Alleluia! I am a firm believer in quality PSU's now.

[Dead3ye]

I figured I'd share this info since there still might be some non-believers out there, I was and I have seen the light!

Check my PC in my sig. MB is a Abit NF7-S 2.0.

Here's what I was getting before with the old 400W (which isn't nothing to sneeze at):

XP2100 @ 2310 (210 x11)
Corsiar XMS PC3200 @ 420 11,3,3,2.5
9700AIW pro 351/351 AGP 4x
3DMark01 = 17,126

This is as high as i could go no matter what I did. I know it doesn't mean much, but I could only get to AGP 4x. I had no idea that the PSU would affect this.

After the Thermaltake PurePower 420W installation:

XP2100 @ 2420 (220 x11)
Corsiar XMS PC3200 @ 440 11,2,2,2
9700AIW pro 351/351 AGP 8X
3DMark01 = 18,234

I ran Prime95 all night and had no errors I'm gonna try higher, but my memory might hold me back.

BTW, this is all on air (slk800u). With the old PSU, I could here a change in fan speeds when the CPU would get loaded. I would watch MBM and see the +12V line go to 11.42V. No matter what speed I ran things, the 9700 would not run at all at 8x. This one surprised me the most. Now it runs fine at 8x. The PurePower's +12V rail never went below 11.89V all night running Prime95.

Now I need to install a Antec Tru380 in my brother in law's rig to straighten him out. His is about the same as mine, but he doesn't overclock. He's having problem with display corruption with a 300W supply.

Read and believe brother and sisters!

 

[Supa]

Good to hear, since I have the Antec True Power 380 and considering buying new cpu/mb combo soon.


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[Dead3ye]

Originally posted by: Supa
Good to hear, since I have the Antec True Power 380 and considering buying new cpu/mb combo soon.


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I don't have the Antec 380 yet, but everything I read about it tells me its a good supply. My BIL is having all kinds of trouble with his 9700pro, mainly display corruption. I feel guilty because I upgraded his system for him, and now he is having problems. We both thought his case had a 400W PSU, but it was only 300w, a cheap one at that.

 

[pelikan]

Great post Dead3ye.

 

[wicktron]

This should be of no surprise to anybody, but I'm glad you found this out for yourself.

 

[pspada]

I mostly use nvidia video cards, instead of ATI. Even with the crappiest, low end POS power supply, they could all still do the 8x AGP. I wonder if your overclocking was drawing too much power from the AGP bus with your old power supply?

 

[beatle]

Agreed that a quality PSU is important. Even my Antec True330 is within 1% on all rails and has very little fluctuation.

 

[Dead3ye]

Originally posted by: pspada
I mostly use nvidia video cards, instead of ATI. Even with the crappiest, low end POS power supply, they could all still do the 8x AGP. I wonder if your overclocking was drawing too much power from the AGP bus with your old power supply?

I don't think it was the overclocking that was doing it. I would run everything at stock speeds and voltages and it still wouldn't do 8x. I was starting to wonder if my card was faulty. The previous MB I had wouldn't do 8x so I never new if the 9700 could do it or not.

 

[rancherlee]

My new powersupply have solved my random reboots during gaming (it would freeze/reboot every hour or so ONLY while gaming) I had a trusty old Antec 300w in my system and it would run Seti just fine with no reboots, but showed problems while gaming (probibly due to the AGP slot needing more power during gaming). My New Thermaltake 480 is working great and I haven't had a reboot/freeze since and my rail voltages don't start to drop when seti is running anymore. On the Antec 300 the 12V and 5V rails would drop down considerably with seti running, around 4.8V on the 5V and 11.6 on the 12v

 

[Gravity]

How loud are your Thermaltake PSUs?

I have a vantec stealth 470 and it's louder than an aircraft with it's 3 fans.

 

[clicknext]

You should be a believer of quality everything.

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah psu's often get overlooked when building a system
i've tryed 300w, 400w, 430w, 480w, and 550w
moving forward i would recommend nobody buy under 430 (quality brand) for a new gaming system
you might need the extra juice, if not for overclocking, atleast for vid card and cpu upgrades in the future

good to hear you got an extra boost

 

[Dead3ye]

Originally posted by: Gravity
How loud are your Thermaltake PSUs?

I have a vantec stealth 470 and it's louder than an aircraft with it's 3 fans.

They are pretty quiet. They have two 80mm fans and are controlled by temperature. So if your not really honking your system, they are virtually silent.