How important is the PSU for overclocking?

[Mortdog]

I use a 300w psu which came with my aopen hq08 case.

My components are:
2 x ibm 46.2 gb 7200 rpm, 1 15.2 gb 5400 rpm, 1 8.4 gb 5400 rpm.
1 cd-r burner and one dvd-rom player. Floppy
Geforce2mx, Mpegcard H+, Soundblaster Live value, 1 network card
1 ghz axia @ 1370 mhz 1.74 vcore. Mosel Vitelic 256 mb Cas2 161 mhz.
Superorb with 3 Titan Fans. 5 fans alltogether.

When I read through all this I kind of think that my power supply is a little week.
Maybe it has some effect when I try to overclock higher?. For some reason when trying to get higher than 1450 mhz my monitor goes black. Maybe it is the cpu stealing so much power than the video card stop functioning?

Do you think I need a stronger power supply to overclock more?

[TranceBear]

300 watts seems a bit low for all the stuff you have tucked in your rig. It sure would not hurt to get a 400+ enermax. I just got the 431 watt enermax and I get no voltage fluctuation at all. Any kind of overclocking raises the watts your CPU needs by alot. Good Luck!!

[Bender]

300 watts should be enough as long as you have a very stable power supply. Stability in a psu is more important that wattage to a certain point. However I do agree that the enermax would be a good choice since it has the wattage and stability. Personally I would just stick with the 300w psu unless it is of poor quality or not AMD approved.

[Hoot]

At 71W of CPU power, you are right at the point where a quality 300W PSU will work, but a so-so 300W supply will be struggling for stability. Bender is right. Not all PSUs are created equal. You have to zoom in past the overall spec of 300W and look at the combined power rating for the +5 & +3.3. That's where the OC wars are fought and either won or lost.

Hoot