How important is the power supply in overclocking

[sickNtired]

Just a general question. Do some people just get better overclocking results just by upgrading their power supply with all other things being equal?

I have a generic 250 watt power supply in a full tower case which has the following:

3 SCSI HDs (1 10K RPM, the other 2 7200 RPM)each with their own drive cooler fans
Hercules GeForce2 64mb video card running nvidia 5.32 drivers and with the new bios
Asus P3V4X mb (latest VIA agp driver installed)
3 sticks PC100 MB RAM (working on getting PC133 ram)
P3 700 cB0 stepping overclocked to 933 using an Abit Slocket !!! using 1.85V
Alpha PEP66 heatsink and fan
Adaptec 3950U2W SCSI card
Netgear Nic
Diamond MX300 PCI sound card (with latest Aureal reference drivers)
Asus sc-200 PCI scsi card (has scanner attached)
I also have 3 other case fans installed

Everything works fine except I can't get Unreal Tournament (with latest patch) to run unless I clock back down to 700MHz (I didn't try any of the other speeds between 700 and 933 since 933 is my real goal). I also have trouble running Quake3 for long periods of time at 933MHz.

I was wondering whether upgrading to a 350 watt PC Power & Cooling power supply would help me get overall better overclocking performance.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Klosters]

A stable mainboard is exremely important when OCing. Mainboards' voltage regulators are really a joke. They aren't robust and accurate enough to be used in any circuit that's not on a PC motherboard. They'd be laughed at so hard that they'd get up and slink away, metaphorically speaking. IMHO. For this reason, a quality PS is an excellent thing to have.

As your present PS is serving you well, it's possible that a brand new expensive PS wouldn't make any difference. PIIIE's are quirky sombeetches, and UT really leans on a PC, hard. I'd say that your 250 Watter is at its working maximum. You might think about buying a name brand PS. It'll come in handy.

 

[Outlaw]

A good 300watt ps is best when cooling with peltiers for overclocking.
Most Athlons need a good 300w ps even when using OEM cooling devices.

The newer yields may be different.

 

[sickNtired]

Thanks for the info. I think I will get that powersupply then.

 

[MWink]

I found that overclocking stability increased slighlty when I got my Sparkle 300W PS.

 

[Quickfingerz]

When it comes to overclocking, PS pretty much means nothing. CPU's will only draw a few more watts. Components will take in about the same power. If you can run at a non-overclocked speed with your stuff, then you won't need a power supply.

 

[PliotronX]

Same here, went from a generic 250watt to an Antec 300watt (came with my sexy Antec KS-188 ;]) and these GPFs I was having disappeared and it just "felt" more robust. Like you could throw a rock at it and it'd still pump out those frames per second.

 

[SuperSix]

PCPower and cooling are very proud of their supplys. (ie.. expensive)

Go with the Antec PP303X. The only power supply that passed Anand's brutal power supply test. Cheap too, at ~37.00

Linkage:
http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10033276&loc=101

BTW.. You are either really close to or definately overloading that power supply...

 

[sickNtired]

If I do get a new PS, is 300W enough?

 

[veryape]

With the 3 hdrives you have you should probably get a 300watt ps.