Do you think I'm capping my PSU out?

[Josh]

Here is my system spec:

Antec Neopower 480W PSU
Raidmax SMILODON case
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe WiFi edition
2 Gb DDR 800 Patriot Dual Channel 4-4-4-12 @ 2.2V
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.6Ghz @ 1.3V
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640Mb DDR3
Creative Audigy 2
2 x Maxtor 200 Gb SATA 1.5g/sec
1 x 120mm case fan
4 x 80mm case fan

Issues I currently have:

System randomly locks up at random points usually when the system is
idle.

System unreliably burns DVD+R discs (corrupt data) and will fail with
a "Power Calibration Error" on DVD-R discs. The DVD burner will
perform normally with a external adaptor with no issues.

 

[Josh]

Here is my system spec:

Antec Neopower 480W PSU
Raidmax SMILODON case
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe WiFi edition
2 Gb DDR 800 Patriot Dual Channel 4-4-4-12 @ 2.2V
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.6Ghz @ 1.3V
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640Mb DDR3
Creative Audigy 2
2 x Maxtor 200 Gb SATA 1.5g/sec
1 x 120mm case fan
4 x 80mm case fan

Issues I currently have:

System randomly locks up at random points usually when the system is
idle.

System unreliably burns DVD+R discs (corrupt data) and will fail with
a "Power Calibration Error" on DVD-R discs. The DVD burner will
perform normally with a external adaptor with no issues.

I also want to point out that the PSU is about a year and a half old
the previous configuration the PSU came out of is:

ASUS K8N-Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
1 Gb Kingston DDR 2700
ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB DDR2
2x Maxtor 200 GB SATA 1.5Gb/sec
Creative Audigy 2
5x 80mm Case fans.

The DVD burning issue was apparent before swapping the PSU to the new
system

 

[John Weiss]

I also want to point out that the PSU is about a year and a half old

The DVD burning issue was apparent before swapping the PSU to the new
system

It is possible the PSU does not have enough capacity on the 12V rail to
drive the video card. If so, that may impact any other device using the
12V rail. Check the specs for the PSU and the requirements of the video
card. If it appears marginal, find a new PSU that is designed for SLI,
which will have either dual 12V rails or a heavy-duty 12V rail.

 

[DaveW]

You need around a 650 Watt PSU to be comfortably handling the load. Antec
makes a great one that I use.

 

[SteveH]

I also want to point out that the PSU is about a year and a half old
the previous configuration the PSU came out of is:

ASUS K8N-Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
1 Gb Kingston DDR 2700
ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB DDR2
2x Maxtor 200 GB SATA 1.5Gb/sec
Creative Audigy 2
5x 80mm Case fans.

The DVD burning issue was apparent before swapping the PSU to the new
system

Temporarily pull out anything the PC doesn't /need/ in order to make it run
i.e. the sound card, optical device or one of your HDD's (assuming you're
not running Raid0) and see if gets any more stable. If it does, then the
problem is indeed likely to be the PSU not having enough grunt.
As you say you already had the DVD burning issue then I would look towards a
flaky drive or media incompatibility (flash the drive's firmware) or
possibly bad IDE cable.

SteveH

 

[FKS]

Here is my system spec:

Antec Neopower 480W PSU
Raidmax SMILODON case
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe WiFi edition
2 Gb DDR 800 Patriot Dual Channel 4-4-4-12 @ 2.2V
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.6Ghz @ 1.3V
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640Mb DDR3
Creative Audigy 2
2 x Maxtor 200 Gb SATA 1.5g/sec
1 x 120mm case fan
4 x 80mm case fan

I have a Zalman 450W PSU in a system that has:

E6400 C2D CPU w/ Zalman cooler
Intel BadAxe
2Gb DDR 800 mem
Sapphire X1950XT w/ Zalman cooler
Creative X-fi
3 x Seagate 160GB SATA
3 x 120 mm case fan
2 x Samsung DVD writer
5 x USB devices (all powered by the motherboard)

I have zero issues. According to PC power calculator, I need 350W. Nowadays
PC power requirement is overblown IMO. Unless your Antec has become faulty,
480W is more than enough.