How to check if a PSU is sufficient?

[Junin]

I recently bought my current system from a friend who was going to be getting a laptop. When I bought it, it had a 300watt PSU with a GF3 card. I figured since I was putting in a 9700 Pro that I ought to get a bigger PSU. So I got a 400 watt Antec PSU. I'm now questioning if this is enough.

My specs:
DUAL 1800+ MP
Asus A7M266-D mobo
Two 7200rpm HDDs
One CD 48x cd burner
One 16x DVD player
R9700 Pro
Audigy2
NIC
and 4 case fans

I'm having some troubles with my system and I'm wondering if the PSU is to blame. For instance, erratic artifacts/crazy textures in OpenGL. My sound skips a little in Warcraft3 (it might in other games too, but I haven't checked. Also, it did not skip with my SBLive! that I had in for a couple of weeks prior to buying the audigy2.)

How would I go about checking to see if my PSU is sufficient? I just want to make sure its the PSU before I off and buy another one.


Thanks for your time.

 

[Budman]

a 400 watts Antec should be more than enough, make sure you have the latest AMD chipset drivers for your mobo since it's an amd chipset board,this should help with video card problems.

 

[Junin]

May 2001 seem right for the 'latest' drivers?

 

[Budman]

2001 seems a bit old, try & see if you can get newer drivers here.

AMD Chipset Drivers

Or maybe go to Asus & get them there.

Asus link.

 

[mechBgon]

If you have a good multimeter, check your voltages on your ATX cable where it plugs into the mobo, while it's running 3DMark2001 or somethig. The orange leads at the bottom should be your 3.3V, the one on the top right is +5V, and the one on the top left is +12V. You should also plug in the other two connectors for additional power delivery (the flat 6-in-a-row and the 4-in-a-square).

 

[Budman]

since it's mostly video glitches I would try the asus miniport driver,you never stated how much ram or what type he's got in there.

 

[Junin]

I have 512mb of Crucial PC2100 ram.

I have the most recent miniport driver that I could find (about two weeks ago).

Edit: I do not have a multimeter =/

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Junin
I have 512mb of Crucial PC2100 ram.

I have the most recent miniport driver that I could find (about two weeks ago).

Latest 9700 drivers installed? floppy connector connected to the video card?

 

[Junin]

Catalyst3.0a, and I couldn't boot without the floppy size power connector in.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Junin
I have 512mb of Crucial PC2100 ram.

I have the most recent miniport driver that I could find (about two weeks ago).

Edit: I do not have a multimeter =/

Do you have all three power cables plugged into the board? 20-pin, 6-pin and 4-pin?

 

[Budman]

What does Asus probe tell you about voltages while in windows ?

Install asus probe & run Prime95 at the same time,this will tell you if you have any voltage problems.

 

[Junin]

I don't have a *6* pin plugged into my board....

 

[mechBgon]

The 6-pin connector is the black one beside the 4-in-a-square one. Look in your manual if you need to. Can't hurt, anyway Good luck!

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
The 6-pin connector is the black one beside the 4-in-a-square one. Look in your manual if you need to. Can't hurt, anyway Good luck!

It's usualy called the AUX power connector.

 

[Junin]

Voltages seem fine after running Prime95 for an hour with asus probe running

 

[kidjan]

Originally posted by: Junin
I recently bought my current system from a friend who was going to be getting a laptop. When I bought it, it had a 300watt PSU with a GF3 card. I figured since I was putting in a 9700 Pro that I ought to get a bigger PSU. So I got a 400 watt Antec PSU. I'm now questioning if this is enough.

My specs:
DUAL 1800+ MP
Asus A7M266-D mobo
Two 7200rpm HDDs
One CD 48x cd burner
One 16x DVD player
R9700 Pro
Audigy2
NIC
and 4 case fans

I'm having some troubles with my system and I'm wondering if the PSU is to blame. For instance, erratic artifacts/crazy textures in OpenGL. My sound skips a little in Warcraft3 (it might in other games too, but I haven't checked. Also, it did not skip with my SBLive! that I had in for a couple of weeks prior to buying the audigy2.)

How would I go about checking to see if my PSU is sufficient? I just want to make sure its the PSU before I off and buy another one.


Thanks for your time.

1. There's no way the power draw on your system exceeds 200 watts, even when running at full load. One of the larger misconceptions in the PC world is that you need a lot of "watts" to drive high end componenets. Much more important is how close the 5 and 12 volt rails are to their specification. Typically, Antec's are pretty good and I doubt the source of your problems is the PS.
2. Artifacts are typically either a sign of a defective chip, overclocking near the chip's maximum operating limit, or heat issues. Since you have four case fans, I'm assuming you're *probably* not having heat issues. Are you overclocking at all, anywhere on the system? Have you tweaked around in the bios at all?
3. I would try swapping out the sound card and the video card one at a time, and see if that corrects any issues. I'm willing to bet that one of them is defective (I'd go for the video card first).