PSU question...

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RJK

Hi, I'm really out of date with hardware !

I'm about to cobble together an 865PE motherboard with a Pentium D925 on it,
....motherboard has a AGP slot so that I can use my old graphics card,
.....Antec PSU I've been ogling has a 6 pin pci-e supply, does that just
dangle unused (alright then "gets tied up":-)
http://www.antec.com/uk/productDetails.php?ProdID=04644
In other words, will PSU be okay if that 6 pin power supply is unused, just
like one can tie-up the 4 pin cpu power supply if not used on older
boards/cpu's that don't need it 4pin power.

regards, Richard
 
Yes, it's there in case you need it. With a PSU it's always better to have
more than less.
 
RJK said:
Hi, I'm really out of date with hardware !

I'm about to cobble together an 865PE motherboard with a Pentium D925 on it,
...motherboard has a AGP slot so that I can use my old graphics card,
....Antec PSU I've been ogling has a 6 pin pci-e supply, does that just dangle
unused (alright then "gets tied up":-)
http://www.antec.com/uk/productDetails.php?ProdID=04644
In other words, will PSU be okay if that 6 pin power supply is unused, just like
one can tie-up the 4 pin cpu power supply if not used on older boards/cpu's that
don't need it 4pin power.

regards, Richard
Click to expand...

The PCI-E is used for PCI Express Graphics and does not need to be connected if you
aren't going to utilize PCI Express.

For info on it, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci-e

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
 
RJK said:
Hi, I'm really out of date with hardware !

I'm about to cobble together an 865PE motherboard with a Pentium D925 on
it,
...motherboard has a AGP slot so that I can use my old graphics card,
....Antec PSU I've been ogling has a 6 pin pci-e supply, does that just
dangle unused (alright then "gets tied up":-)
http://www.antec.com/uk/productDetails.php?ProdID=04644
In other words, will PSU be okay if that 6 pin power supply is unused,
just like one can tie-up the 4 pin cpu power supply if not used on older
boards/cpu's that don't need it 4pin power.

regards, Richard
Click to expand...

Odd my 865PE chipset motherboard uses the 4 pin type "extra" cable, connects
to motherboard. I do use an Antec, just not that model.

AGP 4X is slowest AGP it will do. Slower AGP won't work on mine.

Dual core Pentiums won't work with that chipset.

If I didn't know any better, I'd think the whole post is a ruse. Don't
bother replying, I won't believe a word you're saying.
Dave
 
....cough! I don't know why you think my post is a "ruse," ....suspect you
don't know what you're talking about, and I hope you're wrong ! ....I've
already ordered motherboard and Pentium D925 cpu. Motherboard specs. say
that it supports Pentium D's ! ...and quadcore Kentsfield's !!!

It was just that I got fed up trawling through psu information and, whilst I
knew that, (for most psu's), the 4 pin cpu connecter doesn't have to be
under load, I couldn't pin down any information about 6 pin pci-e
connecters. I suspected that they don't have to under load but, wanted to
be sure.

regards, Richard
 
PSU wattage ???
Have trawled through site after site, tried several different "wattage
calculators" that give wildly different figures, seemingly because they want
you to click on a "buy a psu here" link !!

Anyhooo! ...can someone give me a more accurate idea for watts, for ordinary
desktop midi-tower innards as follows. (I know that if one goes too "cheap"
one could end up with a 250watt psu badged as a 500watt etc. so I'll
probably buy and ANTEC.),
....and I most likely will want to add an IDE pci card and another IDE hd, at
a later date.

ATX Conroe865PE motherboard with Realtek LAN and sound on it.
Pentium D925 (2x3ghz - 2x2mb L2 cache)
3 sticks of DDR400
Nvidia 6200 AGP card
pci - Creative SB Audigy 2
pci - Intel K56 flex. data/fax/voice modem, (I think that's still in there!)
2 x 7200 IDE hd's
1 x floppy drive
4 x 80mm fans
1 x dvd r/w drive
1 x cd r/w drive
Occasionally, I plug in my old Canoscan N650OU scanner (UBS powered),

....and of course, some extra capacity but, not too much !!!

TIA, regards,

Richard
 
I am using a BFG 550 ( http://www.bfgtech.com/ ).
I have 4 hard drives, DVD-ROM,DVD-RW, Nvidia 7800 AGP.
PCI- Modem, IDE Card, USB2 card, Audigy 2 with front panel box.
Memory is 4 sticks of Rambus PC800.
4 fans also.
Have no power issues at all. There are plenty of connectors and its quiet.
 
Richard:
Don't get too caught up in this wattage business. You've got a relatively
modest system (even if & when you'll need "extra capacity") so I would think
a 400W+ PSU from one of the usually reliable sources, e.g., Antec, Enermax,
Fortron, Seasonic, etc., should serve you well. Your cost should be well
under $100. Why don't you simply access Newegg's site and see their
offerings together with user comments? And there are a slew of websites that
devote themselves entirely or partly to reporting & testing power supplies.

BTW, you don't mention your current PSU. Is there some problem with your
current unit or you have some suspicion that it's not functioning properly?
Anna
 
Thanks Anna,

No problems atm, ..am planning on cobbling together new, (out of "older
generation / cheaper" parts - already ordered cpu & mobo - might try and
make use of Dads' previous midi/ATX PC case - no 12v 4pin on its' psu
though), PC at my leisure, then eeeeeeveeeeeeeentually move over to it.
....My old faithful under the bench is a 6+ years, and more, old Lian-Li case
with a cheap Q-TEC 550watt <lol> / Socket A PCchips M848A(lr?)/XP2600
Barton/768mb pc2700 166mhz/DDR333/ 2x80gb 6Y080L0 Maxtors / Liteon
LH-20A1P-10C 20x dvd-rewriter (treated it yesterday) / oldish LG 16x10x40
cd r/w ...and it's a HONEY / solid as a rock. Daren't upset it ! ...so
for lots of obvous reasons, I'll spsend the extra money and eventually build
a whole new one, get it installed, and iron out any problems, and after
several months hoping to duplicate my XP Home and apps. platform, I could
then move to it :-) ...Tweaking up XP is the hard / long winded part !

Have been reading newegg and Tomshardware PSU reviews (Fortron/Seasonic
:-), and lots of others.
After lots of reading wildly differing opinions, I was beginning to suspect
that something around 400 quality watts would do, then there's the
consideration that even quite high quality psu's perform more stably at
their "middle" loading range.
I've been eyeing up the Seasonics at my favourite hardware vendor :-)

.....thanks again,

regards, Richard
 
It depends on the specifics of your system configuration and intended usage.
Upgrading the video card has typically been the biggest consideration in PSU
power requirements. At one point in the recent past video card power
requirements jumped from the <20watt range up to potentially over 60watts
for some high end models. Video cards without a secondary power connector
can't draw more than the bus limitation, something around 40watts IIRC.

My P4 Media Center (Radeon x600 PCIe video) came with a 350watt PSU.
Internally it is still the stock configuration (1Gig Ram, 300Gig SATA, DVD
burner and DVDrom yada yada) With a USB wireless adapter added and external
USB harddrive running the idle load on the UPS is less than 170Watts.
Without the external drive or monitor running, the idle load from just the
computer, wireless KB-Mouse, IR controller and USB WiFi is only between 112
and 125 watts. Turning on the webcam bumps that up another 20 watts or so.
Even with a second external drive connected I haven't had the system do
anything that ever drove the average power load above 250 watts for more
than a few moments.
 
Arrgh! 8 day old thread.

RalfG said:
It depends on the specifics of your system configuration and intended
usage. Upgrading the video card has typically been the biggest
consideration in PSU power requirements. At one point in the recent past
video card power requirements jumped from the <20watt range up to
potentially over 60watts for some high end models. Video cards without a
secondary power connector can't draw more than the bus limitation,
something around 40watts IIRC.

My P4 Media Center (Radeon x600 PCIe video) came with a 350watt PSU.
Internally it is still the stock configuration (1Gig Ram, 300Gig SATA, DVD
burner and DVDrom yada yada) With a USB wireless adapter added and
external USB harddrive running the idle load on the UPS is less than
170Watts. Without the external drive or monitor running, the idle load
from just the computer, wireless KB-Mouse, IR controller and USB WiFi is
only between 112 and 125 watts. Turning on the webcam bumps that up
another 20 watts or so. Even with a second external drive connected I
haven't had the system do anything that ever drove the average power load
above 250 watts for more than a few moments.
Click to expand...
 
.... thanks for that :-)
....and I always seem to keep half an eye on my old threads :-)
....built the thing now but, it's just sat there looking pretty and doing
nothing, I now have to try and move over to it, if you see what I mean !
....I ended up putting a Seasonic 430w S12 in it, when most probably the
380watt would have done, ...still it's pretty, and black ...and I suppose I
could take the cover off the case now and again and look at it !

best regards, Richard
 
....AND the vendor sent me a P935, perhaps they had run out of P925's, so
they "upgraded" my order for free. I had my heart set on the 2x3ghz cpu,
and had ended up with a 2x3.2ghz cpu, ...perhaps I should be pleased !

....and the peculiar thing is that, whilst quite responsive - and dual
channel / memory bank / page interleave is working - the thing doesn't seem
all that much faster than my old XP2600 Barton on a PcChips M848A "non" dual
channel board !

regards, Richard
 
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