Is my power supply big enough?

[Lipservice]

I have an Antec Aria SFF I use for Home Theater use and also to rip/encode DVDs.
It has a proprietary Antec 300watt power supply [can not be swapped out for bigger or different one]

SYSTEM SPECS:
Intel Springdale 865 mATX board
2X512mb PC 3200 memory in Dual Channel
Current CPU is a 2.8C Northwood
Radeon 9600 Pro AIW
Hercules 7.1 sound card
250gb WD SATA HDD
Firewire card
Plextor 740A DVDR

It runs fine with the 2.8C in. No heat issues or anything.

I have options to put in a 3.4E Prescott or a 3.2C Northwood. I want more speed to encode DVDs.

Is this 300watt power supply big enough to run a 3.4E or 3.2C?

Thanks for the help

P.S. Forgot to add NO OVERCLOCKING

 

[o1die]

You should try some overclocking. It's much cheaper than a new cpu. You can find an 865pe board fairly cheap either in the newegg refurbs section or on pricewatch. My 2.8c ran fine at 3500 (250 fsb) using an msi board. If you decide to go with a new cpu instead, look for a 3.2c at places like starmicro. The "e" prescott will run warmer and not give you any improvement in performance. Heat is a real issue in small boxes with limited air circulation. I use a 14cm 450w power supply to remove warm air around the cpu. They run about $50 in brands such as ttgi and coolmax.

 

[Lipservice]

Unfortunately I am stuck with this power supply. It is odd shaped and made especially for the Aria. And the motherboard is Intel, rock solid but no overclocking options. And the memory is PC3200 Corsair Value Ram. I bet it would not clock far above 200mhz anyway.

I already have a 3.2C and 3.4E I could use in it. Gonna part out one of my PCs and build a dual core AMD so that gives me some options with these CPUs. And both are great overclockers... the 3.4E is running daily at 4150 on this PC [Abit IC7] with an Antec 550w PS. The 3.2C is running 3700 on an IS7 on another PC for over 1 1/2 years with no problems.

I do notice the 3.4E can suck the core voltage down some when it is working hard... even with the 550w PS.

The 2.8C can encode a DVD with Cinema Craft Encoder running 8 passes in about 8 hours.
The 3.4E@4150 on this PC can do it in 4.5 hours.
The 3.2C@3700 on the IS7 about 5.5 hours.

So CPU speed really helps. Probably memory speed also helps.