge
- Start date
Mine is a Codegen 300W. If you have a Pentium 4 or an Athlon XP and many drives and a modern AGP videocard you should have at least a 300W PSU imho.
dx
1
I have a PC Power&Cooling Turbo-Cool 425W. This is plenty enough for me at this time.
As Geoff said, if you have lots of IDE (SCSI, Firewire, and/or USB 2.0) drives..... plus a few PCI cards, a few fans, and a modern processor and mobo, you will need "more power Scotty!"
Strange lockups, BSOD's, and crashes are a common symptom when you are running out of power. So if a stable system suddenly becomes unstable when you add a hard drive, card, or fan, chances are it's the PSU running out of power.
As Geoff said, if you have lots of IDE (SCSI, Firewire, and/or USB 2.0) drives..... plus a few PCI cards, a few fans, and a modern processor and mobo, you will need "more power Scotty!"
Strange lockups, BSOD's, and crashes are a common symptom when you are running out of power. So if a stable system suddenly becomes unstable when you add a hard drive, card, or fan, chances are it's the PSU running out of power.
If you use your computer for current hungry components as expensive audio cards or video capture ones, then you should really use a HUGE dedicated and specially trimmed PSU, which sometimes can cost up to $350, or even more.
For normal jobs a typical 350W cheapo taiwanese PSU (35-50 $) is enough.
For normal jobs a typical 350W cheapo taiwanese PSU (35-50 $) is enough.
Wedge
1
opinions
Here's what I'm looking at: Codegen 350W ATX P4 AMD Recommended Switching Power Supply, OEM Package or Linkworld 400W Pentium 4 ATX Power Supply, 4-Connector, OEM Package
What do you think?
I have a P4 1.3GHz
386MB RDRAM
40GB IBM HDD
80GH WD HDD
64MB GeForce2 GTS Ultra
2 Optical Drives
1 fan, soon adding another
SoundBlaster Live! sound card
2 NICs
Possibly adding an ATA Controller card in the future
Currently, only USB device connected are mouse and keyboard, a printer will follow
XP Home
Here's what I'm looking at: Codegen 350W ATX P4 AMD Recommended Switching Power Supply, OEM Package or Linkworld 400W Pentium 4 ATX Power Supply, 4-Connector, OEM Package
What do you think?
I have a P4 1.3GHz
386MB RDRAM
40GB IBM HDD
80GH WD HDD
64MB GeForce2 GTS Ultra
2 Optical Drives
1 fan, soon adding another
SoundBlaster Live! sound card
2 NICs
Possibly adding an ATA Controller card in the future
Currently, only USB device connected are mouse and keyboard, a printer will follow
XP Home
Last edited:
300 watts here too 
and have to agree with dave here that running the monitor even if it is a throughput socket is not ideal it DOES.. even if only small add extra load to your power supply and from most engineers i have asked about this it is recommended that you run it from its own socket pref an anti surge unit as with the computer its self as this reduces the risk of both monitor and system going down in the event of failure of either and does not spike the other if coupled together and a problem occours
@netman i respect ya bud and yer knowledge here bud but a good guess here is that you also plug your monitor separate also
and have to agree with dave here that running the monitor even if it is a throughput socket is not ideal it DOES.. even if only small add extra load to your power supply and from most engineers i have asked about this it is recommended that you run it from its own socket pref an anti surge unit as with the computer its self as this reduces the risk of both monitor and system going down in the event of failure of either and does not spike the other if coupled together and a problem occours
@netman i respect ya bud and yer knowledge here bud but a good guess here is that you also plug your monitor separate also
http://www.hiper-pc.com/static/home.html
for good quality nice quiet PSU
Have you had a look here Wedge?
for good quality nice quiet PSU
Have you had a look here Wedge?
Thats what I have also and good advice from Geoff.Geoff said:
CM
dx
1
To be honest Wedge, those first 2 PSUs you mentioned, have a lot to be desired. A PSU for less than 20 bucks?!
One of the biggest mistakes I see, is peeps spending $500 - $600 on a CPU and Mobo and then cheese out on the RAM and PSU. Then they have strange lockups, BSODs, crashes and blame it on the Mobo or CPU.... when all along it was the Memory or PSU.
A good PSU is going to set you back $50-80 USD unless you get a really good deal.
Personally I wholeheartedly recommend PC Power&Cooling PSUs. They are rock solid power supplies. Yes, they are more expensive but the voltage rails are dead on, even with high loads. Here are the reasons, they are so damn good:
http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/products/power_supplies/insidestory/index.htm
Antec "True Power" PSUs also make good and reliable PSUs and are easy to obtain in the US.
In the end you get what you pay for
For your system a 350W PSU will be fine. But if you are like me and you want your PSU investment to last an upgrade or 2, go for a PSU with a little more power. As systems are increasingly sucking more and more power, you will be ready for your next Pentium upgrade
One of the biggest mistakes I see, is peeps spending $500 - $600 on a CPU and Mobo and then cheese out on the RAM and PSU. Then they have strange lockups, BSODs, crashes and blame it on the Mobo or CPU.... when all along it was the Memory or PSU.
A good PSU is going to set you back $50-80 USD unless you get a really good deal.
Personally I wholeheartedly recommend PC Power&Cooling PSUs. They are rock solid power supplies. Yes, they are more expensive but the voltage rails are dead on, even with high loads. Here are the reasons, they are so damn good:
http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/products/power_supplies/insidestory/index.htm
Antec "True Power" PSUs also make good and reliable PSUs and are easy to obtain in the US.
In the end you get what you pay for
For your system a 350W PSU will be fine. But if you are like me and you want your PSU investment to last an upgrade or 2, go for a PSU with a little more power. As systems are increasingly sucking more and more power, you will be ready for your next Pentium upgrade