Would a 250W PS be enough to run an Athlon system?

[Stylewar]

I dont have many peripherals, just my HDD, DVD, and Radeon 32MB DRR. The Athlon will be a 1 gig, running with a Taisol HSF. Think my PS is good enough?

 

[Animefreak]

depends on the quality of the PS, i use a antec 250 watt for an athlon system...no problems. It had a kt7, vid card, nic card, athlon 700, hd, DAQ card, and a mouse 🙂

 

[Noriaki]

If it's AMD certified then sure...if not maybe..

Athlon Classic .25um 550Mhz
Asus K7M
Alpha P7125
128MB RAM
IBM 75GXP 30Gig
Fujitsu 5400rpm
Pioneer 10x DVD
Yamaha 8x8 CDRW
Voodoo3-2000
SBLive! Value
Linksys Ethernet card
ATi TV-Wonder

I ran all this stuff off of a non-AMD certified 250watt PSU.
But as soon as I got my GFD and bumped up to 600Mhz I didn't have enough
(my GFD states that it requires a 300watt BTW)

Your 1Ghz athlon is .18um so would use much less power than a 1Ghz .25um (if such a beast existed) but I doubt it uses less than a 550 .25um...

You'd be pushing it I think....however, note that the Asus K7M puts quite a bit more strain on the +5V line than most mobos.

Just a side note: try it out, you can't hurt anything by not having enough juice, it will either not POST, or randomly reboot, but you can't fry anything AFAIK

 

[BigToque]

I've seen some 250W power supplys run an Athlon system just fine, others wont even post. I would get a well known 300W power supply to be safe. They dont cost much more and saves you some possible problems.

Morex(Sparkle) 300W are nice. I'm sure there are many others that you could get as well.

 

[AmdEmAll]

I agree with Stefan. I would get a 300watt...I have a Sparkle 300watt and its great.

 

[ToxicMussels]

NO!
If you are running an Athlon greater than 800 MHz, you must use a 300watt P/S. The 250 won't have enough current on the +5volts side for the Motherboard.

 

[S0me1X]

I have a 250w power supply, here is the rest of my system:
Duron @950
KT7 NonRaid
192 MB PC133 RAM
Maxtor 40GB 7200 rpm
WDigital 8GB 5400 rpm
8x4x32x Burner
3x 80mm Fans
1x 92mm Fan
Geforce MX

So, I think you can get by with 250w ps. At least worth a try if you have one at hand.

 

[TimeKeeper]

I am sure it can...

my wife's system
Antec 250Watt
D-700@900mhz@ 1.8V.
256MB RAM
1 SCSI HD (boot drive)
1 IDE HD
1 CD-ROM
1 CDRW
2 case fan.

However, I do suspect the reason that CPU can't go any higher (stable) even w/ 1.85V because of the PS?

 

[rhinox99]

<< If you are running an Athlon greater than 800 MHz, you must use a 300watt P/S. The 250 won't have enough current on the +5volts side for the Motherboard. >>


I'm not sure that's always true. I am able to run my classic athlon at 1gig and I have two hard drives, cd, cdr, bunch of fans, geforce, zip, etc....

It all depends on your power supply and system. There is no definite answer whether it will run or not. Just try it and be sure to check everything else such as seating the cpu, video card, memory before you replace your PS.

 

[gtd2000]

The problem is that the &quot;sticker&quot; on the PS which is often made in China or Taiwan often has no relation to the actual output of the PS..... 🙁
And that's directly from the PC shop owners here in Hong Kong..... 🙂
Get a 300 or even a 400W PS and there is no gaurantee it will be anymore than the 230W version you could get for 10 bucks... 🙂
AMD approved versions may help the chances. I have an AMD approved PS - however it was just one of the cheapos in the shop when my old one failed....lucky coincidence I guess.. I run a PIII though... 🙂

 

[Shudder]

If you're patient, you can always just try it. IF it doesn't work, get a new PS 🙂

I have a no-name PS that came with my case. 250w powering my Athlon slot 600mhz.

Though the DDR card might chew up some of that power.

 

[Whitedog]

+3.3 and +5 volt amperage rating must = 150 watts total... according to what someone told me. This is supposed to be AMD wisdom.

Most power supplies have that rating listed on it on the sticker.

 

[Sunner]

Im running my Duron@900 on a 230W PS(Enlight).
My comp is fairly stuffed.
CDROM and DVD ROM.
Hollywood+ card.
GF DDR(real powerhog)
34GXp HD
SBLive!
Two fans aside from the PS fan.

 

[formulav8]

I'm running my system on a cheapo 250w power supply