New PSU?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Derek Baker
  • Start date Start date
D

Derek Baker

I'm planning to upgrade my system:

Athlon XP 1800+ to Athlon 64 3400+
512Mb DDR266 to 1024MB DDR400
Radeon 8500 to Radeon X800Pro.

Other components are:

2x 80mm Case Fans
3x 7200rpm HDDs
1x CDRW
1x DVD-ROM
4xPCI cards

Currently this is running on an FSP-300-60BT.

I was wondering what kind of outputs you'd be looking at for the new system?


Thanks in advance
 
Derek Baker said:
I'm planning to upgrade my system:

Athlon XP 1800+ to Athlon 64 3400+
512Mb DDR266 to 1024MB DDR400
Radeon 8500 to Radeon X800Pro.

Other components are:

2x 80mm Case Fans
3x 7200rpm HDDs
1x CDRW
1x DVD-ROM
4xPCI cards

Currently this is running on an FSP-300-60BT.

I was wondering what kind of outputs you'd be looking at for the new system?


Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

You've got a lot of heavy power draws on that system. Try the following, if
you can find a supplier in the UK. -Dave

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-103-478&depa=0
 
I'm planning to upgrade my system:

Athlon XP 1800+ to Athlon 64 3400+
512Mb DDR266 to 1024MB DDR400
Radeon 8500 to Radeon X800Pro.

Other components are:

2x 80mm Case Fans
3x 7200rpm HDDs
1x CDRW
1x DVD-ROM
4xPCI cards

Currently this is running on an FSP-300-60BT.

I was wondering what kind of outputs you'd be looking at for the new system?


Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Dave C made a good suggestion though you don't really need 550W,
400W+ would be a good range though, and one issue with the higher
wattage Sparkle/Fortrons is that they don't have an air intake on
the bottom, so motherboard isn't cooled as effectively and CPU
heatsink may recirculate more of it's heated exhaust, reducing
effectiveness. Still you could do a lot worse than a
Sparkle/Forton, they are a very good value outside of that
bottom-intake issue. They do now make some higher wattage models
with bottom intake but I can't recommend them not having tested
one myself... odds are they're still same good quality Sparkle is
known for.

Another common/popular alternative is Antec Truepower, same
wattage range. You didn't mention your current motherboard but
playing the odds, your new system will be shifting more power
usage to the 12V rail, so a replacement PSU may not need 225W
combined 3V + 5V rating but it'd be good to have a minimum of 15A
on 12V rail... that is, 15A from a name-brand PSU manufacturer
that you can trust to provide accurate specs instead of a generic
gamble.
 
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

This suggests that you'd need more than 400W, depending on the PCI cards.

You might do well with an Antec PSU. I hope that they're not excessively
expensive in the UK.

(My own system contains a 430 W Thermaltake supply, which I found for about
$45US. You might wish for more margin, though - 480 is a common wattage.)

HTH.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be altered. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
Bob said:
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

This suggests that you'd need more than 400W, depending on the PCI
cards.

You might do well with an Antec PSU. I hope that they're not
excessively expensive in the UK.

(My own system contains a 430 W Thermaltake supply, which I found for
about $45US. You might wish for more margin, though - 480 is a common
wattage.)

HTH.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be altered. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
Click to expand...

Thanks Bob; I was looking for that siye yesterday and couldn't find it.
 
Another power supply calculator is available at http://takaman.jp, and
it doesn't overestimate power needs nearly as much as that one does.
It also gives amp estimates for each voltage rail, although I've found
that its +3.3V amp estimates are way too low.
 
Back
Top