Is 400wPS enough for Athlon 64 3000+

[NeophytexDMD]

It's been a while since I have built a PC and had to make a sacrifice a year ago: Keep my drivers license or keep a fast PC. Of course I chose the former. It is now that I am able to finally get back to my pc setup and improve on this 600mhz clocked to 900mhz on the stock heatsink/fan. I decided to go Athlon 64 3000+ but was wondering if my 400 watt power supply will be able to boot the system up and not be overloaded by the new motherboard. Here is my new setup:

Athlon 64 3000+ Processor
MSI K8N Neo Platinum w/ 250gb Nforce3 chipset
Kingston 1GB Ram kit (2 sticks of 512mb)


My current computer system consists of only an 80gb hdd, a floppy drive (which will more than likely NOT go into my new system), and a 50x cdrom drive. So my question is, would all of this be handled by the PSU that runs a 12v+ rating of 15A? My new parts arrive Thurs at the latest.

 

[imported_texan]

Possibly not,the MSI/AMD64 combos seem to not like most power supplies that supply less than 20 amps to the 12 volt rail. Many users encountering startup problems have found the solution in bigger power supplies, you might want to pickup a bigger PSU before you begin the build.

 

[NeophytexDMD]

That's pretty crazy. Well, from the Athlon website it only matters what the 3.3 5 watt lines are and also, the newegg.com website advertises this 320watt ps as "compatible for AMD Athlon 64"

http://www.newegg.com/app/view...es&CMP=OTC-B1zrat3

Not to knock on what you are saying, but how are these power supplies out on the market if the systems they're used in will have stability problems or startup problems? Perhaps if you had a lot of items plugged in (ie: DVD+-R, CDR, 3 HDDs, Top of the Line Video Card, USB 2.0 Card, additional addon cards to fill up the pci slots) then you would need the extra output. I'm sure in the future my powersupply would support it since I am considering a bigger computer case to hold any addons and would need the power for my video card upgrade possibly. Can anyone else confirm this startup/stability issue with the 12v rail? If it were this big of an issue, there would be more about it in these forums, I would think.

 

[BW86]

it will probably be fine. Who makes the psu? I have my 3200 to 2.5 ghz with an antec 350 and it only has 16amps on the +12v line.

 

[RaymondY]

I'm running my Chaintech VNF-250/A64 2800+ (o/c to 2.3ghz), wd 80gb hdd se, gf4 ti4600, liteon 52x cdrw, nec-1300a dvd burner on my Antec TruePower 430watt PS without any problems. Stability is great

Don't know about your 400watt PS though. I would say if it is a cheapo on that can with a case probably not, but if it is a name brand (ie. antec, pcpower and cooling, enermax, etc) then i don't think it will be a problem

 

[NeophytexDMD]

It is an Antec power supply that I had in my old Antec Server Tower case. I believe it will hold up well as it has in the past. I read from AMD's website that it's only the 3v and 5 v they're concerned about. no mention of the 12v causing a problem with the Athlon 64 Proc.

 

[NeophytexDMD]

Well, I did some research about the Athlon 64 today at work and the countdown has begun. My parts should arrive tomorrow or Thursday, and then I order my ATI video card. Not sure if I want the 9800 AIW Pro or not yet. The prices for it have gone down. I was also reading that you get to try out Windows XP 64bit. Anyone here try it or is using it right now? You get to use it for a year. From what I was reading, the OS almost shuts off completely in the background while you're playing a game in the 64 bit version. Red Mercury is the game that Atari is making for 64bit PCs. heh, I can't wait!. UT 2004 in 64 bit (tweaked for 64bit) NICE.

 

[Algere]

It'll be fine

I have more components (sig) and less ampage on the 12V and it runs smooth.

 

[imported_DarkMatter]

Good luck with your new rig, Neophyte. What parts did you order if I may ask? i.e what brands, etc.

I haven't built a PC for a few years either and am now planning on upgrading sometime before mid-October. I've been planning on getting an Athlon 64 3200+ and the only motherboard that I've found a review for is the MSI K8N Neo Platinum. I would like to also find some alternatives to the K8N Neo Platinum just so I can do some comparison shopping.

The answers regarding the power supply is good info to have. Currently I've only got a 320w PS, and I highly doubt that will be sufficient to run an A64 and (most likely) a GeForce 6800, so it looks like I'll have to buy a new one of those as well.

-DarkMatter

 

[CraigRT]

any quality 300-350W and up will run most systems nowadays without issue.

 

[NeophytexDMD]

Originally posted by: DarkMatter
Good luck with your new rig, Neophyte. What parts did you order if I may ask? i.e what brands, etc.

I haven't built a PC for a few years either and am now planning on upgrading sometime before mid-October. I've been planning on getting an Athlon 64 3200+ and the only motherboard that I've found a review for is the MSI K8N Neo Platinum. I would like to also find some alternatives to the K8N Neo Platinum just so I can do some comparison shopping.

The answers regarding the power supply is good info to have. Currently I've only got a 320w PS, and I highly doubt that will be sufficient to run an A64 and (most likely) a GeForce 6800, so it looks like I'll have to buy a new one of those as well.

-DarkMatter

Well I decided not to go with O/C high performance ram so I got a Kingston DDR400 1gb Ram Kit, that consists of two 512mb ram sticks. As for the motherboard, best bang for the buck to date is the Neo Platinum, from what I read. Also, I read some benchmarks and the board is very close to nvidia's reference board for Athlon 64 processors. Only thing was that the nvidia board was tweaked for things other than what the MSI board was. Now, I am jumping into the game here with the 3rd Bios release so I dunno how much better it is now than with the first two bios releases. I keep reading stuff about Nvidia's "Punkbuster" and online games. I have no idea what the two have in relation to each other but I will find out I am sure. Right now I am just worried about the little things. ie: setting the right clock speed, figuring out the new technology, whether or not to use my Arctic Silver thermal paste or not, praying that this does not go as bad as my first system build (ram had to be reseated about 20 times over the course of two days before the computer posted, then it never had a problem since then, even O/C'ed.). The package is supposed to arrive tomorrow via UPS, so as soon as I am done enjoying the system, I'll prolly post back here again.

 

[NeophytexDMD]

Well, the computer is running great. I just need to wait another paycheck and I cna order my 9800 AIW Pro and I will be pretty much set. The only thing I am wondering about is what to download for new Nforce drivers. It seems to say that if nothing is wrong, don't upgrade to later nforce drivers. I went to the Nvidia website, but can't really find out what to download or install on my comp. How do I get newer Nforce drivers (if there are any)?

 

[cbehnken]

Go here to get your drivers : http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

 

[NeophytexDMD]

Thanks. The system is working great. Next week I install my Radeon 9800 AIW Pro 128mb vid card. Then I plan on joining an Unreal Clan online like the old days.

 

[NeophytexDMD]

...well I was sitting at home and wanted to see what it would be like to up the AGP bus for NFSU so I could maybe get a better flowing game. Well, as I applied the changes, my mouse froze. I thought I did some damage, but found out that the keyboard still worked. I tried to reconnect the mouse and windows kept saying "unknown USB device". Now no matter what I use that is USB, it says "unknown device". I have already gone into device manager and reinstalled the drivers for my USB hardware but everything still says "unknown USB device" Anyone know what could have happened? Is there another way to reset the usb in bios or something? Please let me know. I have to use an adaptor now to use my mouse (usb to ps2).

 

[NeophytexDMD]

Well, I just reseated the cable and now it works fine. I installed the usb cable from the rear port that comes with the mobo.....and I put that cable into jusb2 and now everything works fine. Even the upper USB ports. I guess this is a sticky for anyone that encounters this prob. Otherwise, this board and proc..