Power Supply Question

[ohcireJ]

Hey everyone,

Got a new compy a little under a month ago, and earlier this week the power supply crapped out on me. Big scorchmark around one of the big white wires inside it... not a great sign

Anyway my friend Paul who built the thing for me (certified tech and all that jazz) put in a 300W he had extra until we can get in a replacement part. Some of my friends are freaking out telling me not to even turn the thing on until I get at least a 400W power supply put in.

Is that unreasonable? Seems a bit excessive since I'm running two drives (DVD burner/DVD reader) and just the one HD. The specs are as follows, if you're interested.

Pentium 4 2.4 C overclocked to 3.006 GHz, 1024 DDR RAM operating at 200 MHz I think (don't really know or care Paul knows a lot more about that stuff than me ), 120 GB hard drive, Radeon 9800 Pro, the afforementioned DVD duo, and to view it all a glorious 19" LCD... because who needs money anyway?

 

[Martin]

I suggest trying this first:

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

(Note that the processor power consumption may be a bit off, since it reflects the highest "C" stepping model, the 3.0-3.2, unless you decided to crank up its core voltage).

I've seen many who a supply less than what is determined on the site, without any issues, but it's always a good idea to leave some headroom.

But also, in this case, supply quality is a big issue; spend a little more on one that will be most likely less prone to early failure.

 

[ohcireJ]

The case came with 6x 80mm fans (half lighted... the pic only had one lit up it's a bit flashy for my tastes ) so that is pushing it barely past 350W (which was in there before and will be back in probably by mid week). Everything seems to be running decent with the 300W, which is cool. I'm not pushing it by leaving it running for days on end or anything, just in case ya know Have a horribly slow PC downstairs for the gruntwork ie. web browsing and whatnot!

Thanks for the help I might just disconnect the DVD burner since I won't be needing it for a few days anyway. Reducing ~25W might help keep things running smoothly until the new one arrives.

 

[ohcireJ]

Just to clarify, the power supply coming in is on warranty ie. free so it's no problem to get a new one some time afterwards

 

[Manix]

Hey I run the following on a 350w power supply no problem.

DVD Rom Drive
CD-RW Drive
1 12gb Bigfoot Harddrive (those are still around ?!)
1 20gb Maxtor Harddrive
2 60gb Exelstor Harddrives on RAID stripe 1 Array
Asus A7V8X Delux Mobo
AMD Athlon 2200+ Thuroughbred (still don't know how to spell it)
Geforce 2 MX 200 (can't find anything it won't run still)
Promise tx2 RAID Controller
PCI Wireless Adapter
6 Fans (1 being a Volcano 9 Supermod!)

 

[kboy]

Manix That PC's gotta be Borderline Dude

 

[ohcireJ]

If that hasn't exploded in your face yet then maybe I am worrying too much after all :amazed: