My SoyoP4 845PE Lite Manual says I need at least a 350 watt PSU. Should I take this serious?

[DolfanJay]

I'm building a new system the components are gonna be:

P42.4b
Soyo PE845 Lite
512 MB ram Single DIMM
Radeon 9500 Pro
40 Maxtor D740
16x DVD
24/10/40 Lite on Burner

Well I already ordered the case an ANTEC SX630II which comes with a smartpower 300 watt PSU.
Can I use this PSU or do I need to change it out. I called Antec and talked to customer support and
he said I should use a 400+ watt with the Radeon cards. Sharky Extreme recommended this case for a rig almost
exactly like this. So whos right? Any advice appreciated.

 

[EeyoreX]

I have no experience with Radeon, and it's been a long time since I had my own Intel box (PII days). I would guess (maybe a little cynically) that Antec would love for you to buy a new PSU from them, the other rig was "almost" like yours, so what was different could make all the difference in the world. You might be able to use the 300 watt PSU without a problem. You could give it a try and see if you have trouble powering your system (this shouldn't damage your hardware if it is insufficient, but may cause data corruption on your hard drives for example). The motherboard manufacturer seems to recommend something, I might be inclined to believe them, but I would also try the PSU I already got and spend the cash if I needed to.

\Dan

 

[oldfart]

I run the following with an Antec True330 PS:
Albatron 845PE
P4 2.4B @ 3.06
1 Gig (2 x 512) Corsair XMS
Radeon 9700 Pro
120 Gig Hd
2 optical drives
sound
nic
firewire
etc

 

[jaeger66]

The 300W will be fine as long as it's actually an Antec.

 

[DolfanJay]

Thanks for all the replies,

Yes it is a real Antec, its an Antec Smartpower SL300S. This is the models below the True Powers.

The only difference between the system I'm building and the Value System on SharkyExtreme is they used
a 1.8a and I'm gonna use a 2.4b processor. Its like a little more than an amp additional draw on the +12v.

Oldfart,
I looked up your True Power and the specs are.
True Power330 Smartpower 300
+3.3=28 +3.3=20
+5 =30 +5 =30
+12 =17 +12 =15

Do you think the additional 8 on the +3.3 and the extra 2 on the +12v would make a difference?

If I do use the 300 and its not enough power will my CPU throttle back. Or just lock up?

I also read an article on Firingsquad that made me feel as if my PSU would be inadequate?


Sorry for all the questions I searched this forum and a couple of others and opinions on power supply sizes
is all over the map. Some saying they run 3.06 with 9700 pros and a raid array with two 7200 HDs plus two opticals and 6 case fans with only 250 or 300 watts. Then there are those who are running slower systems then the one I'm building
and saying they had problems until they switched to there new 400+. It seems like 10 people can tell me its gonna work but it only takes one to tell me it wont for me to take a long pause. I definitely dont want to hurt my system to save a few bucks.