Enough power??

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DISK

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My system has a 350 watt PSU and I have the following components installed:

AMD Athlon XP 3000+
MSI K7N2 Delta-L
512MB DDR 2700 RAM
80GB WD hard drive
2 cdr drives
Radeon 9200 video card

I have 5 case fans and an aftermarket cpu heatsink/fan.

When looking at my system with Sandra or any other utility, it shows that the fan is running at a slow rate. It also shows that my cpu is running at a high temp, around 54 C at idle. I'm wondering if I don't have enough power to run all these fans and that is why it shows the fan is running slow. Would upgrading to a 400 watt PSU be wise at this point? Or should I switch to some kind of water cooling system? Any thoughts appreciated.
 
I have never actually tried water cooling but I heard it is difficult to install, and maintain. I would definatly recommend just ugrading your power supply. I doubt you really need 5 fans.

I think you may be sucking so much juice with all the fans they aren't running fast enough to cool the system.
 
anyone else have a thought on this?

Also, I am planning on upgrading my Radeon 9200 to either a 9600XT or a 9800 Pro soon. Since these are faster running, I'm assuming that they will cause more heat in my box, correct? How much extra heat will these cause compared to the current card?

What should I upgrade my PSU to? Currently at 350 watts. I don
t want to spend a lot of money on this, but I do want a reliable PSU and one that runs silent and cool. Any suggestions?

-Thanks
 
Case fans take like 1 watt, those are not your problem. if you look at all my specs, I have all of that running on 350 watts with 4 case fans. I think you are fine. Your heat issue is obviously something else. Case fans arnt going to cool a processor down much but rather just host a more suitible environment for all your other componants.
 
kboy, great link. That's really gonna help me out alot when I build a new system sometime this year.
 
dude, just leave your system as is.
54 degrees isn't that bad at all.
auto-shutdown for most systems is around 75 degrees, and the point at which your CPU begins to take damage is around 85
 
Zero Shift said:
dude, just leave your system as is.
54 degrees isn't that bad at all.
auto-shutdown for most systems is around 75 degrees, and the point at which your CPU begins to take damage is around 85

True, but its going to help the life of your processor by keeping it at a good temperature. Just because it can run at 70 degrees, doesnt mean you should do it. If you can get it down to the 40 range then you are running it at a good tempurature that doesnt cause much strain on the processor.
 
Your PSU is fine.....first off. I have water cooling in my box. Nothing extravagant, but it was the only way to keep my CPU cool enough to not shutdown since airflow through my case is really hampered by the amount of cabling I had to run. I also have 5 case fans, and 2 of my 3 IDE cables are round, but still too much heat. Expect to pay no less than $100 or so for a decent water cooling setup. They're no big deal. Cut the piping, install the radiator, but on the cpu block, fill the water tank. I managed to do it in about 2 hours with no directions (I was in Okinawa Japan at the time and all of the directions were in Japanese). If you have half a brain, it's no big deal.
 
Keep your PC as Cool as ya can!!! Like 36below says it will shorten the life of your Processor. Everybody does things a little different. I've had inadequate Power & heat issues before, They can get really annoying! They can cause all kinds of little issues that ya have a HARD Time Isolating Ya Know?;)
 
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