Is 300W enough for this computer?

[thirtythree]

ASUS A7N266-VM AA
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ Retail
Kingston 256MB DDR PC2100
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM
GeForce4 Ti4200
Generic 16x DVD-ROM
CenDyne 40x12x48 CD-RW
Sony Floppy Drive

I've had my computer lock up completely a couple times since I built it (3 days ago) and wanted to make sure a 300W power supply is enough for this setup (assuming the power supply is working correctly). What else should I check? Come to think of it, I think I was playing UT2k3 both times when it froze. And while I'm here, what fps should I be getting in UT2k3 @ 1280x960x32 with highest details and 2x anti-aliasing?

 

[LouPoir]

300 watts is plenty for your computer.

Lou

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

if you want to check download motherboard monitor 5 and monitor the positive voltage rails while playing (it can monitor in the background)
when/if it freezes, restart, open mbm5 again and see the lowest value recorded
if its greater than 10% away, it might be the power supply causing problems

does the videocard get really hot?

 

[Adul]

if you want to check download motherboard monitor 5 and monitor the positive voltage rails while playing (it can monitor in the background)
when/if it freezes, restart, open mbm5 again and see the lowest value recorded
if its greater than 10% away, it might be the power supply causing problems

good advice

what brand of power suply do u have.?

I have a 300 watter powering everything i have and then some

 

[thirtythree]

I have this case and ps.

 

[rbV5]

You should be set depending on the quality of the power supply, I also use a 300 watt antec smartpower thats been chugging along with my setup the last couple years.

 

[thirtythree]

Originally posted by: ChampionAtTufshop
if you want to check download motherboard monitor 5 and monitor the positive voltage rails while playing (it can monitor in the background)
when/if it freezes, restart, open mbm5 again and see the lowest value recorded
if its greater than 10% away, it might be the power supply causing problems

does the videocard get really hot?

How do I set it to monitor positive voltage rails? Also, I had MBM 5 installed before but it didn't detect any temps or (I think) fan speeds. I am running XP.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

Originally posted by: Deslocke

Originally posted by: ChampionAtTufshop
if you want to check download motherboard monitor 5 and monitor the positive voltage rails while playing (it can monitor in the background)
when/if it freezes, restart, open mbm5 again and see the lowest value recorded
if its greater than 10% away, it might be the power supply causing problems

does the videocard get really hot?

How do I set it to monitor positive voltage rails? Also, I had MBM 5 installed before but it didn't detect any temps or (I think) fan speeds. I am running XP.

you have to configure it to do so somewhat for the temperatures and fan speeds
open up the "dashboard" and you should see voltages in there, i dont believe there is any setup for voltages

 

[thirtythree]

Ehh, so what voltages should I be looking at? It says the core should be 2 and it is 1.5 and the negative voltages are off by a bit too .. don't really know what these mean.

 

[thirtythree]

Bump ..

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

you should be looking at the core voltage, +5v, +12v, and possible +3.3

pretty much allthe positive ones

 

[thirtythree]

So what range should they be in?

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

well within 10% or so at least

 

[thirtythree]

Well I'm not certain what you mean because 1.54 is not within 10% of 2 but you didn't seem to think that was a problem ..

Thanks for the help though. I'm just a little slow

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

oops skipped reading that sorry lol

hmm core voltage should not be 2, it should be 1.75v

are you reading off core 1 or core 0?

 

[thirtythree]

OK, MBM had it set to 2 by default. I am reading off both .. they are exactly the same. If I change the value to 1.75 and tolerance at 10%, an alarm still goes off.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

dont do the alarm thing
what does the voltage read?
anywhere near 1.75v?

in the dashboard

 

[thirtythree]

Both read 1.54 and have been reading 1.54 all day.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

that is low
go into the bios and see if you can manually adjust the vcore to 1.75v

there is an option in there somehwer, look under "advanced"

are the other (+12v, +5) ok?

 

[thirtythree]

Yes, the others are ok. +3.3 at 3.33, +5 at 5.05, and +12 at 11.67 .. I will check my bios, but I can't restart ATM (downloading something).

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

Originally posted by: Deslocke
Yes, the others are ok. +3.3 at 3.33, +5 at 5.05, and +12 at 11.67 .. I will check my bios, but I can't restart ATM (downloading something).

ok
just fix the vcore and it should be good to go
+12 is a tad low, but its within the allowable 10% so thats ok

 

[thirtythree]

No luck with the BIOS. I checked everywhere and the only place with voltages is the hardware monitor (which reads the same as MBM). All I can change there is to stop monitoring the core voltage ..

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

no "cpu vcore setting" where you have options of auto and manual?

i believe there is...

 

[sniperruff]

i have no experience with EVERCASE's PS but i have the old ANTEC 300W PP303 and it works fine...

athlon 1700 retail OCed 1800
soltek KT333 mobo
1 stick kingston 256 2100DDR
40X cd rom drive
48x lite-on burner
120GB WD 8mb
MSI GF3 Ti500 64mb
floppy
sound card
LAN card
--- and nothing happens when i plug in another maxtor 80GB 7200RPM... i was expecting something to blow when i plugged it in

the thing is that it would be quite impossible to use ALL te devices at once... maybe burning a cd while playing a game on cd and copying stuff on HD.....

i would think it's not the PS's problem

FYI freezing can be also caused by improper OC... especailly on our whimpy retail HSF... did you check anything about that?

 

[thirtythree]

There's nothing that says vcore in BIOS. Perhaps I need a newer version?

sniperruff: I'm not overclocked at all.


EDIT: Appearantly the thoroughbred 1700+ processors run at 1.5V (Thermal and Electrical Specification of AMD Processors) so I think there is nothing wrong with my ps. Guess I should have mentioned that it was a thoroughbred in the first place, but thanks for helping anyway.