Power?

[igloo15]

I have a 430 watt psu, I plan to run a amd64 3000, 6800gt, 2 sticks of corsair 3200 ram, and 5 drives(dvdburner,cdburner,dvdrom,80gbwesterndigital,and maxtor 160gb). Will I have enough power and do you think i should hold on to my cdburner and give it up for the cd burner in dvdburner? I know the nec 2510a doesn't have the same cd burn speeds as my liteon 48x/24x burner. What do you guys recommend.

 

[Sonic587]

What brand?

 

[igloo15]

I just opened my case and it says its an austin dr-b450atx power supply so i guess its a 450 watt psu.

 

[Sonic587]

Austin? I've never heard of this brand. If it is a generic, then I would advise you to upgrade to a quality PSU. What is your budget?

 

[igloo15]

likr 40-50 dollars

 

[Jiggz]

It doesn't hurt to try it first. Yes, even a quality 300W PSU can power your system. Why spend when it works? I bet your 430 genericPSU will work. The question how long can it hold.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Jiggz
It doesn't hurt to try it first. Yes, even a quality 300W PSU can power your system. Why spend when it works? I bet your 430 genericPSU will work. The question how long can it hold.

Yes and what other part will it take with it when it blows up. :disgust:

I suggest you buy a 350-400 watts Fortron power supply for you new system,unless you're feeling lucky....

 

[John]

Originally posted by: igloo15
likr 40-50 dollars

The Allied True 450w from newegg will fit the bill.

 

[Jiggz]

Most PSU's start as generic although some actually came from manufacturers with reputation. I have been using a generic 400W PSU for more than 4 years and have yet to experience any problem with it. All you need to make sure is that it is well ventilated. If it has two fans more likely it's well ventilated. Don't be misled by name brand, because they also burn and blow up. Remember, you can have twenty optical drives on your system, but they will only suck power at the same time during boot time. Otherwise, when the system is running, all you need is a fraction of your initial power requirement. If you decide to abandon the 430W generic PSU LMK for I will be more than happy to help you get rid of it.

 

[edmundoab]

there are alot of generic PSU these days and they work just great.
For all you know, they are all manufactured in China

 

[caz67]

Antec True Power 480 or 550W. The best PSU on the market IMO.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: caz67
Antec True Power 480 or 550W. The best PSU on the market IMO.

PC Power and Cooling's PSUs are another step up - in performance, quality, and price.

 

[Sonic587]

Originally posted by: Jiggz
Most PSU's start as generic although some actually came from manufacturers with reputation. I have been using a generic 400W PSU for more than 4 years and have yet to experience any problem with it. All you need to make sure is that it is well ventilated. If it has two fans more likely it's well ventilated. Don't be misled by name brand, because they also burn and blow up. Remember, you can have twenty optical drives on your system, but they will only suck power at the same time during boot time. Otherwise, when the system is running, all you need is a fraction of your initial power requirement. If you decide to abandon the 430W generic PSU LMK for I will be more than happy to help you get rid of it.

Originally posted by: edmundoab
there are alot of generic PSU these days and they work just great.

For all you know, they are all manufactured in China

You two can't be serious. I see more problems caused by generic PSUs than any other component in a computer. It's effectively the heart of your PC. El cheapos have a laundry list of problems. Including, but not limited to: Unstable voltages, not even coming close the wattage number it's rated for, NO safety measures such as overload/overvolt protection and cost cutting annoyances such as extremely short/not enough cables. This is definitely not a matter of being "misled by name brand"

I suggest you both check out this article from Tom's.

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/index.html

Let's not beat about the bush here. The 21 power supplies we tested are rated by their manufacturers at between 300 and 520 watts. Our tests showed, however, that only 15 of them actually met their specifications. We failed 5 units.

The models from Leadman, Maxtron, Noise Magic, PC-World and Task could not meet the power ratings specified by their manufacturers. The voltage of the Task TK-930TX was, on occasion, sufficiently below the specified value to cause our system to crash; not only that, this model didn't even deliver its rated 300-watt output. With a 200-watt load, the Task's +12 V rail dropped to 9 volts. We also measured some curious fluctuations in the output voltage. After about 7 minutes, the voltage dropped to 5.8 V. System crashes are pre-programmed into this power supply. The Leadman LP-6100 E does, at least, have an automatic cutout that switches power off before the capacitors can explode.

Our attempt to test the Noise Magic power supply had disastrous consequences. This is a modified Enermax unit fitted with a Papst fan. It stopped working after one minute. When we tried to switch it back on again after a suitable delay, it simply burned out. The Maxtron TOP-520P4 and the PCW Whisper Power "gave up the ghost" with a loud bang!, well below their rated output. We were unable to revive them from the dead, because their electronics were damaged in the process. Overly-optimistic output figures from Maxtron - this 520-watt rated power supply could only deliver a maximum 446 watts in our tests! At 304 watts, the PCW Whisper Power was 10% short of its manufacturer's rating. These three test candidates with burned-out electronics were not evaluated.

As a contrast, check out how the name brands did. FYI, any PSU with FSP in the model name is manufactured by FSP Group AKA Fortron.

 

[igloo15]

I really don't have it in the budget for a powersupply but I will try my powersupply for now and in like a couple month probably buy a better one.

 

[Jiggz]

Agree! Please let us know how it worked. I'm really interested on why people buy $100.00 PSU when a $40.00 one will do the job. Sure if you loaded a PSU all the way to it's rated wattage it could blow up and destroy your system. But when was the last time you actually loaded a PSU to its rated load especially in your case 430W. OK, it's generic so maybe it'll only handle 75% of its rated load, but that is still a good 322.5W! Now if it's a generic 250W or 300W then I will be reluctant to use it.