How do you know if you need a Bigger Power Supply (300 vs. 250)

JJordan

Golden Member
Dec 27, 1999
1,069
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I am concerned that my power supply is too small, but I have no idea how to check or how to know. I do not have any apparent problems. I am running a pretty generic case with a 250 W ppwer supply. My computer has an Asus CUSL2-C MB, ASUS V7700 32 MB GeForce 2 GTS, SB Live Gamer, 20 gig ATA 100 Quantum HD, 10 gig ATA 33 IBM HD (both 7200 rpm), P3 700E Processor, HP 9350i CD-RW, internal 100 MB Zip Drive and a Kenwood 42x TrueX CD-ROM Drive (and a floppy drive and one case fan. I need one more plug in for the internal zip drive so I was just going to get a $5 splitter and split one as soon as my IDE conroller gets here so I will have a place to plug in the IDE cable and use it.

Whew, see why I am concerned, but again, I do not appear to have any problems or issues. How do you know or test or detrermne if it is OK. I have the ASUS monitoring program but really don't know what I need to be looking at on the voltage. The 5v reading is usually around 4.8 I think. The others seem right on or over what the program says.
 

Viperoni

Lifer
Jan 4, 2000
11,084
1
71
Hmmm...What make is the power supply?
Any specs on it?
It is getting kinda close to the limit, but it should be alright.
 

Phunktion

Platinum Member
Jan 29, 2001
2,502
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A lot of the crappier 300 watt PSU's are just rebadged 250's anyways.. a 250 is definitely the bare minimum tho for an AMD.. however as long as you don't have over 5 drives and too much fans your PSU should be just fine..