I plan to upgrade an old PIII-800 system with an Antec PP-303X PSU to a Biostar 6100-M7 board with Sempron64 2800+. This would definitely be a budget system with one HD and one optical drive. The PP-303X has a max load of 10A on the +12V line. This isn't much of a concern to me, because I've successfully used this MB/CPU combination to upgrade another system with a 180W micro-ATX Sparkle PSU (also with 10A max on its +12V line). The Sempron64 and integrated graphics of this system draw ridiculously little power.
The concern I have is this: Antec claims that the minimum load on the +5V line for the PP-303X is 7A. Given that most new CPUs get their power from the +12V line, and that there will be little else in this system drawing +5V power, I actually think the upgraded system will draw less than 7A from the +5V rail. I just wonder if this scenario might actually damage the PSU or the MB/CPU.
Here are Antec's specs on this PSU:
http://www.antec-inc.com/specs/p303x_spe.html
The thing that is kinda weird is that the close cousin of the PP-303X is the PP-403X, which has a min. load of 2A on the +5V rail:
http://www.antec.com/specs/p403x_spe.html
It's hard to imagine that the larger power supply would have a lower minimum current draw... Most other PSUs I've seen from this era seem to average a minimum load of between 1 and 3A on the +5V rail.
I'm pretty sure I'll need a molex-to-ATX12V connector for the PP-303X, but would that do the trick?
I was just curious to hear if anyone else had tried something similar with their PP-303X on a newer motherboard.
The concern I have is this: Antec claims that the minimum load on the +5V line for the PP-303X is 7A. Given that most new CPUs get their power from the +12V line, and that there will be little else in this system drawing +5V power, I actually think the upgraded system will draw less than 7A from the +5V rail. I just wonder if this scenario might actually damage the PSU or the MB/CPU.
Here are Antec's specs on this PSU:
http://www.antec-inc.com/specs/p303x_spe.html
The thing that is kinda weird is that the close cousin of the PP-303X is the PP-403X, which has a min. load of 2A on the +5V rail:
http://www.antec.com/specs/p403x_spe.html
It's hard to imagine that the larger power supply would have a lower minimum current draw... Most other PSUs I've seen from this era seem to average a minimum load of between 1 and 3A on the +5V rail.
I'm pretty sure I'll need a molex-to-ATX12V connector for the PP-303X, but would that do the trick?
I was just curious to hear if anyone else had tried something similar with their PP-303X on a newer motherboard.
