What are the chances this 180W PSU will boot an XP2200+ system?

[Yzzim]

I'm building a microATX system for my sister for college. System specs are below. The case has a 180W PSU in it right now. Now before you all rush in saying NO WAY, please read further.

On my 300W PSU I believe it says something about "180 (?) watts of total output power". Now on this 180 watt PSU it says "160 watts of total output power".

Does that mean anything? Will that 20W make that much of a difference?

Am I totally off on this?

Specs:

Asus A7N266-VM
onboard video
onboard audio
onboard LAN
256MB PC2100 DDR
Athlon XP2200+
DVD Drive
CDRW Drive
Floppy

Thanks!

 

[Electric Amish]

Chances are pretty good, since it's an m-atx system. If it was a full ATX system I'd say no-way. I've had trouble booting from a 250w ps on an ATX system.

amish

 

[Yzzim]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Chances are pretty good, since it's an m-atx system. If it was a full ATX system I'd say no-way. I've had trouble booting from a 250w ps on an ATX system.

amish

So am I right about the "total output power"?

Some 300W PSUs will only put out 180 watts of power?

 

[bozo1]

It's 180-watts on the 3.3 and 5-volt lines combined. Add to that the other rails (12-volt, etc.) and you come up to the 300-watt rating.

 

[human2k]

Originally posted by: bozo1
It's 180-watts on the 3.3 and 5-volt lines combined. Add to that the other rails (12-volt, etc.) and you come up to the 300-watt rating.

I've seen cheapo 300W PSU's with 160W or lower ratings boot fine with 2.4B rigs.

 

[jackschmittusa]

If it is an el cheapo psu, I wouldn't trust it. Many of the SFF rigs are built with high quality psus that are similar to those used in rackmount systems. These are made with good components by good designers to insure they provide the rated power consistantly.

 

[Zepper]

If the CPU is powered via a P4 (4-pin, 12V) connector (such as on the MSI KM2M Combo L) and your 180W PSU has a P4 connector (or you adapt a drive lead), then it is possible. If your mobo has no P4 connector, then it is not likely to work at all. mATX or ATX makes no diff as long as you don't use a power hungry video card - it's the power draw of the CPU that tells the tale. I'm running my KM2M on a Sparkle 250 but I'm only running a Duron 1200 @ 1320.
. If your PSU is one of the really good brands it may make it, but it will be highly stressed all the time. A short life is predictable.
.bh.
:beer: time!

 

[Blastman]

I would consider dropping the CPU down to a 1700+. Plenty fast for an office box.

 

[Jhhnn]

It depends on the quality of the psu. Good micro supplies are conservatively rated, and capable of much higher momentary output when booting up. I'm still a little skeptical about the micro supplies, myself, but they seem to work fine for the kind of box you describe...

Blastman has a point, depending on what your sis does with a computer, a xp1700 might not be a noticeable downgrade at all...

 

[mechBgon]

On your 300W unit, the 160W you saw is most likely the combined output of the 3.3V + 5V rails. On the 180W, I'd bet it's 160W for 3.3V + 5V + 12V (leaving out the -5V and -12V lines, which make up the last 20W).

I would be nervous about that setup. It's like towing a 10000-pound boat with a base-model Ford F150. Yeah, it'll do it... for a while. Most power supplies are able to run up to 40% overload temporarily, from what I've read, but I don't think that's the ticket to a long, reliable lifespan.

I build similar systems for my workplace, except with just one optical drive, and I use Antec TruePower 330's. They are probably loafing at less than half their potential output most of the time, but I don't want one or two years' lifespan out of them... I want five. Call it "overengineering." No failures yet. So that's my 2c worth

 

[Blastman]

A lot of the Aopen micro-slim ATX cases like this ...

http://www.aopen.com/products/housing/A340-series.htm

are P4 ready and only come with 180w or 200w psu?s.

The 200w model has a 120w combined 3.3+5v rating and the 180w model is 118w. Running a M/B with integrated graphics, 1 HDD, no case fans shouldn?t present a problem.

The caveat ...

The P4 CPU draws its power from the 12v rail via the auxiliary connector whereas an Athlon CPU draws from its power from the standard ATX connector via the 3.3+5v rails. The rest of the M/B ? memory, graphics? etc. ?. also uses the 3.3+5v for power, so an Athlon will be taxing the 3.3+5v rail a lot harder than a P4 system. In the Athlons case the 12v rail is only really going to be only powering the HDD and the CD-RW once in a while so in a sense the P4 is spreading the power consumption around to the 12v underused rail. A CPU draws 50- 75 watts these days and an Athlon like a 2200+ can draw probably 70watts from the 3.3+5v rail leaving little reserve on that rail for the integrated graphics chip, memory. Nic?etc.

This is why I would probably only use a 1700+ in there unless the psu is Athlon approved.