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Power supply requirements are overrated IMO

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psteng19

Diamond Member
I'm running a T-bird 1 ghz (check out my main rig), with a ton of cards, fans and peripherals on a generic 250 watt (albeit AMD approved) power supply for almost a year and I run into no problems.
I built two computers (duron 900 and tbird 900) with crappy $15 235-watt, no name, power supplies for friends and they are running just fine.

Granted I would choose a nice 300 watt name brand power supply if I had the choice, but I think that in general, you can get away with cheaper ones if you have no choice or a tight budget.

Anyone else have good or bad experiences with lesser quality, lower wattage PSU's?
 
im gunning a Athlon XP 1800+ with 1 HD, 2 CD drives, 3 80mm fans, 3 pci cards, and my video card...all on a 300watt generic PSU...

and it runs SETI 24x7
 
I had a 300W in my 1333@1500 rig and it wasnt enough.. i switched the PSU for a 400W version and my problems stopped.
overall though, i think people are too hardcore on the whole PSU issue..
 
You have to look at the individual powersupply. 250-watt, 300-watt, etc. means nothing. What matters is if the supply can put out the current required by certain chips on the 5-volt and 3.3-volt lines, not what the total potential output is when you add up the 3-volt, 5-volt, 12-volt lines.

I've seen some 250-watt no-name supplies that can put out more current on the 5-volt rail than namebrand 300 or 350 watters. I've seen no-name 400-watters that don't put out as much as some 250-watters.

Having a supply that can provide what a specific speed chip needs definitely matters when you're talking about faster speed chips. Slower chips (maybe 1.2 or lower), usually work with whatever supply you put on them. However, with faster chips, you may run into stability problems, random reboots, etc., if your supply isn't supplying what it needs.

That being said, alot of people around here run around telling people they need a 400-watt supply, or even a 500-watt supply when that's just bunk.

 
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