help me decide wattage on power supply

[Hackurz4Life]

p4 2.53 ghz possibly going to overclock
zallmann heatsink fan(sp?)
2 uv cathodes
16x dvd-rom drive
40 x 12 x 48 cd-rw drive
audigy platinum with live drive
4 case fans
2 256mb pc2100 ddr
geforce 2 mx 400 looking to upgrade to radeon 9700 pro all in wonder
floppy drive
hdd cooler
intel d845gbv motherboard looking to upgrade to Asus P4S8X
7200 rpm 60gb hard drive

i had an antec true power 430 watts and when i plugged everything it killed. wondering if this is just a fluke or if i actually need more power. if so please reccomend what i should get keep in mind i upgrade frequently.

 

[John]

300w Antec/HEC/Allied/Sparkle/Enermax will do just fine. I think your current psu is flaky.

 

[Lord Evermore]

A 300W would probably be enough, but 350W might be better with the lights and extra fans. 430W is overkill, and as was said, probably a bad PSU. What exactly does "when I plugged everything it killed" mean?

 

[OverVolt]

wow Gf2 to radeon9700pro... lol quite a jump

 

[Hackurz4Life]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
A 300W would probably be enough, but 350W might be better with the lights and extra fans. 430W is overkill, and as was said, probably a bad PSU. What exactly does "when I plugged everything it killed" mean?

i plugged in all of the power connectors to my drives and fans and the system made a strange noise and you could smell that ever so lovely o-zone leaking out of my case. i'm currently running my system with a 300 watt generic power supply and just don't have all of my drives and cathodes plugged in. i'm waiting for antec to respond to my e-mail about sending the power supply of for rma. i've definitely started to hate that 3 letter word.

 

[Wino]

The 3 rails you should know about the power supply are:

+3.3V, +5V, and +12V

The problem with using an older powersupply (even a 350 watt) is that they tend to not supply enough power to the +12V rail, esp when plugging in all those extra fans etc. The older CPU's used to be powered off the +5V rail. However, now they run off the +12V rail. A P4 2.53 draws around 9-10 amps. Some of the older 350Watt power supplies only deliver 10-12 amps on the +12V rail.

Conclusion, if using a late model P4 or Thunderbird + lots of fans/extras, the most important aspect of the PSU to look at is delivery on the +12V rail (ESPECIALLY when talking about older model PSU's). When buying a new PSU, look for one that claims "Enhanced +12V" as a feature.

For the setup you described shoot for a PSU that has *at least* 15 amps on the +12V rail. If using an older PSU you'll be looking at 350-400Watts; if using a newer PSU with enhanced +12V delivery, 300Watt should be plenty.

Hope this helps!

 

[Hackurz4Life]

update: the first power supply i had must have been defective. I took it back to best buy and got a brand new one and everything works just fine. thanks for all the help i'm glad i didn't buy a higher wattage power supply due to my stupidity.

 

[nick1985]

its not about wattage its about brand. id rather have a 350 antec that a 500 generic

 

[Curley]

Nick1985, WINO,

I agree, the P4s need dedicated connections especially the 12v. It can't bleed off another connection. I would buy an Antec True/Smart power supply or an Enermax and other respectable PSU. I would buy as powerful as you can afford. I don't think anthing is overkill. I would rather have overkill than brownouts.

 

[PCMarine]

I love my Antec Truepower 330watt, and my case is loaded with fans and drives

 

[Beandog]

Hmm I think you have just solved my week long problem guys...I kinda thought it might be the power supply, but I did upgrade from an Athlon 1ghz, to a new XP1600, new MSI KT3 Ultra2 MB, and added a stick of 256k Crucial 2100 for a total of 512k. I have 2 case fans and cpu fan all 80mm. My Enlight 300watt PS (1yr Old) has 165watts on combined 5 and 3.3v rails, 25amps on +5, 20amps on +3.3v, 13amps on +12v, and the 12v rail has 156watts listed. Specs are:
xp1600 No OC
2 sticks Crucial 256 2100
Toshiba DVD SD M1502
GF2 GTS 32meg Leadtek
IBM 40g HD
Onboard Sound
KT3 Ultra2 MB, no bios flashed
VIA 4in1 drivers entire package from MSI Site
Sound Divers From MSI Site
Latest Nvida Certified Drivers from Nvidia Site
Windows 98SE Full Install, and all updates from MS site
DX 8.1
I am currently getting reboots or black screen of death with the out of sync box on monitor when I try to Install software from DVD to HD, it never makes it all way thru, stops randomly while trying to install. MP3s skip very bad as well....I thought it might be a driver or Bus problem, but it might be worth replacing my PS instead? I built another system like above but with better Video in a Antec case with TRU430PS and it went smooth and still runnin fine for over a month now, I thought maybe I had installed some drivers wrong, some cables are bad, MB might be grounded, but maybe the PS is the whole culprit?

 

[BentValve]

Originally posted by: Beandog
Hmm I think you have just solved my week long problem guys...I kinda thought it might be the power supply, but I did upgrade from an Athlon 1ghz, to a new XP1600, new MSI KT3 Ultra2 MB, and added a stick of 256k Crucial 2100 for a total of 512k. I have 2 case fans and cpu fan all 80mm. My Enlight 300watt PS (1yr Old) has 165watts on combined 5 and 3.3v rails, 25amps on +5, 20amps on +3.3v, 13amps on +12v, and the 12v rail has 156watts listed. Specs are:
xp1600 No OC
2 sticks Crucial 256 2100
Toshiba DVD SD M1502
GF2 GTS 32meg Leadtek
IBM 40g HD
Onboard Sound
KT3 Ultra2 MB, no bios flashed
VIA 4in1 drivers entire package from MSI Site
Sound Divers From MSI Site
Latest Nvida Certified Drivers from Nvidia Site
Windows 98SE Full Install, and all updates from MS site
DX 8.1
I am currently getting reboots or black screen of death with the out of sync box on monitor when I try to Install software from DVD to HD, it never makes it all way thru, stops randomly while trying to install. MP3s skip very bad as well....I thought it might be a driver or Bus problem, but it might be worth replacing my PS instead? I built another system like above but with better Video in a Antec case with TRU430PS and it went smooth and still runnin fine for over a month now, I thought maybe I had installed some drivers wrong, some cables are bad, MB might be grounded, but maybe the PS is the whole culprit?

Sounds to me like you hard drive is failing.