Athlon 1133 and some fans, will 250w be enough?

[Stryfe]

The subject basically says it. I've got an Athlon 1133. So far it's just got a CPU fan but I plan on adding a few case fans. I was under the impression that my power supply was a 300w unit, but now that I look at it it's only 250. The bill from the place I bought it last July says 300w though. But I did get the case and power supply for $44 Cdn so I can't really complain I supose. Not sure they'd do anything about this so long after.
So what do you guys think? Is 250w enough or would I be asking for trouble?

Also my 12v line has fluctuated as low as 10.2v and as high as 14.4v on two sperate occasions in the last 2 months. Does this mean there's something wrong with the PSU? Even if there is, how do I get the place I got it to warrenty it when it's a rare occasion?

 

[Hoot]

I think that they should warranty it delivering 250W, but your system is probably drawing more than that. I would never recommend anyone with a Tbird based rig to use a 250W PSU. I consider a name brand 300W to be the absolute minimum for long term reliability and preferably a 350W or 400W as an investment in the future. A good PSU will outlast many upgrade phases.

Hoot

 

[Yodums]

Speaking from experience from a guy using a generic 300watt, its not good to go under 350 watt for a PSU using AMD. AMD Draws alot of power, and my PSU is barely holding off. My 5v rail drops to 4.81 average on full load, sometimes as lot as 4.76.

I would recommend a 400watt Antec to get some use out of that before it gets out dated.

 

[menk]

why not an enermax 350 modded??

 

[KaHNZa]

I dunno, I've powered a athlon 1100 with delta fan and other basic things on a 145W PSU and it ran fine for weeks at a time.

 

[David]

I think that you need a branded PSU - not a generic one. I run a Tbird 1100 with 512MB RAM, two CD drives and a Hard Disk (not a brilliant Vcard) off a 300W PSU - it seems to be OK at stock speeds, but is very wobbly when overclocked much.

 

[Hotsauce]

You would be better off getting a 400w psu. Do get a name brand like enermax, antec, or pccooling, avoid a1electronicsinc products. I bought a 400w from them in Aug of 01, it fried my system after a couple of weeks. Got the 2nd rma a couple days ago, (3rd psu) and still running a 300w

I got cheap, and then cheap got me!