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Power Supplies are OVER RATED......

B

bjc112

Lifer
Hey all, this topic comes up every so often about "Will this 550 watt 😉 be enough to power my system" or "Can a 300watt power this system" and so on..

I know quality over quantity and that cannot be more true..

I currently have a 350watt sparkle running the following:

1700+@ 2.4ghz 1.775v
1 gig PC 3200
Radeon 9500 Pro
2 - Optical drives
1 - 80 GB WD
1 - 40 GB Maxtor
3 - Case fans, 1 which has an LED.
2 - Cold cathodes
And two LED strips down the front of my case....

Now i just can't understand how people need 500watt PSU's when this 350 is taking this overclocked system like it's nothing...

I dunno...
😕
 
I think its also because the cheaper PSU's are more likely to go bad and when a person spends $500+ on a system, they don't want it to go bad due to the PSU. Also, it gives the user a peice of mind that the extra $20 is getting him a good, brand name PSU, that has a much lower chance of going bad and is built on higher quality parts.
 
Originally posted by: AgaBooga
I think its also because the cheaper PSU's are more likely to go bad and when a person spends $500+ on a system, they don't want it to go bad due to the PSU. Also, it gives the user a peice of mind that the extra $20 is getting him a good, brand name PSU, that has a much lower chance of going bad and is built on higher quality parts.
Click to expand...

Ya, i guess that's true.. But I personally would never even think of running anything over 400watts...

You would need 5 HDD's couple lights, nicely OC'd CPU ... And still have more than enough juice left...
 
I think that it is because there are a lot of posters on this board that know nothing and try to be imprtant by giving out information that they have no idea wether it is true or not.
When it comes to power supplies it is no different than buying anything else some people have had bad luck and some not but put the blame of the problem on some component that most cannot even check out. I suspect that there are some PS out there that are not good but wattage does not tell all.

Bleep
 
some comps just need more power.
for instance, here are the things running in my comp

ic7 w/p4c oced to 3.3
1 gig ddr
1x raptor 36gb
1x 120 gb seagate
1x 120 gb WDSE (external)
2x maxtor 80gb
2x optical drives
radeon 9800 pro
pci tv tuner/nic/sound/ata card
2x cold cathodes
7x fans in the case (on a baybus)
i also have 6 usb devices and 1 firewire device hooked up at all times

i agree MOST systems can get by with a quality 300-350 watt ps, but when u have as many devices as i do itll really start pushing the limits of a 350 watt ps. thats why i opted to pay a little extra for the antec true power 430, it gives me enough power and peace of mind that my ps wil never be the problem if im troubleshooting something.

BTW, how much for the brooklyn bridge? i always wanted to own a bridge... 😉
 
Originally posted by: jOjO316
some comps just need more power.
for instance, here are the things running in my comp

ic7 w/p4c oced to 3.3
1 gig ddr
1x raptor 36gb
1x 120 gb seagate
1x 120 gb WDSE (external)
2x maxtor 80gb
2x optical drives
radeon 9800 pro
pci tv tuner/nic/sound/ata card
2x cold cathodes
7x fans in the case (on a baybus)
i also have 6 usb devices and 1 firewire device hooked up at all times

i agree MOST systems can get by with a quality 300-350 watt ps, but when u have as many devices as i do itll really start pushing the limits of a 350 watt ps. thats why i opted to pay a little extra for the antec true power 430, it gives me enough power and peace of mind that my ps wil never be the problem if im troubleshooting something.

BTW, how much for the brooklyn bridge? i always wanted to own a bridge... 😉
Click to expand...

Jojo,

Now you are a prime example of someone who actually needs that type of power

5 HDD

7 case fans

Bleep i think you hit the nail on the head...
 
This is what I have in my server with my old Enermax 330 watt powersupply:

AMD 2100+ not overclock w/retail heaksink + 22cfm 60mm Top Motor fan
ECS SIS 746 mobo
cheapo graphic card
firewire card
dual channel UW SCSI card
3Com NIC
512mb PC2100
1 - CDRW
1 - 18gb SCSI 10k rpm HDD
2 - 9gb SCSI 10k rpm HDD
3 - 9gb SCSI 7.2k rpm HDD
3 - 80mm case fan
4 - 40mm fan from the 4 SCSI moble racks

A little bit noisy but runs stable like a rock.
 
I know my 470 watts psu is way too much than I need but it's a peice of mind.

I know no matter what I do with my system and a problem arises I know that it's not going to be because of an underpowered power supply. 😉

Just one less thing for me to worry about & I know that I will not need to upgrade it for a while until it becomes underpowered.
 
It all comes back to power distributions across the rails. On my 350W Enermax, I had:
2.4C o/c 260FSB
9700Pro AIW
512MB PC3500
3X23GB 5400RPM SCSI
1X89GB WD 7200RPM
3X80mm Case Fans
USB joystick, rumble pad, keyboard, and mouse

Very stable voltages, all above their target.
 
i have the system below and 300W amd & intel certified psu, my rails are:

+3.3V: 3.22V
+5V: 5.08V
+12V: 12.29V

is that gonna be a problem?
 
What I find really interesting is to look at the power supplies that OEM's like Dell and IBM put into their systems. If IBM puts a 300W power supply into a dual Xeon system 2GB RDRAM and SCSI RAID with 4 HD's, then I don't understand why we (myself included) need to put 400W supplies into lower spec'd system.
 
I'm a fan of my Antec's

I have a 300 and a 400 and both no problems at all 🙂

are actually the oldest parts in a couple of my PC's 😱
 
Aight, ignoring bleeps VERY useful tidbit of philosophical overview on AT posters...

My dads P4 rig witha 350w Generic PSU was very unstable/slow. A new Antec 430w solved all the problems. It's prolly cuz the PSU was total junk (the generic one). The PSU can be a source of alotta problems (i know 1st hand...bleep) Just an example of an experience i had with PSU's.

Anyway THG did a lil article on PSU's i find useful. Right Here
 
I have a XP2400+ @ 3100+
1gb PC2700 ram
Maxtor 40 gig
WD SE 160gb
8rda+
4 case fans
Sb audigy
Geforce 4 ti4400
TV tuner

All of which is on a 300 watt Eagle PSU, so I don't think this would come close to stretching a 350watt antec.

My XP1600 system is on a 200 watt PSU i got with my Pentium 2 400mhz 5 years ago, though 😀

Not to mention most 400-500 watt PSUs are of lower quality and wont get you over 400 watts of power, and most cheapo ones are around 350w anyways.
 
Originally posted by: neutralizer
i have the system below and 300W amd & intel certified psu, my rails are:

+3.3V: 3.22V
+5V: 5.08V
+12V: 12.29V

is that gonna be a problem?
Click to expand...

All are nice except +3.3v rail, ideally, these should be at or above. Nice +12v though.
 
What's the actual cost of "overkill" on a quality power supply, people? Twenty dollars, thirty dollars? If you get a new $40,000 1/2-ton Suburban to tow a boat with, do you spend the extra $300 for the towing package? Hmm? Ah so, grasshoppah... 😉

Think long-term... look back at the PSU you used three years ago. Would you feel comfortable using that PSU on a typical upper-end gaming system today? Think 2.8C, Radeon 9800, two optical, two HDD. Maybe you would, if you bought a top-notch "overkill" unit back then, such as an Antec or PC Power & Cooling 400W unit.

I have the distinction of having actually gotten disapproving email scolding me for recommending "overkill" power supplies and also for being an Antec Nazi. 😛 Whatever.
rolleye.gif
If I'm going to spend my free time helping people spec their new system or troubleshoot their existing one, I'm going to recommend something I know will work. Anyone wants to differ, they can follow me around and refute me until they get tired of it. 😉
 
I wish the manufacturers of componants would more clearly publish how many watts the componant can consume at it's maximum... and what voltage it runs on so we can figure out for ourselves how what we need.

And if you buy a quality power supply to begin with, you shouldn't have to worry about whether it can REALLY put out as much power as it's rated for.
 
I'd say my system is stressing my power supply, sparkle 350w
ecs k7s5a+xp 1900+
2 generic case fans
2 optical drives
4 hard drives
floppy 😛
aiw 128 (need to swap for my 9700 pro)
 
Mech I agree with your sentiments, my only question is which brand?
From what I read Antec is a good PS but looking at specs the Enermax equivalent always seems to have higher 12v amps-with todays P4 OCs, multiple drives and power-hungry videocards isn't the 12v Wattage and Amp rating the most important when specing out the supply?
I have 2 HDs, 2CDs, 1 DVD and 3 Fans, P4c OC-all on a 350W Enermax, voltages holding steady and no problems-I'm leaning to getting either a 9800np or a 5900 and wonder if that might "put me over the top"? I'm debating whether to but a new PS at the same time as the videocard just to alleviate any probs.
Comments?

Mike G

Mech just saw another post where you mention the "self-tuning" wires on all the Antecs-nice feature-still wondering about the difference in the Amp ratings?
 
I agree that most people probably have more wattage than they need, but I also agree that the extra peace of mind is worth 20-30 bucks. On my 300W Antec supply, I had 3 HD's, 2 optical, 4 PCI cards, 4 fans, a Ti4200, and an XP1700+. Both the CPU and video card are OC'ed as far as they'll go. I never had any stability problems, but then again I'm sure I was pretty close to maxing out the PSU. When I bought a new case recently, it only cost me $20 extra to get a 430W PSU added. Now I know I can put even more toys in my rig and not worry about my PSU melting.
 
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