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Which Power Supply??

R

rodan

Senior member
I want to upgrade to a Socket A mainboard, and match an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 700 or 800mhz cpu to it.
Question: Can I get by with a 250watt atx power supply, or, should I upgrade to a 300watt?
 
Definitely go with a quality 300W power supply, especially if you are using a high-end video card. The extra cost will be justified by a less flaky system.
 
if you aren't going to load it up with like a raid array and lots of drives you could get by on even a quality 235watt , but i'd buy a 300 just because it doesnt cost that much more
 
I'm a believer in 'good' supplies but they are not created equal and 300 watts really doesn't mean sh!t. If you already have the 250 watt supply give it a try. HP uses 185 watt supplies with 850 Athlons, DVD, Burner, 40gig HD and TNT2 Video. They get away with this cause the +12 is only rated at 4amps, leaving plenty for the +5 and +3.3 which is what Athlons need.
 
I kinda figured 250watt was ok, with most atx configurations.....since that is the most common PS,but, as fast as technology is moving, I don't want to take a chance. Thanks for the tips, people 🙂
 
I would play it safe and get a 300W. I highly recommend Sparkle. They make high quality power supplies.
 
Second recommendation for Sparkle, 300w is what I use (PIII 700-->933, CD-R, CD-ROM, DVD, GeForce, two hard drives, five case fans). Try http://www.logicalsrc.com -- I bought mine for $50 shipped.

PC Power does sell awesome power supplies (they don't manufacture anything), but they charge an arm and a leg. If you can afford it and want the best, go with them. Most people have a limited budget, though -- sure wish I didn't. 😀
 
no, PCPower and Cooling does not maek the best ones. THey relabel Forton Source/Sparkle Power Supplies and usually double the price. If you're are intrigued with anything in PCPowerCooling list of power supplies, look at the equivelant sparkle unit instead.

THe Silencer 275 is really a Turbo-Cool 300W with a quieter fan.

And that being said, Sparkle is not the best POwer Supply Manufacturer. They are amoung the best, but close to the best would be the Enermax Units.


Mike
 
Have to agree with Mikewarrior here.

A long time ago, termite88 posted a very detailed message about what makes a good power supply.

Was very technical and compared the power output on all the lines of a few "best" powersupply contenders.

The Enermax led the pack.

Perhaps there needs to be a power supply forum so the fanatics of each brand can have flames wars. 🙂
 
rodan

Seems to be a lot of people jumping on the 300watt powersupply bandwagon. A lot of these people probably don't even own a 300 watt PS, yet they are quick to give you incorrect info.

Here is the facts: You don't neccessarily need a 300 watt PS for your system. Is more power better? Sure. is it needed? Not always.

I have 3 workstations each with a 235 watt PS. Two of the three contain the following components: AMD Athlon 700 oc'd to 800mhz. GeForce GTS, Plextor 12/10/32 CD-RW, 48xCDROM, SoundBlaster Live, 2 IBM 7200 RPM Harddisks, and on one a Klipsch Promedia v2-400 speaker/subwoofer system. The performance benchmarks on these power hungry systems is extremely high. I don't encounter jitters, stutters, freezing, lag, blue screens, or any other anomolies associated with low power.

So for people to say you NEED a 300 watt PS, I say phoooey! Build your system based around the PS you currently have. Run some benchmarks and evaluate. If your system show signs of not getting enough juice, then by all means upgrade to a faster PS. Otherwise, don't fall into the hype. 235-250 watts may be plenty.
 
The Enermax 330 watters are really good - $56 at Compucheap. They are highly rated, quiet, and the dual fan design look so cool. Plus it hss an assload of connectors!

12 amps over the 12v rail, and a buttload more over the other rails. I just found out tonight that I was killing my 250watter by absolutely crushing it with too many devices.

My friends always told me that my fans would actually destroy my computer - they were close, now they're just using so many amps that they're locking up.
 
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