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Do I need a new Power Supply?

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G

gas-man

Member
​
Joined
Jan 31, 2002
Location
ON, Canada
Greetings all, I will be upgrading soon to the system in my sig, and was wondering what PSU to use? I currently have a 300W (I think) and the MSI manual says minimum 300W.

Do I need to upgrade? I'll have a CD-Rom, CD-RW, DVD-ROM (prolly) ...etc etc

Thanks
 
[color=0099ff]I have cheap 300 watt psu's that won't even power one high speed athlon. It really depends on the quality of the psu. What model/brand is it? What is the combined power output (3.3V+5V)?
[/color]
 
The manual actually says you need 400 watts. I use a 550 w enermax, maybe its overkill but they can be found for about 100-120 bucks. Not that much comparing to the total system cost.

regards,
Henry
 
The manual says "Minimum 300 Watts" in the power supply section. I think I may need more though, from what I've seen around the board.

What would be good? 400W? Is the brand crucial, cause I think I could get one for cheap on ebay...
 
i used a cheapo 350w power supply that i got for $12 on the below system, but got a 500w just for safety. 300w would be cutting it close, but it might work, it all depends on your budget.
 
i hv enermax 435W PSU to power up the PIII dualies, plus 2 HD(IDE), 2 hd(SCSI), and one cdrom. somemore include one vid card. scsi card and NIC. this is the max device for my PSU to support, futher add on will make the system won't boot!
 
gas-man said:
The manual says "Minimum 300 Watts" in the power supply section. I think I may need more though, from what I've seen around the board.
Click to expand...

Hmm, yes, it actually does. I had another dual amd board and it said minimum 400 watts on that one. I think AMD´s specs for the 760mpx chipset is minimum 400 w.

regards,
Henry
 
Since 300 watts is cutting it close with a single CPU socket-A system I would go with 400w or more. Most other dual Athlon boards require 400+ watts of PSU capability to run right. If you've got a lot of drives then 400w might not even be enough.

Get as much as you can, with 400w being the minimum. Or you could always run dual PSUs. Say 400w powering the mobo and that 300w you already have powering the drives.
 
I power my system with a generic 420W (Turbolink) PSU and I have never had the 5V or 12V rails fluctuate into the danger zones.

GRANTED, my dual system is minimalist - 2 CD drives, one HDD, Duron CPU's, (4) 80 MM and (2) 92 MM fans. Not to mention only mildly overclocked.

I'd definitely say a name brand 300W PSU is a minimum for a minimalist (as in more minimalist than mine) dual system.
 
I'd go for a 400W enermax PS for about $70-$80..... try and take a look at newegg.com
Also, try looking in the refurbished section. You might be able to find some cheap but good branded PS.
 
Newegg really isn't an option (being from Canada), but maybe I could snag a 525/500 from ebay. I was looking and you can get them for around $30-$50.....
 
I personally LOVE the FMI 500 watter from Comp USA..It is stable as a stone on my main box 24/7 100% load for months on end.

And at 79.99 with a local place to exchange it incase of trouble you really can't beat it....
 
Sounds like you are water cooling with that psu too. Well I would say you need somthing more powerful. definatly at least 400w. But it doesn't hurt to try. The thing you will notice is that the hard drives usualy don't power up if you don't have enough power
 
My pump isn't/won't be hooked up to the PS, it will have it's own outlet. I think 500W should do the job.
 
400w should do fine if its good quality.

I have my dual 1.4ghz tbirds, 2 cd roms, 1 hd, 10 fans, and acold cathode all on my 400w antec ps.
 
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