Northwood Power Supply - Generic 250W OK?

[Wolfcastle]

I'm getting a Northwood 1.6a with P4S333. Would a standard 250W power supply that I was using for an old PII 400 be ok? What's the weakest power supply you can run it at, and has anybody had problems with the power supply on a Northwood?

I won't be using any hard core video cards since this is for office use.

I would figure the Northwoods consume less power than previous P4's even if they overclock to 2.2GHz.

 

[THUGSROOK]

id say no.
get a 350w or better that has the correct P4 power plugs.

 

[Regalk]

You need 300W or higher (any kind - I use the cheapest generic on 2 - 1.6As at 2.3G each). The ASUS boards do not require the P4 plug for CPU power (the4 pin power connector is fine). I use the P4S333.

 

[Raiz]

People said the same thing when I first bought my AMD. "Oh your puny little 230W power supply will never run that big Althlon!" I'm using the same 230W power supply that I stole out of a compaq computer 2 years ago on my P4 1.6A and Asus P4S333. I'd try it before I go out and spend the money. The 250 may work fine.

 

[Wolfcastle]

I would certainly agree that getting a recommend PSU would be a better option, but from the example given by Raiz, I'm inclined to give my generic 250W a try.

So far I haven't heard any real cases of somebody not being able to run their Northwood 1.6a because of poor power supply. If anybody can show me otherwise, I'd be willing to listen.

BTW, Raiz, have you overclocked your Northwood or are you keeping it at 1.6GHz?

 

[Z24]

I just upgraded to a Northwood system. Parts include: 1.6A, P4B266, GF3 Ti200, 1 hard drive, 1 CD-RW, 2 NIC's, Soundcard (because P4B266 onboard audio doesn't work), and a winmodem (for occaisional faxing). There is the retail fan on the P4, a fan on the GF3, and the fan on the power supply. That's it.

I have an Antec 250W power supply. You can actually hear a change in the pitch of the fans when you stress the computer (distributed.net, prime95, etc.)

The power supply meets the minimum requirements, it works, and it's stable (so it seems). I am however replacing the power supply because it is obviously struggling.

Antec makes one of the best power supplies out there. If their 250W model can barely handle it, a generic power supply doesn't sound all that appealing.