Power Supply Suggestions

shokpin

OSNN Junior Addict
Joined
19 Apr 2004
Messages
38
hey everyone, I was hoping for some suggestions on power supply size for a new system a friend has built

Leadtek WinFast K7NCR18D-Pro mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro (128meg)
512meg DDR 333mhz

Originally he had only 250w supply (from his old case) and the boot process wouldnt go beyond memory check.

He then went to Circuit City and they convinced him 300w was enough. The system now boots, but the graphics are completely garbled.

Is 300w enough for this system (my guess is no).

And would that be the cause of the garbled screen?
Its all distorted, with random color blocks, shifting parts, random characters, missing blocks, etc.

It still runs ok, as in it can boot, and I can go into bios (havent loaded an OS yet) and move things around (cant actually see anything though)

Thanks!
 
addition

no cd-roms
tried w/o hard drive

graphics card was working before we swapped out his mobo/proc for the new ones
 
as always my recommandation comes with a pic' . :)
Yes , you should consider 350W minimum for your system ( I have too ) - problem caused by vidcard
 
thanks for the spiffy power supply pic

ok, just switched out my GeForce 3 w/his Radeon

the GeF3 worked fine in his comp
the Radeon did was having same prob in my system

card must have gone bad
odd though, because it was working up to switching out the mobo/proc

i'll get a RMA going for him

ok, 350w should probably be bare min for his system?

The Leadtek mobo
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
512 DDR
2 hard drives
1 DVD drive
1 CDRW drive
Sound Card
PCI Firewire ports


[edits are fun!!]
 
I don't think that there are actual combatibility problems between nForce2 and ATI based cards... I think it's just a random stroke of bad luck... though I'm not entirely sure of the facts.
And I agree with Cosmin, no less than 350W PSU! :cool:
 
the more watts, the merrier. :p

350 or more is good. figure that a bigger one (400w or so) will allow for future power-hungry video cards and processors. not to mention extra harddrives, optical drives, pci cards that he might add later. all while keeping his voltages in line.
 
you spend all that money for high end components and put a crappy power supply in there?? get an antec, sparkle or (my preference and recommendation) an Enermax. I would get a 400 watt or higher. Why? because it will probably outlast the rest of your computer when you upgrade.


ps. I wouldnt be surprised if the ****ty ps ruined your video card.
 
haha
sittin here blaming me!!?!?!

it is a friend, and he went against everyone's advice to get 350w+.

like i said, he went to circuit city and got conned into the 300w

but would a small power supply really screw the vid card up?

his old one was...whatever was in his old compaq 250w
and the new one is an antec 300w
 
350W if you are buying a good name brand like antec. If it's a cheap generic go for 400W.

www.tomshardwrae.com has some great pic's of burned up power supplies that never even made it near rated capacity.
 
Just a footnote and I have no idea how good they are, atleast their fans are, I found a thermaltake 430 watt ps for $55, made me happy, guess we'll see how it goes when I get it. If anyone is interested I can post a link to where I got it.
 
It's not always about a good vs. bad PS. Sometimes a PS is just wrong for a certain configuration. A PS may work fine in a similiar rig, yet fail to work properly in another.

For the configurations you listed, a 300w Antec would appear to be an appropriate choice.

Sometimes it's a good idea to check what kind of amps the mobo is expecting on each rail, and check to see if the PS is supplying the needed amount. The +3.3V rail seems to be causing some problems these days, many newer mobo's are looking for more than the the 20A that was standard a few years back.

The newer Antec 300w PS's have a +5V and +3.3V combined (this is an important rating) output of 220w max. That's a pretty substantial number (but the +3.3V amps are only 20). With generics you would probably have to go to a 450w model to get the same output. But a newer generic may be pushing 28A on the +3.3 rail.

Memory is also very similiar, what works fine in one mobo may fail to work properly in another. It's not that the memory is bad, just wrong for certain configurations. One size does not fit all. For everyone who raves about a product, it seems someone will have problems with it.
 
Originally posted by Gus K
It's not always about a good vs. bad PS. Sometimes a PS is just wrong for a certain configuration. A PS may work fine in a similiar rig, yet fail to work properly in another.

For the configurations you listed, a 300w Antec would appear to be an appropriate choice.

Sometimes it's a good idea to check what kind of amps the mobo is expecting on each rail, and check to see if the PS is supplying the needed amount. The +3.3V rail seems to be causing some problems these days, many newer mobo's are looking for more than the the 20A that was standard a few years back.

The newer Antec 300w PS's have a +5V and +3.3V combined (this is an important rating) output of 220w max. That's a pretty substantial number (but the +3.3V amps are only 20). With generics you would probably have to go to a 450w model to get the same output. But a newer generic may be pushing 28A on the +3.3 rail.

Memory is also very similiar, what works fine in one mobo may fail to work properly in another. It's not that the memory is bad, just wrong for certain configurations. One size does not fit all. For everyone who raves about a product, it seems someone will have problems with it.
good post. thanks.
 
I guess i'm lucky so far - stock 265 watt Sony PSU - running a Ti4400 and 2 extra fans with no problems. I don't think it's possible to replace my PSU anyway.................
 

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