Enermax 350W (365-VE) enough?

[raddygast]

I'm going to be running the Enermax Whisper series 350W w/FC.

P4 1.6A hopefully oc to 2.4
Abit BD7-II-Raid mobo
512MB Corsair XMS3200PT
1x60 gig Quantum Fireball AS ATA-100 HDD
1xFDD
LiteOn 32x12x40 CDRW
LG 16x DVDROM
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz PCI sound
Either a Ti4200 or a Radeon 8500 LE 128MB


So with those specs, will this power supply be more than enough or am I pushing it? I may be able to return it to get a 430W, but I'll have to pay a restocking fee. Is it absolutely necessary that I do so? I really thought 350W would be enough, I thought more than that was for full tower server cases, but reading this forum makes me feel like crap.

[larva]

I have a 1.6a system at 2.4GHz and have tried several power supplies on it. I had good results with the Sparkle 300W unit, rated at 175W on the 3.3+5V output. The Enermax 350 is rated at 185W, so it sould be fine.

The $42 350W Sparkle provides the same 220W 3.3+5V the 431W Enermax. While the Enermax is undoubtably a quality supply, they are somewhat proud of them :)

Good luck with your P4, I looove mine :D 2.4GHz should be no problem, with some users with 845e boards reaching the 2.7GHz level with a serious heatsink and a bit more CPU voltage. I chose the SiS645DX chipset because of its superiority in Q3, but there is every chance my 1.6a would reach higher clock speeds on the BD7-II you chose. Your components are well chosen and the 350W Enermax should do fine at the 2.4GHz level. Only the power eating elevated CPU voltage needed for clock speed in excess of 2.4GHz might test its limits.

regards,
larva

[Jeff Bolton]

i think that stock, 350w should be fine, especially from a good company such as enermax. i'd watch your rails when you start to overclock though, especially getting close to the ghz overclock range, because that's a lot of juice for the psu to be pumping out, with all of those other components, like when you are watching a dvd or playing a taxing game.

so i think 350w should be fine, but at least 400w couldn't hurt. if you have the money, i say go for it, because the worst thing is to have great components but a lacking psu. if money is an issue, then keep the psu and see how far you can take things with it, then upgrade as needed if you aren't happy with your system's performance.

jeff

EDIT: oh yeah, with that mobo and ram, you will *probably* be able to take that chip a substantial amount higher than 2.4 (i've seen tons of 2.6's) assuming you have adequate cooling and, yes, adequate voltage from the PSU :D