2 Questions about PSU's

What is the most common thing that happens with a lack of power?

Could someone reccomend a low priced PSU which will be able to power a AMD 2400+, 1GB DDR, Abit KD7?

I can't really provide a good educated answer on your first question. Assuming there is enough power to boot up, I would imagine you would find your PC doing funny things intermittently – errors, lockups, blue screens, etc. Power draw varies depending on what the system is doing.

On power supplies: What is low priced to you? I have an Antec True Power 550w on my primary system and an Enermax 431w on my backup. Both I bought for under $100 delivered. I don’t know brands but I do know that some of the big name PSU manufacturers make generic brand versions for a few bucks less. Although – buyer beware. The PSU is the heart of your system. It can make or break a good system. Try to buy ‘inexpensive’ vice ‘cheap.’ Anyone correct me if I’m wrong but I would think you would do fine with anything over 300w.

With lack of power I think the most common ting that happens is that the voltages start to dip. You can monitor these in the BIOS and with a program in windows such as MotherBoard Monitor5. The ones to watch are the +5v and another i cant remember witch. When the computer is under load these voltages will drop and they need to be as close to there values as possible i.e the +5v needs to keep close to 5v when it drops to around 4.7-4.8 tings can start to happen i.e. random reboots, general instability.

EDIT: as for a PSU u get what you pay for, try getitng hold of a Antec True Power or Sparkle i have heard good things about them and try avoid the cheapo ones like Q-Tec that are like £30 for a 550W PSU there cheap and i wouldnt recommend them.

The best value-priced PSU you can buy is a Sparkle/FSP 300w. Great quality and reliability, and just $33 including shipping at Newegg.



BHD

While a agree whole-heartedly on brand, I would recommend the $38 dollar Fortron version from www.directron.com or the spiffy new $45 dollar 120mm 350W Sparkle version from XP Direct. While the 300W Fortron/Sparkle is also a horse, it doesn't save enough money to rival the value offered by the ever so versatile and powerful 350W model.

I agree with larva!! Where else are you going to get 50 extra watts for just 5 dollars more? Good rec.

300W Sparkle $14.99 at www.pcdirect.com, coupon code PRICEWATCH, model ATX300-GT. Has variable speed fan, lots of connectors, but +12V is rated for only 13A, which may be a problem if the mobo powers the CPU from the +12V and you have a lot of disk drives.

I wouldn't recommend buying too cheap though. I've seen it time after time them breaking down. Then, you have to replace it and you end up spending more money and have the hassle.