PC Peripherals Power supply questions

A

Amol

Adept
I am currently using a 300 W frontech PSU and as i checked out from the backside of the PSU, it provides 12A on the +12 V rail. Is that enough ? i am currently running my AMD 64 system @ 2.4 ghz. The strange thing, i realised that AMD recommends at least 350 W of PSU power. I am running this PSU since the last 3 months, and it never crashed..etc..running stable as a rock. Any ideas on what to look for in a PSU ? or do i need to change this soon ?

Thanks for any feedback.
 
Check your voltages on 12V,5V and 3.3V lines. If they are within +/- 5%, then its okay else get the psu changed. Check in the bios or with a multimeter if possible. Software generally is not that reliable.
 
Voltages under load are much more important. Try out a prog like Prime95 to really stress your CPU and then watch your voltage rails to determine if its upto the task or not.

Since you own an Asus board , i'm guessing you use Asus Probe. It should be good enough to get a fair idea on your voltage readings. If you need accurate & reliable readings, a DMM would be needed :)
 
it provides 12A on the +12 V rail. Is that enough ?
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I think the AMD CPU does not draw current from the 12V rail in contrast to Intel CPU's

I had a similar system with a P4 3.0 and it was slightly unstable. Changed Cabinet and SMPS to a 12V 16A 350W - now it's much better.
Can someone plz recommend a not so expensive power supply..for 3.0CPU+ 915G chipset board + 160GB SATA +19" LCD + 1 DVDRw. Don't have a Gfx card and no plans to get one.. or upgrade the current rig.

Will 350W be enough for this setup.. Should i go for 400W or higher.. Don't want to go too high since i have an APC 500va for backup and with a higher PSU the backup time might be screwed.

One small thing- does using a higher rated or better PSU improve(cool) the system(CPU to be more specific) tempratures?

Thanks,
 
^^ that was the case with AthlonXP. A64s draw current from the 12V rails.....

go for a powersafe 400W. will cost ~1.6K, but well worth that money :)
 
go for a powersafe 400W. will cost ~1.6K, but well worth that money
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Thanks for the reply.

I have heard that this SMPS does not have a SATA connector. Is that true?

I have a 160GB seagate SATA as of now...and thinking of adding a another Hitachi 160GB. Will this SMPS support it?
 
it should..BTW i think u get the SATA power cable free with every HDD.....

ofcourse, native sata power cables would be preferable,,but nothing in this range has it :(
 
imjimmy said:
Will 350W be enough for this setup.. Should i go for 400W or higher.. Don't want to go too high since i have an APC 500va for backup and with a higher PSU the backup time might be screwed.
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There's no harm in going for a higher rated PSU. As with any Switching Mode PSU, the PSU automatically adjusts itself to draw only the power it needs. If you even use an 800W PSU and your system requirements are lower - say 200W, your PSU will only utilise 200W of power and not the entire 800W it is rated at. So there should be no difference in your backup time.
imjimmy said:
One small thing- does using a higher rated or better PSU improve(cool) the system(CPU to be more specific) tempratures?
Click to expand...
There might be a difference, though i'm not sure how significant it would be. When using a higher rated PSU is, it can work at a much lower capacity than what it is rated at and hence its components arent stressed as much resulting in lower heat generated by them. Since a PSU is an integral part of your cabinet , its lower heat generation will accordingly result in lower heat being produced in the cabinet. Another important point is the PSU lies just above the CPU's heatsink in most cabinets, so in a way it helps in absorbing heat put out by the heatsink to the outside of the cabinet. So the cooler it is, the more effective it could be in drawing heat away.
 
There's no harm in going for a higher rated PSU. As with any Switching Mode PSU, the PSU automatically adjusts itself to draw only the power it needs. If you even use an 800W PSU and your system requirements are lower - say 200W, your PSU will only utilise 200W of power and not the entire 800W it is rated at. So there should be no difference in your backup time.
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Thanks for the info. THis was information to me. Always thought that a higher rated PSU might draw more power.
So narrowed down my choices to 2 PSU's in my range.

ColorsIT SMPS 450W reviewed by Undertaker here:

http://www.techenclave.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3492&page=1&pp=10
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Has a 12V 19A rating which seems very good.
The other one is Powersafe SMPS 400W.

Which one of these 2 do you think is better.

Powersafe SMPS is not available in Delhi. However i am travelling to Bangalore in a week and can pick it up from there.
Can anyone please give the specs of this PSU - could not find it anywhere.

BTW right now i am using the generic PSU of the iball 531 Grantsdale Cabinet which is rated at 350W. Had no probs till now but still think it would be good to upgrade.

Hopefully someone here can help me make a choice between the 2 soon.

Thanks,
 
My vote would be with the Powersafe 400W. I personally use it, it has decent build quality and is also used by many members out here :)
As per specs, mine is a 24-pin version so it varies a tiny bit from the standard 20-pin 400W powersafe, if i'm not mistaken the standard version has 17A on the 12v rail.

An interesting point w.r.t SATA power connectors - the SATA power connector is designed to supply power from the 12v, 5v and 3.3v lines. However the Molex to SATA power connector which is commonly used instead of native SATA connectors, provides power only from 12v and 5v lines since they are the only voltages available on a molex connector.
Most people get Molex to SATA power connectors with their SATA Hard disks or SATA enabled motherboards and use them with their SATA disks (me included) with no problems though.
 
Another question

I contacted kunhar at the ahmedabad centre, they quoted me Rs 1100 for the 350 w powersafe SMPS. I really dont have the 1.8 k to spare for the 400 W one.

My config is as given in the sig, running 1 hard drive, 1 dvd drive, 1 cdrw and 9700 pro. And would o/c the system too. My question is , is 350 W good enough ?
 
Another question

I contacted kunhar at the ahmedabad centre, they quoted me Rs 1100 for the 350 w powersafe SMPS. I really dont have the 1.8 k to spare for the 400 W one.

My config is as given in the sig, running 1 hard drive, 1 dvd drive, 1 cdrw and 9700 pro. And would o/c the system too. My question is , is 350 W good enough ?

I guess no one read the question asked in the earlier question. So i guessed i should put up another thread.
 
Cud u check the current ratings on 3.3V, 5V and 12V rail on the PSU and post here? That wud give a better idea to compare the 400W with 350W.

For ur rig, 350W shud be enough, but like always having more doesnt hurt. Also, If i am not mistaken, the 400W comes with 24-pin ATX connector which will be useful if u upgrade in future. ;)
 
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