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Is Sparkle 400W good enough for ASUS M5A88-V + FX-4100 + G.Skill DDR3 1600Mhz?

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Stealth3si

Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2007
As some may have recently noticed here I've been trying to put a new budget cpu + mobo + ram bundle together and have come to the realization that my Sparkle PSU doesn't have an ESP12V connector for the new motherboard and may not have enough power to juice the new bundle, let alone light overclocking. So I've opened this thread to find out if I need to (or should) replace the lil guy?

HOpefully it's still good enough... :D

This low budget PSU is what I have now:
SPARKLE ATX-400PN-B204 400W ATX 12V 2.2 Power Supply - OEM (It's a rebadged FSP so it's a good quality build from Fortron)

These low-budget parts (except for the RAM) are what I'm going to get:
ASUS M5A88-V EVO AM3+ AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD FX-4100
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

If the Sparkle is good enough (and for light overclocking), is it OK to use a 8-to-4 pin connector or a 4 Pin + LP4 to 8 Pin connector , whether or not I need to use the whole 8-pin CPU power connector for stock or overclocked settings?

Does that make any sense?

If I need a new PSU then....(sigh) what's a good budget one?
 
My old HP build ran a non-overclocked 20w processor with 2 sticks of RAM on a 250W PSU. I'd imagine a 400 would be enough if you don't have a discrete graphics card.

Edit: Woops, misinformation. Even with the change, I'd imagine 400 would be enough.
 
A discrete graphics card is any card that isn't integrated - so yes, I'd think you'd be fine. However, I'd wait for someone else to confirm/deny it, since I've no actual experience.
 
OK. Let us wait for our next advisor...

after some research i found that the sparkle is good enough, on stock but probably not on overclock. nto sure

on stock i don't need that 8-4pin connector.

on overclock i would need it because the high power consumption of the fx-4100 must be supplied from the sparkle but can it be possible by puting two 12V rails together thru the 4pin and LP4"? i don't know
 
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If that PSU is of halfway decent quality it'll be just fine.
You could run that system on a 250w unit if it had decent 12v.
 
im was running a 2500K and a 1TB drive and IGP on a 250W PSU even overclocked 3% system bus and 30% GPU. PSU never even got warm


And thats a cheap **** one.

So yes 400W would be more than enough assuming it is a 12V metered one.
 
well fwiw there's allgedly two 12v rails, each 18A

Not possible

There may be 2 rails, and there maybe 18A availble but not for each rail.

Plus cheap PSUS always lie about their rating. So I doubt it can do that for a single rail.

Still if energy security is not a concern (and look at dell/HP systems to show it is not) then it is enough.

Seriously though get a real PSU maybe a 250W unit that has a warranty :)
 
400w should be plenty of headroom. I can't speak to Sparkle's quality these days, but in the past they were a perfectly capable mid-range PSU. Nothing fancy but not crap either. They often have the same model # as models made by FSP, which also makes pretty solid products.

Took a quick look on Newegg - here's my recommendation if it's in your price range: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151077

About $5 less, not worth the downgrade IMO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104045

And this wouldn't be the end of the world either if your budget it tiny:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104951
 
Not possible

There may be 2 rails, and there maybe 18A availble but not for each rail.

Plus cheap PSUS always lie about their rating. So I doubt it can do that for a single rail.
I don't disagree. at most 25A between the two combined rails.



Seriously though get a real PSU maybe a 250W unit that has a warranty :)
400w should be plenty of headroom. I can't speak to Sparkle's quality these days, but in the past they were a perfectly capable mid-range PSU. Nothing fancy but not crap either. They often have the same model # as models made by FSP, which also makes pretty solid products.

Took a quick look on Newegg - here's my recommendation if it's in your price range: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151077

About $5 less, not worth the downgrade IMO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104045

And this wouldn't be the end of the world either if your budget it tiny:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104951
Here is the article that helped me make a decision to buy the sparkle about 5 years ago. It seems like it's a reliable build.

What do you ya'll think?

As for the last Forton 300W link, i got that one (or the 350W version) prior to the sparkle and it's still running flawlessly to this day!
 
Not a super rigorous test, but better than nothing. Your build isn't going to demand a lot of power, especially if you don't OC. Not having a discrete graphics card gives you a lot of headroom. I think you'd be fine with the Sparkle, though I'd prefer the Seasonic in that price range.
 
It depends on the GPU. If you're using a low power GPU or the onboard graphics it'll be plenty.
 
Depending on how extreme the overclocking is, I agree. The CPU will probably pull around 200w, so without a powerful GPU you'll have some headroom. Add a 100-150w GPU and it starts getting dicey.
 
if that PSU is made by FSP, then it's good enough... i've had my 500w 60apn FSP supersonic for about a year now. i have no problems ever since... its currently powering the rig on my sig.. and i wont be upgrading it anytime soon.
 
cool there'll be no discrete GPU...

wait...are you talking about the Phenom II X6 1035T?

and what's a good cpu cooler for it ? i.e., S93M? Hyper 212?

finally is having more cores w/ the 1035T better or is having a faster clock w/ the 4100 better with my application?

does win7 use multiple cores? six cores?

I'm using windows 7 64bit, ssd, and will be multi-tasking and simultaneously using FF, GC, IE, Paint.Net and Excel...
 
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cool there'll be no discrete GPU...

wait...are you talking about the Phenom II X6 1035T?

and what's a good cpu cooler for it ? i.e., S93M? Hyper 212?

finally is having more cores w/ the 1035T better or is having a faster clock w/ the 4100 better with my application?

I'm using windows 7 64bit, ssd, and will be multi-tasking and simultaneously using FF, GC, IE, Paint.Net and Excel...

more cores is better than having higher clocks and you can still overclock that pII x6 1035T...
if you want a budget cooler with good performance go get the hyper 212 evo(great bang for buck)
you're fine with that 400w considering you dont have a discreet GPU... that's more than enough even with water cooling..
 
more cores is better than having higher clocks and you can still overclock that pII x6 1035T...
if you want a budget cooler with good performance go get the hyper 212 evo(great bang for buck)
you're fine with that 400w considering you dont have a discreet GPU... that's more than enough even with water cooling..

ok...

i was just curious..you know...

will there be no advantage of buying a six core if none of my apps use six cores?

what about windows boot time?
 
ok...

i was just curious..you know...

will there be no advantage of buying a six core if none of my apps use six cores?

what about windows boot time?

a quad core will be enough for your apps.. boot time is affected by the speed of the boot drive that is the HDD, it'll be faster if you are using an SSD..
 
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