How much computer are you running on 350 watts or less?

[MercenaryForHire]

Here's a few:

240W
Mobile Celeron 1.6 @ 2.13GHz
2x256MB DDR400
Radeon 9500Pro
Maxtor DM+9 80GB
ND-1100A

85W
Celeron 500
2x256MB PC100
Seagate Cuda IV 40GB
Slim CDrom

75W
P3/733
2x256MB PC133
gF4 MX440
Seagate Cuda IV 40GB
Liteon SOHC-1633S

How much will a 300w power supply run?

- M4H

 

[StageLeft]

I used to be all about quantity over quality until my $20 400W source died after a week. What a junker. I then paid $60-70 for a 350W antec from compusa and the thing weighed about three times as much and, 8 months later, is still going strong. Definitely get a good powersource, because otherwise you'll possibly have problems. I've gone years with crappy ones, but now I'm sold on good ones.

Anyway, I think 350w will run plenty of computer. I've only got the normal thing here: one HD, two optical drives, three additional case fans, but i've no doubt at all that it could handle more. This is with a Barton 3200+ and a 9600XT.

 

[WobbleWobble]

300W Sparkle FSP-60PN

Mobile Athlon XP 2500+ @ 2.3GHz (1.65V)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Maxtor DM+9 120GB
WD Raptor 36GB
2x512MB PC3200
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
NEC 1300A
Floppy
2x120mm case fans

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: tart666

Originally posted by: bjc112
Sparkle 350w

1700+ @ 2.4ghz
2 x 512 PC 3200 Hyper X
6800 GT @ Ultra Speeds
2 x 80GB HDD
NEC 3500a
Lite On 48x CDRW
3 Case Fans ( 1 LED )
2 cold cathodes
Santa Cruz

holy crap, 1.47 to 2.4, that's nice

And it's still a beast in all my apps ( at least games )

Should allow me to hold off on and upgrade for another 6 months..

MY 6800GT @ ultra takes on every game so far @ 1600x1200

 

[beatle]

See the duallie in my sig.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
300 watt generic deer, 4+ years old:
xp mobile 2500 @217x11=2387MHz
fx5900xt 450x780
CDRW, DVD
2x80GB hdd
12 fans

That's pretty impressive. I had problems running about 6 case fans on my mostly-loaded full-tower i440BX system running off of a 300W Deer. How in the world did you not manage to overload the 12V line???
When I upgraded that tower to an Athlon XP1800 rig, the PSU died.

Anyways, my current rig, running off of a Codegen 350W PSU, for the last couple of years or so:
MSI KT4V-L mobo
Athlon XP1800+, TBredA, nominal vcore 1.5v, can run at 166 x 10.0 @ 1.525v, can't OC higher since mobo won't let me bump past 1.6v, and nominal for a true XP2200 is 1.65v. (stupid MSI!)
WD 80GB, 160GB JB HDs, Maxtor 250GB DM+9 HD.
Lite-On 52x CD-RW, Creative 2X DVD-ROM
Afreey 56X CD-ROM, NEC ND1300A DVD-RW
ATI Radeon 9200 AGP 8x 64MB
WinTV PCI
Promise Ultra100 TX2 PCI (for the HDs)
Aureal Vortex2 PCI
USB1.1: couple of hubs, PS/2 keyboard + mouse to USB adaptor, USB optical mouse
USB2.0: WUSB54Gv1 WiFi NIC

Now, I actually have been having some rather strange wierdness quite recently, and I'm suspecting that it could be the PSU somehow. After burning a CD in the Lite-On, right after it started verifying, the entire machine froze, and the eject button on the front of the drive wouldn't work. Nor did the CD slow down after a few seconds after not being accessed - the firmware on the drive itself had hung too! Very strange. Now, this is after recent work I did on my system - I removed the 160GB, as it had problems in the past with resetting, it seems to have some mechanical issue with the power molex on the drive. I also recently added the WinTV and the Vortex2 back into the machine. The Vortex2 is disabled in Device Manager, since the Aureal drivers assume that the system chipset is a i440BX, and reprogram the chipset, which wreaks havoc with my KT400 and causes the most bizarro behavior and often, system freezes, in conjunction with the WinTV. I installed the most recent WDM XP drivers for the WinTV, and now, if I try to use it along with the USB 2.0 WiFi NIC active, my system freezes solid in a few minutes. Before the computer work, I noticed that with the USB 2.0 NIC active, my HD's burst transfer speeds reduced by about 1/3 when it was active. It seems to be hogging bus time somehow.

I just don't get how the CD-RW could freeze (firmware!), unless the issue was one of power, and perhaps the spindown/reset problems with the 160GB were simply that it was more sensitive to the problem than anything else in my system. Yet, even after removing a HD, I have the issue with the CD-RW, but not before? And I was still able to burn and verify a DVD in the NEC without a problem just now.

So, is it power? Or what? This system is getting due for a replacement, and other than the faster CPU speeds (good for games + emulators), it has been far less efficient and offered rather disappointing system I/O performance compared to my "ancient" PII 450Mhz on i440BX. I could burn disc-to-disc CDs at 32X on that - I cannot on my AMD/Via system. My max burst transfer speeds to my opticals via the chipset IDE is ~20MB/s, 23MB/s if I'm lucky. On my i440BX, it was ~32MB/s. Likewise, my UDMA mode 5 HDs only hit 77MB/s and 92MB/s (for the WD 160GB and Maxtor 250GB, respectively), and about 1/3 lower than that when the USB 2.0 NIC is active.

As much as I appreciate the price/performance that this system offered me (I had originally planned to snag an SiS-based Socket-370 with a Tualatin Celeron at the time), I think that I'm going to choose something other than an AMD/Via solution for my next upgrade. Maybe I'll wait for something with PCI-E that supports Dothan on the deskop. P4 is junk, Athlon64 is nice, but Via chipsets are garbage, NV aren't that much better. I want something with the performance and stability of an Intel chipset the next time around. A 925-based Abit supporting Pentium-M CPUs and PCI-E would be just the ticket, really.

Sorry, guess I drifted a bit OT for this thread. Oh yeah, the PSU is rated for 25A on +5v, and 12A on +12V. This mobo doesn't have a 12V aux connector, so I figured that should be fine. Also, I don't have MBM5 installing on this XP OS, but on W2K, I haven't noticed anything that would indicate that the PSU is overloaded or unstable, but I guess I should probably double-check that after my recent issues. (That, or just bust out the DVM, I wish I had a nicer one with a logging feature.)

 

[Ka0t1x]

I'm using a 380w, but I thought you'd find this useful.
- I'm modding my TrueControl 550w right now so I'm using the 380w Antec from my parent's Sonata.


A64 3500+
Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939
512x2 Corsair XMS PC4000
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
80Gb Seagate SATA / 200Gb WD SATA / 120Gb Seagate IDE
SB Audigy 1

 

[Byte]

here is a system i built for my friend (he wanted to cut costs everwhere, yeah right): Raidmax 350watt
Prescott 3.0HT C1 stepping
P4P800 DLX
Raptor 35GB
4x Seagate 200GB
Radeon X800 Pro
56X LiteON CDRW
8X Sony Dual Layer
1GB DDR
SB Audigy 2
56K Modem

My heart kinda thumped when i pushed power, but its still running great so far...Amazing what you can cram into a Raidmax $30 case/ps combo

 

[SkyBum]

My backup rig: (burning a DVD as I type this...)

Foxlink 250w FTPS 0202 Rev. C powering:

XP 1800+
Stock CPU & Chipset fans
Asus A7V-266e
(2x512) DDR Ram
ATI 8500DV
Audigy Platinum
2 Seagate Barracuda 60 GB
1 Maxtor 40 GB
Lite On 832s DVD
Pioneer CD/RW
2 case fans
+ USB led mouse pad, USB card reader, USB wireless mouse

Never heard much about Foxlink but that rigs been running damn near full time since the beginning of 2001!

 

[Arcanedeath]

My little bro is running an Antec SL350, one of the newer ones w/ 21A on the 12V rail

he's running...

A64 3200+ @ 2.2ghz (1meg L2)
K8N-E Deluxe
2x 200GB 8meg buffer HDDs
Geforce 6800GT overclocked to Ultra speeds
2GBs of PC3200DDR (2x 1GB dimms)
2x 120mm high speed adjustable case fans
2x 80mm case fans
1 x 70mm CPU fan (stock amd HSF)
1x Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

Stable as a rock not bad at all for only 350 watts, altho his power supply has more on the 12V rail than my antec SL400

 

[Thegonagle]

Is it time to make this an "official" thread yet?

VirtualLarry: I've had the same problem with a WD power connector; a few dabs of solder fixed it without the need to RMA or lose the data on the drive.

Also, I'm not familiar with Codegen, but I wouldn't too quick to single out the PSU given all the other issues you're having. Do install some kind of motherboard monitoring software and see whether your voltages are all close to spec, and whether they fluctuate much when you use the system for CPU-intensive stuff or activate the burner. (If they stay fairly steady no matter what you're doing, the PSU is likely still OK.) You might want to do your burner troubleshooting with a clean OS install on a spare drive to eliminate the possibility of software conflicts. (Make sure your chipset drivers are up to date, too.)

Finally, nVidia nForce, not VIA, seems to be the way to go for AMD CPUs these days, so your I/O issues may just be because VIA isn't up to par. (Sorry I can't offer more chipset advice than that, but I've never built an AMD system, so I'm not personally familiar with any specific chipsets for AMD.)

Byte: It looks to me like your buddy didn't cut costs anywhere except for the case, PSU, and internet access.

 

[CraigRT]

I ran a Dual MP1800+ rig with 1GB of DDR, 9800 pro, 2 hdd, 2 optical, with a Sparkle (SPI) 300W.. no probs.

 

[Budmantom]

Dell 250 psu

3.4 ghz p4
512mbx2
hdx2
dvd burner
9800pro
usb scanner
turtlebeach coundcard
8in1 usb reader
a few other usb devices




Tom

 

[Boonesmi]

i rarely use "any" powersupply over 350w in builds

my htpc runs on a 180w powersupply
xp1700+ (running overclocked at default multiplier on a 166mhz fsb)
radeon 9600 pro
2x160gb harddrive
1gb pc2700
dvd-rw
hauppauge pvr-250


my dual opteron system (this is my main rig) 350w enermax
2x opteron 244
radeon 9800pro
2gb pc3200
1x 74gb raptor
1x 160gb seagate
dvd-rom
dvd-+rw


wifes rig: 350w generic
kt600 based mobo
xp2500 (overclocked to xp3200 speed)
512mb pc3200
radeon 9600
1x 120gb hdd
cd-rw
dvd-rom

spare rig #1: 300w generic
xp1700
512mb pc2100
gf4 mx440
dvd-rom

spare rig #2: 235w
xp2400
512mb pc2700
gf3 ti200
dvd-rom
dvd-rw

rig sitting on the table right now running 48hrs of prime95 (its going to be picked up by a friend for his wifes christmas present)
300w generic
xp3200
1gb pc3200
1x 160gb
dvd-rom
dvd-/+rw


occasioanlly ill use a 400w powersupply, but thats only if the generic case actually came with a generic 400w.

the times when i actually "NEED" a good powersupply, ill usually get a 350w enermax

 

[Steve]

Allied 350W PSU
PC-Chips M847LU (includes onboard Xabre 200 GPU w/64MB)
1.8GHz Duron w/Spire Falcon HSF
One 512MB DIMM of Crucial PC2100
onboard GPU 40mm fan
Sony floppy drive
Samsung 52x/16/x combo drive
WD 120GB/8MB HDD
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

Planning to move the 120GB into the rig below to replace its noisy 40GB drive, possibly the TBSC as well. Also planning to add SCSI optical drives to above rig. Don't know what I'll do with the Samsung as it is being loud and behaving oddly. Above rig will have SCSI hard drives in external enclosures with their own power supplies and bay coolers.

IBM Aptiva 2170-245
250W Fortron/Sparkle PS3
AMD K6-2/450 (soon to be K6-3 500)
Acer V75M mainboard with 256 (2x128) MB Crucial PC-100
Generic floppy
CompUSA 60mm CPU fan and heatsink
40GB IBM 120GXP HDD
3Com 3c-905B-TX
ATi All-In-Wonder VE (PCI)

 

[Leper Messiah]

well, while i was RMA'ing the antec 400watter that came with my SOHO case, I was using a 320 no-namer that came with a $35 case that I bought a few years ago. has about 15a on the 12v. This is what was running on it:

Athlon 64 3200+ 1m @ 2.4GHz, 1.75vcore
Venus 12 w/80mm tornado@ 12v
Abit KV8-MAX3
R9800np 470/370
2x512 DDR400
80GB samsung SATA drive
42.1 GB old as hell maxtor PATA drive
DVD/CD-RW combo
(4) 80mm case fans (35cfm or so)

tested output at load? with a multimeter on the 12v line, 12.05. then again, the feather weight Powmax that my brother got with his P.O.S. case died after about 2hrs...*pop* "ewww...it smells like a burnt train transformer in here...hey my computer is off, and it won't turn on! WTF!"

Also ran this system on a 235w:
Mobile athlon 2600+@ 2.4
silent boost
crappy Gigabyte NF2 mobo
1x512mb bh-5
r9800pro@ 430/380
(3) 120GB hdds
dvd/cd-rw drive
4 80mm fans.

Got a little hot in the psu, but I opened up the back, stuck a tornado in there, was fine...

 

[CyGoR]

AMD A64 3000+ @ 2.2Ghz (stock voltage)
Zalman Cu7000 cooler
XFX 6800LE OC'ed
Abit KV8-Max3
2x 512MB DDR
WD Raptor 36Gb
2x 160Gb Maxtor SATA 7200rpm
120Gb Maxtor PATA
Plextor DVD-RW
Asus DVD
2x 120mm casefan
1x 80mm casefan

All running on a Zalman 300W PSU, very stable..
Quality much more important then quantity!

 

[Matthias99]

See sig. I doubt you could pull 350W with any single-videocard system these days.

Prescott CPUs max out at about 110-120W (at least at stock speeds). Athlon64s use <90 (and the 90nm cores are less than that), unless you have the FX-53 or FX-55. Overclocking (and especially overvolting) can drive this up in a hurry, though.
Top-end video cards (like the 6800Ultra) pull maybe 110-120W max (a little less for the X800XT). More reasonable choices like the 6800GT or X800Pro are more like 60-70W max.
MB/RAM/sound probably aren't pulling more than 50W total.

That would be about 290-300W maximum for your base components, and more like 200-250 if you're not bleeding-edge. Unless you're adding a *ton* of hard drives and optical drives (and using them all at once), or pimping your rig out with lights and fans up the wazoo, 350W should be plenty for any sane system (as long as the PSU has an adequate +12V rail; you want 15-18+A). With SLI, you're talking another 50-100+W, depending on your choice of video cards.

Quality >* quantity. See the power reviews that THG and SPCR do.

 

[dwcal]

Running this on a ChannelWell 350W:

Barton 2500+ oc'ed to 3200+
Cheap ECS Nforce2 mobo
1 GB Corsair Value Select
Geforce4 Ti4200 (stock speed but the RAM and core will oc 50-75Mhz)
Soundblaster Live Value
1 WD + 1 Maxtor 7200rpm PATA drives
1 CDROM + 1 DVD burner
1 Belkin Firewire + USB2 card
1 80mm fan on the CPU + 2 120mm case fans

One of my cases came with a cheap Axio 480W, but this ChannelWell seems like better quality: heavier, quieter, and no power problems with either one. I can even charge my iPod from the Firewire port!

I know how frustrating PS problems are. One of my old rigs was a 1Ghz Morgan Duron oc'ed to 1.33G with a Geforce2 MX. When I upgraded to a Ti4200 it started freezing in games. It was too much for the 300W Enermax that came with the case. I could either run stock speed on the CPU or oc the CPU and run the GF2MX.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

300W Antec. running P4 512MB, 40GB HDD ATI Radeon AIW, Soundblaster Audigy2, 3 port firewire card, 8x DVD, 3 case fans.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

375watt cheap a$$ no make psu with 1 fan, came with an equally cheap and nasty case, with zero cooling potential.....it ran fine with this

Msi KT333ultra 2
2 40 gig 7200rpm drives
a radeon 9500pro that would clock to round 340mhz core (tho does near 380 on a good day with a better psu in a newer rig see RAMBUS in sig)
2 cd drives
2 fans, cpu and case (cpu fan is a meaty thermaltake smartfan thingy)
oh and the cpu is a nice and hngry .18micron athlon xp 2000 (palomino)

only lately has it been having trouble, ie one of the hard drives wil spin up then down again, quick restart all is k

 

[NesuD]

Antec Sl-350 PS
Epox 8KDA3J
A64 3000+ OC to 2.4 Ghz
Radeon 9800 pro
WD800JB HD
16x DVD Rom
512 megs pc3200

Looks like lots of headroom left over.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Thegonagle
VirtualLarry: I've had the same problem with a WD power connector; a few dabs of solder fixed it without the need to RMA or lose the data on the drive.

Yeah, I planned to do that sometime, that's why I pulled it. It was just download storage anyways. I also wonder if perhaps it was the "disappearing" problem with RAID that those drives had. My drive falls into the range that needed the firmware update, but their updater said no drives needed to be updated, but that could have been because the HD was connected via a Promise Ultra100 TX2, and the updater didn't recognize/support that chipset. I'm going to try running the updater again in another system, just in case the problem isn't just with the connector.

Originally posted by: Thegonagle
Also, I'm not familiar with Codegen, but I wouldn't too quick to single out the PSU given all the other issues you're having. ... Finally, nVidia nForce, not VIA, seems to be the way to go for AMD CPUs these days, so your I/O issues may just be because VIA isn't up to par.

Yeah, sorry for the thread/hijack rant before, I was just really frustrated with the system lately. It gave me another funky freeze-up that triggered a VPU recover, so I ripped the whole thing apart and did a nearly full re-build... and now she's running mighty stable again (*knock on wood*), and the mouse skippiness is gone, and even the BIOS boot-up seems slightly faster, somehow. I swear, sometimes these electronic beasties simply act up, just because they want some TLC, nothing more.

The real test will be when I finish downloading some stuff, and I try to run the WinTV and the USB2.0 NIC at the same time, whether I get a full system freeze again. I'm also now working on a theory, that perhaps, some BIOS settings (for floppy/COM/LPT ports, if set to something other than "AUTO" - in other words, forcibly reserving legacy ISA-compatible hardware resources via the BIOS, even with "PnP OS: Yes" set), somehow prevents the MPS Uniprocessor HAL from properly transitioning the chipset I/O APIC from legacy to fully-native mode during bootup. That would possibly explain the freezes and skippyness with the mouse and other things that definately seemed to be identical in behavior to IRQ-sharing related problems, even though the registry/Device Manager showed that everything was on its own (APIC-controlled) IRQ.

Anyways, next system I build is going to have an FSP/Sparkle/AOpen PSU in it, no doubt about it. Probably 400W or 500W, just headroom for the future. My current rig really shouldn't tax even a generic 300W, except possibly if I have all of my HDs and opticals running at once or something. (IOW, I don't think that my recent issues were PSU caused after all.)