brand name vs generic Power Supply question

[Alex99]

hello,
I have an Enlight 300 watt PS powering my system. I have an Athlon 1.2 Ghz @ 1378 Mhz @ 1.825 volts. It's running quite stable as is, but when I start to add more devices, like a hard drive or more fans, the system would reboot itself randomly for no reason. Also it crash/hang often when more devices are added. Would this be a Power Supply issue?

I am looking at 3 different kinds, however they are quite expensive for my budget:

Sparkle 400 watter
Antec 400 watter
Enermax 400 watter

I am consider some off brand 400 watter, like Future Power or some other generic. I am not very knowledgable when it comes to PS. What is the difference between say a 400 watt Antec and a generic 400 watter? The generic 400 watt I look at is UL listed,
approved, and spec'd very similar to Antec, yet cost half as much. What gives?

[!-=sky=-!]

i think the main problem is heat......
try better cooling

[Tebore]

The Antec has dual fans temperature controled. Some generics don't have Dual fans and some times don't go through as tough a quality control as the Antec or Enermax.

[sifu quoc]

i got the future power 400 watt... i bought it with a case for like 50 shipped....

[Alex99]

sifu,
How is that Future Power 400 watter working for you? What type of system do you have? I'm considering it.

thanks

[Paul -The Mad Hatter]

Originally posted by sifu quoc
i got the future power 400 watt... i bought it with a case for like 50 shipped....

how is it? cpu speed, 5v rail, mobo?

Alex: It sounds like it may be a psu problem. If you have the money get the antec one, it cost like 80$ (its alot) but is one of the best psu for a tbird. it'll give you all the power you want with some to spare. also whatsyour temps? it may be a temp problem. also whats you HSF

[Alex99]

Yeah I'm tempted to just bite the bullet and get the Antec. Although the Future Power is $40. I don't know if it's a heat problem. I'm running 46C idle, 53C running Prime95 continuously.
Here's my system specs:

- TB 1.2 @ 1.378 (145x9.5 @ 1.825 volts)
- Globalwin CAK38 (but with AMD retail fan, not the Delta, too noisy, however, I made a side case fan that blows cool air from the outside directly onto the CAK38)
- Abit KT7A
- Enlight 7237 case with the included 300 watt PS
- Quantum 18 GB 10,000 RPM SCSI
- WD 40 GB 7,200 RPM ATA100
- Yamaha 8x4x24 SCSI CD-RW
- Iomega 1 GB SCSI Jaz
- AOpen 12X IDE DVD
- Guillemot GF2 MX (190/210 core/mem)
- Adaptec 2490 UW PRO PCI SCSI
- StudioDV PCI firewire
- ATI TV Wonder PCI
- SB Live! X-Gamer
- 3 case fans

I have just bought a 60 GB Western Digital IDE hard drive that I want to use in the system also.

[Paul.K]

You should purchase a quality made PSU like Enermax, Sparkle or Antec. If your PSU is not of high quality it could eventually play havoc on your system....

[sifu quoc]

my system temps are 30
cpu temp is 42 under load

future power 400watt
+12.00v underload is 12.54
+5.00v is 4.71 underload

antec pp303x (i think) 300watt
i got the same results... but i fried it modding my psu

getting another one, i bought from someone....

will post later if people want...

i think they work the same...

[KrzyPrk]

when you say:

Also it crash/hang often when more devices are added[/QUOTE]

Did your system lock-up or freeze up when you say "it hang"? I have a simliar problem now. Maybe w/ your experience it can help me. Mine freezes up, I cannot move my pointer and cannot do Ctrl Alt Del.

[Alex99]

KrzyPrk,
First of all, welcome to the Forum. Yes, that's exactly what happens to my system when I add another 40 Gig HD. The system would boot up, then it hangs right after Windows all loaded up. Mouse freezes, kybrd freezes, Ctrl-alt-del won't do squat. When I remove the new HD it works fine. I know the HD is fine, because it works perfectly fine in my other PC. I don't know if it's IRQ problem or whatever, because I can't get into Windows to see. But I doubt it's an IRQ problem, because I'm using it as a slave on my primary IDE. It could be device conflict or whatever, but I don't know, I'm just thinking my 300 watter PS is maxed out.

[KrzyPrk]

thanks alex

I'm thinking that it's the power supply too. Well, my specs are:

1.2Ghz 266Mhz w/ Thermoengine
A7M266 ver 1004
ATI All-In-Wonder 32MB DDR Radeon
256MB DDR PC2100 (1 stick) Crucial
CD RW 8/4/32
D-Link ethernet 10/100
and a cheap 320 watt power supply

At first, my system would lock up frequently when I used a Micron RAM 256MB DDR PC2100. The mouse pointer wouldn't move and Ctrl Alt Del wouldnt respond too. I just replaced my RAM to the Crucial 3 days ago. So far, it only froze once. That's a big improvement for me. Anyway, when it froze i could control the mouse pointer but the Ctrl Alt Del wouldnt work.

So right now, i'm just gonna wait til it freezes on me again.

I've read that if you have 1.2Ghz or higher you should have at least 350Watt Brand Named Power Supply. ok..i hope i didnt miss out anything.