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480 Watt power supply not enough for a Prescott?

AdamK47

AdamK47

Lifer
I recently bought a 2.8E D0 stepping Prescott P4 in the hopes of getting it to 3.5GHz on a 250MHz FSB. The CPU previously in my system was a 2.4C @ 3.0GHz, so I knew the rest of the system could handle it. Along with the CPU I bought a Thermaltake 735 heatsink/fan and a 480W Thermaltake power supply.

I got everything setup and powered on. Everything was fine at default clock speeds, so I decided to start the overclock. Set the bus to 250MHz FSB and left the voltages at default. It got into windows just fine, but didn't pass Prime95. So I decided to raise the vcore to 1.45V. Everything seemed to be stable in Prime95 after that, or so I thought. After about 30 minutes the system just completely shut down. I had to unplug the AC from the power supply and reconnect it before I could power on again. I originally thought it was the temperature getting too high, but just before it happened the second time I was watching the temps. It never got above 60C, which is pretty good for a Prescott. I decided to just overclock at default voltage. The highest I got was 3.36GHz. Pretty good, but not what I wanted.

After about two weeks at that speed I decided to try a better power supply since I got the impression that having to recycle the AC on the power supply was a sign something was tripping. I got the Antec 550W power supply and went for 3.5GHz at 1.45V and everything has been fine since, temperatures and all.

Bottom line... If you're going to overclock a Prescott P4 with voltages higher than default, get the best power supply you can! Either that or stay away from Thermaltake power supplies.
 
Funnay, my Thermaltake 480 works fine with my A64 3000+ CG @ 2.25GHZ. I guess all PSU's aren't built the same. I bought it because it was cheap ($55) and it performed better than the Fortron 400W in anand's PSU roundup.
 
The Thermaltake 480W is a decent power supply, but not for anyone looking to overclock a Prescott or A64. I have a Thermaltake 480W Silent Purepower and although it is a decent power supply, the weak 12v would show up when heavily overclocking my A64 3200+. It would dip down to 11.52v under load with my A64 at 2.6ghz and 1.7v and was not totally stable. I replaced it with a OCZ Powerstream 520W and the 12v rail will barely budge with it never going below 12.03 from the 12.08v idle and I am perfectly stable.

I just got a Epower 470W which has a strong 12v rail (28Amps), but it suffers from a similar undervolting problem when under load as the Thermaltake, just not as bad with it hitting a low of 11.58v under load.
 
People disagree, but personally I find Thermaltake to be a cut below Antec and Enermax. A 420W thermaltake I find about equivalent to a 350W Antec/Enermax; the 480W Thermaltake is outclassed by 460W Antec and (especially) Enermax PSU's.
 
Sparkle makes a pretty good ps also. My 300w with 12cm side fan runs a 2.8c at 3.64, and the 12v rail is at 12.03, dead on. Not bad for a $28 power supply.
 
ya the Tt power supplys are good but not for overclocking, i just upgraded from a enermax 300watt to a Tt 420watt, its good but i can no longer overclock to 2.4ghz because of a low 12volt
 
I just looked up the specs on the Thermaltake 480W PS I had. The +12V line only supplies 18 Amps of current. Thats considerably less that my new Antec 550W which supplies 32 Amps. No wonder I had problems.
 
I have thermaltake butterfly 480w, and it SEEMs good :\ Could it be the reason I cant get to 2.4 @ on my stock hsf?
 
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