question about PSU...

[gearfish]

My question is aboutmy powersupply. Just for fun I thought I would try somthing. I have built two computers with this spec and both run fine with the 350PSU for the past 6 months. I remeber when I built this system that I was told to get a 420 or better but this has worked flawless with the 350. Any ideas?

CASE “BLACK”
ANTEC Solution Series Super Mid Tower Case w/ 350W Power Supply, Model "SLK3700AMB"

CPU
AMD ATHLON 64 3500+ 512K S939 2.2GHZ (RETAIL)
THERMALRIGHT XP-90 K8 CPU HEATSINK

MEMORY
(2) 512MB CORSAIR VALUE SELECT PC-3200

DVD±R/RW
NEC 8X Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW ND-2510A

FLOPPY DRIVE
SAMSUNG 1.44MB BLACK FLOPPY DRIVE

MOTHERBOARD
MSI K8N NEO2 PLATINUM NFORCE3 ULTRA S939

VIDEO CARD
eVGA GeForce 6800 GT 256-MB

HARDDRIVE
PRIMARY
74GB Western Digital Raptor SATA 10,000 RPM 8MB Cache Model WD740GD

STORAGE
250GB Hitachi 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model HDS722525VLSA80

------

ANTEC All Clear 120mm SmartCool Thermally Controlled Case fan, Model "75012” $20

ENERMAX Adjustable Speed 120mm cooling fan, Model "UC-12FAB-B" $12

ANTEC 92MM SMARTCOOL THERMALLY CONTROLLED FAN WITH TEMPERATURE SENSOR, MODEL "75009" $

[Diggrr]

A 350 will still run many computers, it's just when overclocking and slapping the volts to it, does the need for a larger supply come into play...increasing voltage to ram, cpu, gpu, droop modding etc. all takes wattage off that poor psu.
Not to mention, a heap of fans to rein in the runaway temps.

This is overclocker's.com, so that's what most assume-You'll be pushing it as far as possible.

I run a Pressy system on a Fortron 400 with room to spare and solid rails. If I was going to run it as high as possible, I'd have gotton the 500 watter.

*Oh, almost forgot to mention...a higher rated psu might actually draw less power from the wall plug because psu efficiency drops when it's heated and straining to keep up. They aren't like a simple transformer that always draws a given ammount of power, they draw what's needed as it's needed. With a ammeter, you can actually watch amps increase as you hit the defrag button.

[firebat45]

the thing that annoys me the most is that a 300 watt power supply would be fine for nearly anyone, but thats only if it output 300 actual watts continuously. Since you need 300 or so watts continuously, you end up having to buy a 500 or 600 watt, both due to the fact that those measurements are max output, and manufacturers seem to have a creative license with wattage ratings. I just got a noname "450" watt psu out of an old computer, with 12 A on its single 12v rail, and it weighs 280 grams or so. (10 oz?) 450 watts is BS, that thing would surprise me with 200. Thats why getting a PSU from Fortron, Zippy, PC&P, OCZ, etc will look like your paying more per watt, but in reality, these PSUs are much closer to their actual ratings, and perform stabler (is that a word?) and more reliably.

[Diggrr]

True true!

My Antec 380 in my Sonata seemed a decent psu, but I bought a Fortron (as I always do) for the new system when I ordered. Never did try it on my Prescott.

Off brands are liberal with wattage ratings, and with the temps that they're rating them at. Better psu's like Fortron rate them at nice warm normal operating temps...others seem to be too embarrased to tell you ;)

[yeha]

very, very few people need 300 watts of continuous power. maybe with a highly overclocked prescott and a pair of 6800 ultras. the problem is just that the most common psu rating is 300 watts, so bargain producers badge their $2.20-produced junk heaps as that and sell them off to bargain-hunting users and case resellers. when they fail to deliver even 150 watts it doesn't surprise me at all.

i remember some wattmeter tests i saw that had a 130nm athlon 64 3700+, 2gb ram, 2 hard drives, a 9800 pro and 2 optical drives, and the highest load the reviewer could get was 147 watts (prime95 + 3dmark i think it was).

if only people would stick to good manufacturers like fortron, topower, seasonic, etc. there'd be a lot less to worry about when diagnosing people's problems. out of desparation once i replaced a friend's 350w no-name psu with a fortron 300w i had lying around, and it cured the spontaneous freezing and rebooting that i couldn't diagnose any other way. i think his system (2.4ghz celeron) was only drawing 90 watts of power, but the junk-pile stock psu couldn't even keep that going.