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PSUs and higher clocked TBirds: TESTING NOW

M

MCS

Platinum Member
Will a 300W Sparkle PSU be enough for a TBird clocked over 1.5Ghz? Or 1.6Ghz? What do you think?

Anybody already running this high with a 300W PSU?
 
300W should be OK for a medium loaded AMD system. But just to be safe, I would get at least 350W.
 
So I can run a TBird at 1.6Ghz or higher with a 300W PSU, as long as I don't have lots of drives and fans etc?
 
I would assume so, yes. However, extra Wattage is never a bad thing, gives you some insurance to stability and expansion.
 
I would say you would have trouble going over 1.5ghz with a 300W-350W PS...even with very few peripherals. I have been discussing this with Compuwiz recently, and he was not able to get any of the 1.4ghz's past 1.5ghz. He was was using a 300W PS, and we both thought the PS might be the problem. He just snagged a Enermax 430W for his testbed, and now they are doing 1.6ghz @ 1.75v (default)..it appears the current draw over 1.3ghz-1.4ghz is beginning to facilitate the use of 400W + models. See this thread for details. I would spend the extra $25 for a Enermax 430W...well worth it in my opinion...for now and the future...


BTW - If I am not mistaken, AMD suggests a 400W PS for use with a 1.4ghz Athlon...
 
You assume so, thats OK. I value your opinion of course, but I wonder if any one else has any definite experience with this.

Thanks LXi

Insane3D

Thanks for the link. I see. I have an 1.4 which is guarenteed to run at 1.6, so if it won't do it then I suspect I will know why. This is not encouraging 🙁

Just checked AMDs site and my Sparkle 300W is only recommened up to 1.33Ghz!
 
I would look at it this way..if the 300W is not sufficient and you need to go with a 400W model..you will have a spare 300W in case something happens to the new one. I had a PS die on me once, and I just happened to have a spare 250W kicking around, so I was able to use the rig while I was waiting for a new one...🙂 It never hurts to have power to spare, and it will give you peace of mind as well as room to add more fans or peripherals with power to spare. Also, the Enermax has a second 92mm fan that sucks the hot air away right over the CPU socket, so it also aids in cooling. With an Athlon @ 1.6ghz, you will need all the help you can get..😉
 
This is very true, although I already have a spare PSU 🙂

The Enermax are indeed very nice PSUs though.

I suppose I will just have to try it and see. Unfortunately I am at work and the chip is at home! 😛

I still welcome any other peoples thoughts on this though.
 
MCS, I recently helped a friend set up an Athlon system: Enlight 7237 w/ Enlight 300w p.s., IWill KK266, TBird 1.2G C, 256MB Crucial CAS2 PC133, 60G IBM 60GXP, Toshiba 16x/48x DVD, Asus GeForce2 DDR 32MB.

We went w/ the Enlight p.s. as I'd read numerous reports of successful set up w/ this p.s. All went well until he added a CD-RW, two NIC's, Zip drive, and a PCI FireWire card. Then, no boot, no nothing. He pulled a few cards, the Zip, and the CD-RW and the boot was back. He then replaced the Enlight 300w p.s. w/ an Enermax 450w p.s. and it will now boot w/ all peripherals in place.
 
It looks like a consensus that a 431W would be better for the job. I'd say just spend the extra money on it, extra wattage never hurts, I think its worth the money.
 
"You think the most likely symptom will be that the PC will just not boot up?"

I would imagine the symptoms would be different on different computers. If you look at the thread I linked, Compuwiz would just get BSOD's and Disk I/O errros when trying to o/c the 1.4ghz past 1.5ghz with a 300W. The disk errors could be because there was not enough juice to keep them rotating at their rated speed..or maybe not. The problem with PS problems is they are hard to troubleshoot because most people think of their PS last, and blame it on a bad mobo or bad hardware. I have seen some strange problems that mysteriously disappeared when a higher wattage PSU was used. This all goes back to the peace of mind thing...if you have a PSU like a 430W Enermax..you can pretty much put PS worries out of your head...

 
Ah OK - I thought the disk errors, BSODs were as a result of pushing the CPU too far. That'll teach me to skim over things 😛.
I do have ONE advantage over Compuwiz and that is that my CPU is guarenteed to 1.6. I guess if all is fine at 1.6 and I try higher I would never know if it is the PSU or the chip failing 🙂
 
So far so good with the PSU @ 1.6Ghz although I wish I could say the same about the chip itself.

I am going to post a report on my findings later if people are interested?
 
Please verifiy your 5 volt line with a DMM. Regardless of your PS, the values indicated on the mobo are a result of the mobo voltages! So, the 5 volt lines feeding peripherals will be fine! Some 5v (MBM) values dip to 4.5V when a system is pushed!!!

Cheers!
 
The machine is looping 3DMark at a high resolution right now and hopefully will continue to!

MBM reported all my voltages bang on except for the 12V which was about 11.75 - 11.88. This has ALWAYS been like that and its within a 10% margin so I think it's fine.
 


<< The machine is looping 3DMark at a high resolution right now and hopefully will continue to! >>



That's not loading the cpu 100%. Try optimal (ie low resolution) so the cpu isn't waiting for the videocard.

BURNK6.EXE WILL heat the CPU to the MAX, if it can't take it the machine will dump.

What is your +5V reading on MBM?

Cheers!
 
Yes, you're right, good point. I have gotten so used to using the test this way I forget about that.

MBM reports my 5V at 5.03V, I have seen it dip to about 4.95V before now, over the time I have had the PSU.
 


<< MBM reports my 5V at 5.03V, I have seen it dip to about 4.95V before now, over the time I have had the PSU. >>



What mainboard is this????

That's the best I've seen.

Cheers!
 
Its a KT7A-RAID.

Best you've seen? Because it only dips to 4.95V? This is MBM readouts remember, not external.

BTW I have changed the settings of 3DMark to be 640x480x16.
 
Yes it is!

I have the same mobo and typically see the 5V line in the 4.8 range. It has dipped to 4.7ish with heavy overclocking and over volting!

Current MBM 5.07 high low page here

Notice the 5 volt line.

Cheers!
 
Not any more it isn't. Since I put the 1.4 in things have changed. Fully CPU load the 5V voltage now reads 4.83V! Quite a dip!

Where can I download BurnK6 from?
 
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