Is 235 Watt power supply enough for Athlon 800?

videotips

Member
Jun 30, 2000
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I am building an Athlon 800 system and am planning on using a tower case with a 235W power supply... I though I read somewhere that you have to use a 300 watt power supply with Athlons.. is this true? or is my 235 watt ok?
 

Terp

Banned
Jun 16, 2000
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They say 250w is the bare minimum and 300w is recommended, but that's just me =)

Plus, if you have some other "power hungry" toys in the case, you would be hard pressed for power. I got an Antec 300w smart power with nice cooling from buy.com for like $30 clams delivered last month...well worth the money.
 

Electric Amish

Elite Member
Oct 11, 1999
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Well, Asus K7V motherboards say, directly on the box, that they recommend at least a 235W power supply.

I would probably go at least 250W. I'm running a 300W sparkle. My friend is running a 250w Fong Kai. These are both 700's. Neither of us have had power problems.

amish
 

Dean

Platinum Member
Oct 10, 1999
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i'm running an AMD recommended 235 watt power supply....its quality power the athlon needs,....as long as you got a good quality one don't pay too much atention to the wattage label
 

cdrakejr

Senior member
Apr 13, 2000
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Dean; thanks, I didn't realize that AMD had a 235W P/S on their approved list but there it was when I checked. Must be a very good p/s since it's the only one less than 250W.

But I agree with the others that I wouldn't want to put a heavy load on it anyway.

Also: I noticed that they have now started listing the Duron with the Athlon in the recommended p/s lists.
And on the Athlon home page they no longer list 700 or below as available.:)
 

Terp

Banned
Jun 16, 2000
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$30.00 is worth the added insurance I get from running a 300w smart power supply =) ....put a multimeter on my old 235...sure, it can be argued that is wasn't a great one, but the voltage was fluctuating all over the place...I rest assured now that those little spikes and fluctuations are a thing of the past



..."But that's just me, I could be wrong."
 

medic

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Paulson
Compaq admitted the P.S.'s shipped with the wrong label on them, it's actually a high quality 250watt.
 

RSI

Diamond Member
May 22, 2000
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<< Is 235 Watt power supply enough for Athlon 800? >>

Is it enough for Athlon 800? Yes. Would I recommend you use it? No.

It will work fine, if it is an &quot;approved&quot; power supply, but I would not recommend it if you plan on upgrading the video card and other things that would eat up more power as upgrading goes on..

-RSI
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
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RSI is right about what he said, also the cost for a Athlon approved PSU is not expensive,second it will give you added stability,third allow for future upgrades ,remember better to be on the safe side ,I also have a 235w PSU &amp; when I buy my AMD Thunderbird &amp; board, my 235w PSU is going to be replaced with a 300w(Athlon approved)PSU.
 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
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A lot depends on what else you have connected . . . how many HDDs, how many fans, what kind of video card (don't try a GeForce with that combo!), etc. It all adds up
 

zogg

Senior member
Dec 13, 1999
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The main thing is: you have to have at least 20 amps supplied on the 5 volt rail 25 amps is prefered and you need 1 amp on the standby. The total wattage doesnt make much of difference unless you are running a cd burning system with 6 burners and one reader then you are going to need some extra power on the 12 volt rail.
I just bought a 300 watt antec 303x which supplies 30 amps on the 5 volt rail and 2amps on the +5volt standby and 14 amps on the 3.3 volt rail ........My last supply only had 25 on the 5volt and 1amp on the + 5 volt standby.
Now I dont have those days when the athalon refuses to boot unless you hit the reset about 3-4 times and then turn on the monitor. Which was real annoying. Now I can just turn it on and bamo it boots ;)regardless of whether I turned the monitor on first or after the the box.Listen to the other guys and get a good quailty 300 watt supply.
 

sov05

Senior member
May 7, 2000
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a lot of instability and crashes are caused by the power, so spend the $30 for a Sparle 300W