Thinking of upgrading to ECS K7S5A...power supply question

[kami]

Currently I have a Asus P3V4X with a P3-700e o/c'ed to 980 (hasn't been upgraded in like 18 months) with 768MB PC133 (3x256).

Now I know this mobo only has two SDR slots so I can only use 512 for now, which is fine until I have extra money to upgrade it to 1GB DDR...but for now I will just be using 512MB SDR with it. I will also be putting an Athlon XP 1800 on it.

I have an Enlight 7237 case and I'm just using the power supply that came with it. It's only 250 watts but I heard Enlight PSU's are pretty good...will this work fine with the AthlonXP or will have have to upgrade power supplies? There will also be 2 IDE hard drive, a CDR, a DVD-Rom, NIC, Vid and sound cards. BTW i will NOT be overclocking the XP1800.

thanks

 

[Hendrik]

You will definitely need to upgrade your PSU. The system you're planning to build is quite complex (2 IDE drives, 2 optical drives, 2 RAM sticks, etc.), and the Athlon XP requires a good deal of power too. You should get at least a 350W PSU, maybe even 430W to be on the safe side. I recommend Sparkle, Antec and Enermax.

The K7S5A is a great board! I have two of them, and I like both their stability and their performance (esp. IDE performance is outstanding). I know of no socket A board available right now that I would clearly prefer to it - though I also like the Asus A7S333 that I recently bought (it's now available at Newegg for $65). Interestingly, the K7S5A easily beats the A7S333 in IDE performance, using the same HD drive.

In my experience, though, running it with two SDR RAM sticks has been a source of instability; this was eliminated when I moved to DDR RAM (it also worked OK with just one stick of SDR RAM). It's possible that the problem has been solved as far as more recently produced boards are concerned, but at least one of my boards, bought about 9 months ago, has problems with two SDR RAM sticks.

So: I suggest you get a good PSU first, then try out how the system works with your SDR RAM. If you have a stability problem with 512 MB (2*256) SDR RAM, try using just one 256 MB stick, and save up some cash for an upgrade to DDR RAM.

 

[kami]

OK, so an Enermax 350w would be fine? I can get one for $70 Canadian..I think this is a decent deal for one?

I can get a bundle of the K7S5A, Xp1800 OEM, and a Volcano 6 fan w/ copper base for only $291 Canadian, which is a sweet deal.

thanks BTW

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Hey Kami, The K7S5A is definitely picky about the juice it gets, I suggest you read this

 

[Hendrik]

A 350W PSU is the bare minimum I'd recommend for the system you're intending to build. I think you'll be OK with the Enermax 350W.

If you can afford it, though, why not be on the safe side and get a 430W one? That way you'd also have some room to grow...

But as I said, if money is a serious consideration, you should be OK with what you have in mind.

 

[Buz2b]

You will be just fine with the Enermax 350 watt. More than enough power for your use. I have it running my A7M266 w/2 hdd's, cd, cdrw, floppy, 2x256 DDR, 5 USB devices, sound card, NIC, AGP 4x-- plus 3 fans and the HSF. Yes, the K7S5A is more picky about power but the Enermax 350 is a good solution for it.

 

[Linux23]

well my ECS board just blew up on my this week (out of the blue with 4 hours of tshooting), so be careful. so i replaced it with the ASUS A7S333 and it looks to be a fantastic replacement.

 

[VotTak]

250W is definitely not enough ... tried it ... does not work... I had to go for better PSU so I went for 400W PSU which works just fine.

 

[jmorrell]

Wattage is not the only thing that matters in a power supply - amperage is essential as well. Some 400 watt power supplies only put out as much amperage as a good 300. I have an Antec 300 watt that works just fine with my loaded Athlon 1800+ system (see below). It is no where near being tapped out at 300 watts - it doesn't even get hot enough for the thermal fan to increase in speed above the minimum. The Antec 300s have excellent amperage ratings, so that is why a 300 works as well as a 400 of other brands. Just make sure any power supply you get has at least 30 amps output on the 5 volt rail.

 

[tritium4ever]

My Enermax 300W PSU (basic model, single fan) works just great with my K7S5A, and I have 2 of each: hard drives, optical drives, cold cathodes, and case fans. Only problem with them Enermax power supplies is that the ones without manual fan control are damn loud. I just modded my PSU last night (took out the existing fan and replaced it with a Vantec Stealth) and now it's MUCH quieter.