Advice on PSU for HP a1130n

[ashishmishra]

Hi, guys. I bought a HP a1130n about 4-5 months ago, here are the specs

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice
MSI RS480M2-IL Motherboard mATX
2 x 512 DDR400 3-3-3-6
250 GB Seagate @ 7200 rpms 8 MB
250 GB Western Digital @ 7200 rpms 8MB
HP DVD-R/RW with Lightscribe
HP DVD-ROM
256MB MSI Geforce 6800 (nv41) @ 400/750

HP Stock Case mATX
HP PSU 300W

Linksys 802.11 b/g wireless adapter (USB)
Creative Webcam (USB)

I want to ask am I running extremely close to the edge, PSU wise, because when I was playing NFS MW the screen suddenly froze for about 20 seconds and then resumed as though nothing ever happened. In GTA VC it sometimes not always freezes and then reboots, this happened one or two times in NFS MW as well.

When I try to OC my 6800's core a inch above 405 and test changes coolbits informs that the test failed to run at the specified clock speed. Is it because the PSU fails to provide enough power? In non gaming applications the system is rock solid.

Also since my case is mATX do I have to keep that in mind when shopping for a PSU or is PSU independent of the form factor

If you do advice me to upgrade tell me the best price/dollar PSU out there sufficient, to last me through an Athlon X2 and Geforce 7800GTX upgrade in the future.

Thanks a lot guys

 

[Zepper]

Looks like it has an SFX or PS3 power supply but if you could supply its measurements in inches, I could tell for sure. Hard to find decent power in those form-factors. Easier and cheaper to move everything else into a case that can hold a standard size ATX PSU.

.bh.

 

[ashishmishra]

Can you tell me if the PSU is form factor independent or not, as in do all PSU's fit in all cases regardless whether they are ATX or microATX. If it is so please recommend me one.

 

[Zepper]

No, HP, Conpaq, Dell etc. use small cases that can't take anything of a different form-factor than the OE PSU. May be off in size a tenth of an inch or so either way might fit.
I already know from finding a picture of the back of it with Google that it is not a standard ATX size. It's one of the compact form factors. So will need measurements of the PSU to know which form-factor it is.
. Of course any PSU with standard ATX/P4 connectors would plug into your equipment OK but you couldn't mount it inside that case.

.bh.

 

[ashishmishra]

Thanks a lot Zepper, currently I'm on winter vacation away from my PC, so will PM you for advice after measuring the size of the PSU after going back to college.

Meanwhile I'll be gratefull if you could check this out, here is the link, check out post #11, I have appended the relevent para from there

AMD Support Forum for Pavilion a1130n

Here's my mods to the a1130n:

Added the ATI All-In-Wonder x600 pro video card w/250 mb ram onboard the video card, added another gig of RAM (2 each 512 mb sticks to fill all four slots) for 2 gigs total, a Creative Soundblaster card (from old PC), a Gigbyte Lan card, another 80 gig IDE drive, and a USB floppy drive that sits on top of the case. I pulled out the stock 300 watt power supply and replaced with an ANTEC TruePower 430 watt dual fan model, and added another case fan at the front.

The onboard video, audio, and LAN are disabled in BIOS, because I have installed the cards I listed above.

It now has 6 fans total - 1 on the AMD 3500+ (which is the Venice model), another fan at the back of the case, two power supply fans, the fan I added at the front, and a fan on the ATI video card. I can barely hear them run, and the CPU and motherboard runs at about 102 degrees F constantly.

Does this mean that the case can take regular ATX PSU's because the ANTEC TruePower 430 is ATX.

Thanks

 

[Deathlord]

A little late on this one...and you have probably figured it out. I put a Antect True Power II 550 Watt in my a1120n, no problem. Caveat: It is mounted upside down...so the fan points up to the top of the case...

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Originally posted by: Deathlord
A little late on this one...and you have probably figured it out. I put a Antect True Power II 550 Watt in my a1120n, no problem. Caveat: It is mounted upside down...so the fan points up to the top of the case...

Question ? How much clearance is between the top of the case and the PSU's intake fan ?

I would hope it's about an inch=25mm.

It would be nice to have this info in this thread incase anyone searches for it later


...Galvanized

 

[victorc26]

A little late but:

it isn't a problem with the PSU, it's a problem with the chipset on the motherboard; RS480.

I keep reading on the MSI forums that the MS-7093/RS480M2-IL board doesn't like working with NVidia video cards. Because of the RS480 chipset.

Symptoms are system hangs and sudden reboots.

I've got the A1130N too. I'm forced to buy an ATi video card, and missed out on a deal with a friend for a 7800GT for $180.

Also, the PSU can't really be affected all that much since total system drain with a 7800GT/X1800XL level card is around 236 watts will under heavy load.