How many watt PSU do I need for 1.2ghz?

[Paiynn]

When I bought my first Athlon 500 classic, I was told I needed 300 watts. I had a 250 and tried it anyway and didnt have a problem for over a year.

Two days ago I upgraded to a KK266 and AMD 1.2ghz and of course I am trying this 250 watt box still. EXCEPT, now I seem to be running a high temp (50c right now) and having lockup problems. Its crashed about 5 times in 3 days. 10 minutes ago it just rebooted on its own when I was clicking around.

So this is probably a real dumb question since I kinda of have an idea already... Is my 250 watt supply the problem most likely? And are the high temps possibly related to the power supply being inadequate? I am using the stock retail heatsink, I have 2 extra fans in the case as well but its still running hot. I'm not trying to overclock it or do anything tricky so I think my cooling should be adequate.

I'm trying to get this solved without replacing a bunch of stuff as I go. My wife cringed enough when I bought the board cpu and memory so I want to keep her cringe factor to a minimum.

I'm loving this website BTW and appreciate the help!

 

[Daniel ~]

Welcome to our forums!

Moved post to "AMD Motherboards"

 

[n2]

well, if it's still running hot.....
how then is your cooling adequate?

i just dumped a 300wt for a 400wt...

high temps cause crashes tho... alot of things can cause crashes!!
did you reformat and reinstall windoze when you installed the new board???
is your bios set up correctly for the memory...
there are many factors here to consider... but high power and good cooling and definitely mandatory. i find wives are'nt... but thats just me

all your drivers new and proper on a clean install of windoze?
the next main thing, for sure!
good luck man!

 

[Da Whip]

The stock HSF is the barest of HSF's you should use. A 250watt PSU is the least you can use.Your trying to build a Porsche out of GM parts. Yeah, the Corvette is a fast car, but it is still not a Porsche.
No offense meant to those Generous Motor fans.
I would suggest a Enermax 431 watt PSU and do the honey do list for awhile.

 

[wild_andy_c]

This is one that I bring up on many occasions that is a true fact. You get a great deal of re-badged PSU's - always buy branded (like enermax) or buy one that is well over the rated wattage that is unbranded.

 

[el]

I would say 300watts is a safe bet for a regular systems but the extra power cna help when you have 4hd, 2 video cards, extreme cooling even if a fan only pulls .1amps the 1.2 watts adds up fast with all teh other stuff. I would now like to say 350 is min you would want to go!

 

[wolfman]

Or you can double the PSUs and you'se 2 300 watt PSUs and get about 300 watts of real power thats generics of course