Do I need to upgrade my psu?

[plastick]

I currently have a 325 Watt psu, Roswill ("Value Edition" or something)

System:
AMD Athlon 64 +3000 CPU
nForce3 250 Motherboard
2GB DDR400
ATI Radion 9600XT
Two 80GB WD IDE drives and one 80GB SATA WD

and I have a DVD burner in there too

My system has been running very stable and cool until I put the SATA hd in there and now the systems seems to act wierd. I tried to install windows to the new SATA hd but it takes a while detecting the drive and also the drive gets pretty hot. Its a WD Caviar and its supposed to be cool. Plus other components in my system seem to be hotter than usual now and I am having troubles with my DVD drive when I try to install things. I was just wondering if this is probably due to the fact that I am running a very low power supply.

 

[rise]

is that the Fireball 325w with 8a on the 12v i've heard so much about?

anyway, try removing any unnecessary power draw (xtra hdd, fans) and see if it is back to "stable and cool" ? have a dmm by chance to check your rail output?

 

[plastick]

Sorry I forgot to name my psu: its a Roswill "Value Edition"

And no dmm so I dont know where Im at with voltage

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: plastick
Sorry I forgot to name my psu: its a Roswill "Value Edition"

And no dmm so I dont know where Im at with voltage

if there was ever a reason to spend $15 on a dmm, there it is

did you try unplugging some extra parts?

i see two of those rosewill, i'd be concerned if it was this one

 

[plastick]

snap!.... it IS that one. Why are you concerned?

Is this one a decent psu to buy? Its basically all I can afford right now :'(

 

[rise]

nah, you don't need anything close to 500w, lets get quality, not quantity. specs like this = outdated design

Output-- +3.3V@32A; +5V@42A; +12V@20A

as compared to more recent designs like this

Output-- +3.3V@22A,+5V@21A,+12v1@18A,+12v2@16A

you have a couple more $$? you don't need a big supply and there are several better models in that range, like sparkle, fortron and i think i sw a large rebate silverstone? anyway, no to dynapro.

and have you tried lessening the load on the current psu to make sure thats what ails you?

 

[plastick]

Originally posted by: rise
nah, you don't need anything close to 500w, lets get quality, not quantity. specs like this = outdated design

Output-- +3.3V@32A; +5V@42A; +12V@20A

as compared to more recent designs like this

Output-- +3.3V@22A,+5V@21A,+12v1@18A,+12v2@16A

you have a couple more $$? you don't need a big supply and there are several better models in that range, like sparkle, fortron and i think i sw a large rebate silverstone? anyway, no to dynapro.

and have you tried lessening the load on the current psu to make sure thats what ails you?

ygpm

 

[Conky]

The easiest way for you to see if you need a new PSU or not is to unplug at least one of the IDE drives with that SATA drive and see if it still acts weird.

If it continues acting weird you know it's the SATA HD and if it starts acting as it should then you have a power issue.