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Is my Power supply good enough?

D

dermotti

Member
I currently have this system:

Northwood P4 2.8ghz
1 gig ddr400 ram
Intel 865perl
2 x 36g raptors
1 dvd burner
1 DVD rom
Geforce 6600gt

I am upgrading to:
e6300 C2D
Biostar Tforce 965p
2ghz Buffalo firestix ram
ATI 1950pro

My current powersupply is a Thermaltake Xaser 3 480w. I bought it in late 2003 i believe.

I belive these are the specs:
http://www.hardware.info/en-UK/productd...ltake_Xaser_III_Silent_Purepower_480W/

Do i need to upgrade that PSU? I plan to overclock my C2D.
 
Originally posted by: dermotti
Core 2 Duo and ATI1950gt use that much more power than a Northwood + 6600gt?
Click to expand...

X1950 Pro uses a lot more power than a 6600 GT. I don't even think the 6600 GT had a 6pin power connecter.
 
C2D uses less electricity than P4..even the Northwood...I believe. TDP of only 65 watts for the e6300.

If you ran your current setup ok with your current PSU, it may be alrite...it is true though, that the x1950pro may stress the system at peak loads, but you may be fine.
 
Originally posted by: bamacre
Only 1 12V rail that does 18A. You will need a new PSU.
Click to expand...

I agree here. According to ATI SPECIFICATIONSfor that card, you need a PSU with 30 amps minimum on the 12v rail for a fully loaded system. The TT unit barely has 1/2 that at MAX outpust. Keep in mind that a heavily loaded PSU will allow more AC ripple current which can damage components. GPUs and HDs are most succeptible to this. Don't kill a good system with a cheap or underpowered PSU.
 
Your Tt has 40A on the 5V rail. No current system needs that, only an uber-server needs that kind of wattage at 5V.
What your new system needs is 12V wattage. Buy a Silverstone Element 400W minimum or 500W lots of over-head.


...Galvanized
 
Originally posted by: dermotti
Core 2 Duo and ATI1950gt use that much more power than a Northwood + 6600gt?
Click to expand...

In the end they probably use about the same but I still wouldn't use it.

The problem with your 480 watt PSU is that most of the power is on the 5v rail. For a long time now most of the power is drawn from the 12 rail/s. A modern system can draw as much as 90% of it's power from 12v so that is a problem with a poor designed unit like your Thermaltake.

So while it will probably work you'll be taxing the 12v section of that PSU pretty heavily. Given thats already 3 years old and a Thermaltake (typically junk) I would suggest a new and better PSU.

I'll reccomend the 380 watt Seasonic S12; it features two 12v rails (10 & 15A) for a total of 25 amps, which is more then enough. More importantly Seasonic's build quality and features are about as good as it gets, so it should provide you clean stable power far longer then you'll ever need it to.
 
I ended up purchasing a Enermax Liberty 500w. 22a/22a (34 combined) 12v
Awesome PSU.

Funny thing is, i always thought my PC ran rather hot. It wasnt my PC, it was my PSU. I think that 480w was already strained on my old system.

The Libery pumps out nothing but cold air, barely luke warm at heavy load.

Thanks guys!

PS, got the new system up to 3.1ghz already, wewt!
 
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