Will my PS handle it?

Raidmax 420W +3.3v@26A +5v@32A +12v@13A
I've had this power supply for about 2 years and my system isn't power hungry, but I'm thinking of buying new parts and vmodding my motherboard, will I need an upgrade in power supply as well?
The only parts I'm planning on getting another stick of 512mb Kingston ValueRam, and a 120mm TT fan. According to the parts in my sig along with a droop mod and a ddr vmod will my power supply handle it?

i am guessing this is a Raidmax 420W that game from one of their cases??
if so.. for yours ..and ours sake.. upgrade.

i like taking apart psu's..and trust me.. the Raidmax 420W of my brothers computer.. well ..its a gutless thing compared to my others (i seen a 150 watt sparkle psu with more guts)

I'm surprised it hasn't blown up already.

Got a cheap, good power supply you could recommend >50$?

Not really, for this rig. This style of thinking is what landed you the (dangerous) supply you currently have. Total up the replacement cost of all the components you have hooked up to that firestarter and then tell me it makes a lick of sense to try to spend $20-40 too little on a supply. Ridiculous.

The Fortron AX500-A is the least expensive supply I can recommend for this application. It is available for just over $70 from ewiz.com. Newegg sells it also, but their price isn't as good. Might check directron also, I haven't looked at their fortron selection/prices lately.

And BTW, I wouldn't recommend a second stick of that ram unless you have isolated some KVR2700 with some really gifted chips. I have some KVR2700 with BH6 chips on it that is awesome, but most of it just sucks. Ram is cheap these days, and since you are OC'ing, you appear to care about the performance aspect. From this perspective, it is as senseless to skimp on ram as it is on supply. Ram is cheap, get some good PC3200, an AX500-A, and chances are extremely good you will find your 2.8c has 3.5GHz+ in it without a Vmod this or Vdroop that.

I didn't specifically pick out the power supply, it came with a case, which I bought a few years back and all I thought was good was wattage. For RAM, I just need a cheap way to go dual channel, I don't have the money to buy high performance ram

Well, as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

larva said:

Well, as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

Click to expand...

agreed.. my friend built a system .. 420 raidmax psu. and it blew up on him..took 1 gig of ram, the cpu, ..well everything but the videocard (9800xt) ..after that he askes me for everything if its good to get lol.. o well

imo get a better psu inplace of the ram..

Thanks for the advice.

I looked for "AX500-A" at ewiz.com couldn't find it.
This at newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104934

The 3.3v + 5v = 150W; shouldn't be around 270W according to the sticky?

I'm not sure what sticky you are referring to, but I unstuck mine stressing the importance of a reasonably high 3.3+5V output some 10 months ago. That was the best way to tell in the old days, but times have changed. P4s, late AXPs, and A64s derive Vcore from the 12V line, drastically lessening the load on the 5V rail. This means that the 150W 3.3+5V output of the AX500-A is plenty, as only previous gen cards like the 9800pro and FX series nvidias run the GPU from the 5V rail. PCI express cards are 12V powered.

Additionally, the AX500-A has proven able to drive heavier 5V loads than its 150W rating would indicate. The result is, there is no concern with overloading the 3.3+5V capacity.

Newegg's price just blows on this supply. Ewiz had them for $73 very recently, and if you wait they will probably again. I don't know if there is anybody else selling the AX500-A for a sane price, I'm sure some pricewatch and/or google work could find out. Also, any good deal on the AX500-A will likely be posted in the cyber deals section of the forums, as this supply is the answer for 90% of all power supply questions.

I'm with Larva, and wizard james! There is no such thing as cheap with computers. You may buy cheap, but you'll pay double for it in the long run. I can say that without any shadow of a doubt. It's better to save your money and buy new stuff less frequently than it is to buy cheap, buy twice, and then end up with nothing.

If you get a cheap PSU, chances are very good it will waste your board, your CPU, your RAM, and usually gets the vid card too. I'm surprised that the person that wizzard spoke of didn't lose his vid card in that burn down...very surprised.

Likewise, you can have the most killer PSU, mobo, RAM, cooling, and everything else, but if you go with cheap RAM all you are doing is introducing a bottleneck, and you'll prbably end up with a bum RAM chip down the road which will leave you dead in the water, and you'll be buying again. With cheap RAM comes problems, and lack of support.

The choices are... Buy HQ stuff and buy once and have high OC's that will give you what you *really* want, or buy cheap, have nothing but grief from it, and then buy again.

How do I know this you may ask? I learned the hard way. I now take the easy way and ask and then take their advice. If I'm not gonna take their advice, there is no sense in asking.

Yes, I agree with you also and luckily nothing has ever happened to my components thus far, but I've only had this computer for 2 years. I was thinking of buying a new PSU but it wasn't essientials, I could already run my computer. Yes, I know I'm running on a thin wire with my dangerous PSU. I plan on buying one soon, since there's a risk of frying something with this crappy PSU. I'm not a hardcore overclocker, or gaming enthusiast, so I don't need the the expensive performance parts.. couldn't afford them anyways.

Again, thanks for the advice