Will it hurt to put a large powersupply on a motherboard if i don't know if it can handle it?

[eriknox]

I own a sony comp and I just bought a new video card and when i turn the comp onit says that i am not supplying enough power to my card. I have a 100-200 p/s and if i jack it up to a 400 will it hurt my mobo if its too much?

 

[dguy6789]

I dont believe it will. As long as it is the same type of power supply(same kind of connecters, atx i believe) it should be fine. I have never heard of a motherboard having a maximum power supply to connect to it.

 

[eriknox]

thanx I will put it together then and hope for the best

 

[saxophonoia]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I dont believe it will. As long as it is the same type of power supply(same kind of connecters, atx i believe) it should be fine. I have never heard of a motherboard having a maximum power supply to connect to it.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Having a power supply too small is a bad thing. It will be overworked.

Having a power supply too big won't hurt it. The Power supply just don't work as hard .

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I dont believe it will. As long as it is the same type of power supply(same kind of connecters, atx i believe) it should be fine. I have never heard of a motherboard having a maximum power supply to connect to it.

This is correct. Your motherboard and all components will only draw as much power as the they require, leaving the larger power supply with capacity to spare. If your PSU is too small, then you will have problems when your power-hungry components attempt to draw too much.

It's important that you choose a high quality PSU because the voltages supplied by sub-par PSUs tend to fluctuate excessively (especially at or near their maximum rated capacity), leading to system instability. Some of the better brands are Antec, Enlight, Fortron, Sparkle, Enermax, and I'm sure there are other high-quality brands that aren't crossing my mind at the moment.

I personally run an Antec "Tru-Power" 330 watt PSU in my P4 (see "my system rig" in my signature file). I like the Tru-Power series because they keep their 2 built-in fans and your case fans running at a lowered voltage (there's a seperate molex connector for case fans only) unless a thermostat built in to the PSU senses that the case temp is high enough to require extra cooling. This keeps your case nice and quiet most of the time, yet the PSU won't let your case overheat either.

 

[Matthias99]

I'm sure there are other high-quality brands that aren't crossing my mind at the moment.

Seasonic is another good one -- there's a review of their 400W Super Tornado in the AT news today. They're nearly silent (they use one 120mm fan rather than 2 80mm ones like most high-wattage power supplies), have around 80% electrical efficiency, and temperature-controlled fans (besides just being rock-solid power supplies).

The Antec TruePower series is also really nice, though.

 

[ViRGE]

What card did you buy anyway? Sometimes when that kind of a message appears, it's because the card's secondary power connector isn't plugged in.

 

[mechBgon]

You'd better hope your Sony uses 1) a standard wiring pattern on the supposedly-ATX main plug, and 2) a standard ATX-spec physical size/shape of power supply, so you can screw it into place Good luck, at any rate.

(edit: and yeah, what the other guys said... pick a quality unit, and not just any 400-watt piece of junk you find at CompUSA. Antec is widely available and good quality, if you see one of them somewhere)