The PSU debate, how much is enough really???

[Qube]

Quality means having a stable rail voltage among other things. Enough amperage counts also. Wattage isn't the big issue here.

This is like 'kiddies' comparing cars... hey, my car's got 300HP but a shitty torque that's not worth a damn.

 

[Richard]

Sounds exactly like the type of problems I was having when I purchased an el cheapo generic case. It came with a 300 watt power supply; so I figured, "Hey, 300watt, cool."

Wrong.

I was getting a lot of system instability. Knowing that the only thing I had changed was the power supply, I swapped it out with my previous 250watt power supply.

Problems vanished. Obviously, wattage isn't the determining factor in good power. A high quality power supply should provide a "clean" signal to the motherboard with little fluctuation in current.

My recommendation is to go with an AMD approved power supply and you'll be in the clear. Granted, these new 1.4 GHz Tbirds generally require a much beefier power supply than previous tbirds, but as long as you go by what AMD recommends you'll be just fine.

Another thing you can do to rectify power woes is to purchase a UPS. Actually, you shouldn't power up a computer without one. Funny how often people neglect the most fundamental component of the computer.

Squid (Jun 12, 2001 06:50 a.m.):
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Ok now a little bit confused, lately i have had alot of crashes through my video card, a TNT2 32meg model 64,
Recently I have added a Pioneer DVD player and another 256 meg ram card.
When i play AoE2 or run 3DMarks at times it crashes and i go back to windows.
So what i tried was disconnecting my Floppy, DVD and CDW then tried the same programs and still got the crashes, hmmmmmm.
Now i have dropped my system back to an A900 and now no problems.
So i guess this points to the need for more power to run my overclocked system, but then why did it not work when i had all the drives disconnected?
And why was it stable before the DVD??
Any Answers?
Still a bit confused, whether to spend the cash on a new PSU, is it really worth it???

 

[Squid]

Interesting

I think i will do some research before sundays swap meet, see what supplies are around, since our Aussie dollar is so f@#&ed i sure the Enermax's will cost a bit, but if its needed then its needed.

Thanks

 

[GooGobbler]

Yea I have an Antec 400W PSU