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help me prepare for a P4

P

Ph33zy

Senior member
okay i already have a 300W enemax power supply that ive been using with my P3. Do the P4's require a special powersupply? Im going to be buying a 1.8 northwood P4 and an Asus P4T-E. Can anyone give me a quick response?
 


<< okay i already have a 300W enemax power supply that ive been using with my P3. Do the P4's require a special powersupply? Im going to be buying a 1.8 northwood P4 and an Asus P4T-E. Can anyone give me a quick response? >>



300 is NOT enough. 400 is minimal to be safe and you will need it to be P4 certified to get the right cable connectors
 
Unless you have a case full of components, 400 is overkill. Look at the major computer manufacturers: Dell uses 250 Watts in its P4 computers. (Note: the small form factor business P4 machines may have 160 Watt or a 180 Watt power supply).

Yes you should get a special P4 power supply.
 


<< Unless you have a case full of components, 400 is overkill. >>



Since I have actually owned 4 P4 systems I think I am the better judge.

Even a 350 will have voltage problems if you do any overclocking
 


<< Since I have actually owned 4 P4 systems I think I am the better judge. >>



Ahh a better judge than manufacturers of millions of computers...

If you overclock you might need more than Dell uses, but no one mentioned overclocking.
 


<<

<< Since I have actually owned 4 P4 systems I think I am the better judge. >>



Ahh a better judge than manufacturers of millions of computers...

If you overclock you might need more than Dell uses, but no one mentioned overclocking. >>



I'm trying to prepare him as he asked for all cases. You limited your view of what he would do with his machine.

And he does need a P4 certified PS to get the necessary power cables.

Obviosly, you do not own a custom built P4 machine.
 


<< Do the P4's require a special powersupply? >>


Yes....It has an extra 4pin plug, or called a ATX 12V connector, that connects to mobo, I tried to find a pic, here is a link that you can look at it......link.
 


<< Obviosly, you do not own one. >>



No I don't own one. I own two dual Intel Xeons though. Note: it is obvious that a dual Intel Xeon requires more power than a single P4.
 
Texmaster, have you used a good quality 300W power supply? How are those with the P4? 400W sounds crazy...maybe it's one of those "everything is bigger in Texas" things😉
 
Have any of you guys looked into the ASUS P4B266? As most Asus mobos, it has "EZ-Plug technology allowing the use of old power supply units." The added cost of this board may be offset by being able to use your existing case and PS.

Edit: Heh, what added cost? The SOB is only $117.00 at Newegg!
 
A good quality 300watt power supply will be ok if you dont overclock to far and dont have too many components. I have 2 harddrives,floppy,a burner,and dvd player,soundcard,nic,etc... 300watt holds fine with my 2ghz northwood at 2.46ghz. But I run into problems when I up the voltage past 1.625v. At full load the vcore drops below 1.6 even when I tell it to run at 1.675v. So if your a major overclocker I'd get a 350watt or better power supply.
 
with all the stuff i have on my p4 (+ electric neon strips ^^) i've never had any stability problems with a 300w power supply. 🙂


rig

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The ASUS P4T can accomodate an old case, so I would think the P4TE could too:
  • "The second part of the ATX 2.03 specification calls for four extra mounting holes around the CPU socketso support a heatsink retention mechanism. That means you?ll need a new case to go along with your new motherboard.

    Fortunately, ASUS has a solution for those that don?t want to go out and buy a new case. When you open up the P4T?s box, you will notice that an additional metal plate, a piece of rubber pad, and a couple of mounting devices. ASUS calls this plate the metal baseboard, and you basically put the rubber pad on the baseboard, then put the motherboard on top and screw the board onto the plate. The plate provides the mounts for the heatsink retention mechanism and mounts to your current ATX case."
Pros and Cons
  • "Remember the new ATX 2.03 specification Intel announced together with the Pentium 4? A lot of people complained about the specifications since they would have to purchase not only a new case, but also a new power supply with the ATX12V connector.

    As mentioned previously, ASUS gets around the case problem by having their own baseboard design, but they have also put in quite a bit of effort to get around the new power supply specification as well. As an experiment, we unplugged both the ATX12V and AUX power connectors, leaving only the standard ATX connector in place. We then proceeded to run our normal stress tests and found that the P4T still did not crash once within 16 hours, showing that the board was able to draw all the necessary current solely from the ATX power connector.

    This discovery shows that there is a good chance that you do not in fact need to go out and get a new power supply with the ATX12V connector. Of course, this is also partially dependant on the quality of your current PSU."
 
I've got the ASUS P4B266-C (Intel 845D chipset) running a P4 1.5. I'm also using the Antec PP303XP 300w Power Supply (came in my Antec KS282 case) with no problems (and NO, I don't overclock).

Also, the P4B266-C has the EZ-Plug so you don't need the special P4 power connector (although the board does have that special connector as well just incase you want to use it🙂), and since it has no onboard audio or LAN (at least the one I got) it's very inexpensive (currently $117 plus shipping at newegg).

anyhow, i'd recommend this board to anyone looking for a P4 solution, even though it does use DDR instead of RDRAM (although you wouldn't notice a speed difference in every day applications between the two types of RAM).
 


<<

<< Unless you have a case full of components, 400 is overkill. >>



Since I have actually owned 4 P4 systems I think I am the better judge.

Even a 350 will have voltage problems if you do any overclocking >>



Makes it even more a shame that you are wrong.

250+ are certified.

I usually side with you, and am an Intel man, but you really are very pompous..

 


<< 300 is NOT enough. 400 is minimal to be safe and you will need it to be P4 certified to get the right cable connectors >>



Not true.

A 300w with 12v connector should be good enough.
 
Take a look at the specs for the pc power and cooling turbo 300 powersupply at pcpowerandcooling.com. This is a premium power supply company. Look at the amp ratings of the diff voltage. This gives you an idea of what a good power supply numbers look like. compare your enermax and you will find the enermax is simular. the 300 should do for a basic system w/o to many items. enermax also makes a 365w. the larger the power supply the noisier it is. 400 watt is very loud. Many people find this disruptive. PCPC makes a silencer 400 quiet model. I have reciently changed over to enermax after 15 years using PCPC to lower costs and feel the enermax is a good powersupply. don't forget a good UPS up front. clean and ample power is a must for stability.

good luck.
 
Like Supersix and other mentioned above, 250W PS is minimum that you need for P4 accordin to Intel.
But even 250 PS must comply with ATX 2.03 spec with requires extra current on +12V source as well as additional 4 pin 12V connector to carry this extra current.
Go to Intel site and search fo ATX 2.03 spec pdf.
The ATX spec also calls for min combined current value on 3.3V+5V

Try to avoid 12V adapters from HD connector to 4 pin connector or using HD type plugs on motherboards like ornery described. Older PS will not have enought current on 12V rail. Also there is no lock and pins can't carry enough current according to Intel.

In most cases 300W ATX 2.03 PS will do job in any extreme conditions.
 
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