300 Watts Powersupply for Athlon64 + Radeon 9800Pro?

[Opticreep]

I'm building a gaming computer with the following parts:

Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
Socket 754 Motherboard
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card
1 GB DDR RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
DVD/CDROM Drive
Audigy 2 ZS

plus the CPU fan, motherboard fan, the the fan for the power supply.


I already own a computer case with a *generic* 300W power supply.
When I upgrade my PC with the parts I listed above, will the 300-Watt
power supply suffice? Or would that be a very bad idea?

The saleslady at the PC store I visited insisted that I'll need a
350-Watt power supply to go with all the other things I bought. I
told her I already had a 300-Watt power supply at home.

 

[Andrew]

I already own a computer case with a *generic* 300W power supply.
When I upgrade my PC with the parts I listed above, will the 300-Watt
power supply suffice? Or would that be a very bad idea?

The trouble is that PSU's vary greatly in quality and output. You may
get away with your 300W supply and you could try it, but if you find
your PC is unstable then a PSU upgrade would be high on the list of
solutions.

 

[Mike Kirkland]

I'm building a gaming computer with the following parts:

Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
Socket 754 Motherboard
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card
1 GB DDR RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
DVD/CDROM Drive
Audigy 2 ZS

plus the CPU fan, motherboard fan, the the fan for the power supply.


I already own a computer case with a *generic* 300W power supply.
When I upgrade my PC with the parts I listed above, will the 300-Watt
power supply suffice? Or would that be a very bad idea?

The saleslady at the PC store I visited insisted that I'll need a
350-Watt power supply to go with all the other things I bought. I
told her I already had a 300-Watt power supply at home.

If it's just a cheap generic you may have issues with it. Only way to
find out is to try it, if you get powering up issues, reboots or
freezes go out and get yourself a decent 400w or higher. Something
like an Antec, Sparkle or Zalman PSU.

 

[Tom McEwan]

I'm building a gaming computer with the following parts:

Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
Socket 754 Motherboard
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card
1 GB DDR RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
DVD/CDROM Drive
Audigy 2 ZS

plus the CPU fan, motherboard fan, the the fan for the power supply.


I already own a computer case with a *generic* 300W power supply.
When I upgrade my PC with the parts I listed above, will the 300-Watt
power supply suffice? Or would that be a very bad idea?

The saleslady at the PC store I visited insisted that I'll need a
350-Watt power supply to go with all the other things I bought. I
told her I already had a 300-Watt power supply at home.

A word of warning - the last time I pushed my luck with a generic 300W PSU,
when it eventually did break down it destroyed the motherboard in the
process! Given that you're bound to eventually upgrade past the capacity of
your current supply at some point in the future, and that a reasonable
350-400w psu is cheaper than most new motherboards, I'd upgrade now and not
take the risk.

Tom

 

[Mr. Slow]

I'm building a gaming computer with the following parts:

Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
Socket 754 Motherboard
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card
1 GB DDR RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
DVD/CDROM Drive
Audigy 2 ZS

plus the CPU fan, motherboard fan, the the fan for the power supply.


I already own a computer case with a *generic* 300W power supply.
When I upgrade my PC with the parts I listed above, will the 300-Watt
power supply suffice? Or would that be a very bad idea?

The saleslady at the PC store I visited insisted that I'll need a
350-Watt power supply to go with all the other things I bought. I
told her I already had a 300-Watt power supply at home.

NEVER trust the advice of a salesman! They are paid to sell, so always make
independent enquiries! She may however be right, but the only way to find
out is to try it with the 300w PSU and replace it if need be.

 

[agh]

I'm building a gaming computer with the following parts:
Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
Socket 754 Motherboard
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card
1 GB DDR RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
DVD/CDROM Drive
Audigy 2 ZS
plus the CPU fan, motherboard fan, the the fan for the power supply.
I already own a computer case with a *generic* 300W power supply.
When I upgrade my PC with the parts I listed above, will the 300-Watt
power supply suffice? Or would that be a very bad idea?

That might be a bad idea. You probably have a $20 PSU which will power your
~$1000 configuration. You don't have to be drastic, branded 300W PSU would
be enough, you can take a 350W one just to have more spare room for future
upgrades (DVD-RW, more HDs, stronger CPU/GPU). Enermax, Antec or smth.

 

[agh]

Opticreep wrote:
NEVER trust the advice of a salesman! They are paid to sell, so always make
independent enquiries! She may however be right, but the only way to find
out is to try it with the 300w PSU and replace it if need be.

And risk that if it gets burned, it goes with a bigger bang?

 

[spodosaurus]

NEVER trust the advice of a salesman! They are paid to sell, so always make
independent enquiries! She may however be right, but the only way to find
out is to try it with the 300w PSU and replace it if need be.

*sigh* I'd like to make a comment about how crap your advice is, but I'm
just too apathetic right now. Piss off though, will you?

 

[DalienX]

I'm building a gaming computer with the following parts:

Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
Socket 754 Motherboard
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card
1 GB DDR RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
DVD/CDROM Drive
Audigy 2 ZS

since your spending all that money why not spend the extra 60 - 100
dollars and get a nice new case and power supply, then you wont have
anything to worry about.

 

[Sleepy]

I'm building a gaming computer with the following parts:

Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
Socket 754 Motherboard
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card
1 GB DDR RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
DVD/CDROM Drive
Audigy 2 ZS

plus the CPU fan, motherboard fan, the the fan for the power supply.


I already own a computer case with a *generic* 300W power supply.
When I upgrade my PC with the parts I listed above, will the 300-Watt
power supply suffice? Or would that be a very bad idea?

The saleslady at the PC store I visited insisted that I'll need a
350-Watt power supply to go with all the other things I bought. I
told her I already had a 300-Watt power supply at home.

The last PSU I had was a generic 400watt unit that ran a XP2400
with 512mb sdram and geforce4 plus 2 Hdds and DVD and CDRW.
It lasted 12 months and when it died it took the Mobo and Ram with it.
Now I use a decent branded 450watt model for the same setup except
its a Radeon 9700 instead of the GF4. My advice should be obvious ...

 

[faster_framerates]

I already own a computer case with a *generic* 300W power supply.

When I upgrade my PC with the parts I listed above, will the 300-Watt
power supply suffice? Or would that be a very bad idea?

I just bought a Thermaltake 410W PS from NewEgg this past summer and I
highly recommend their products. I also have one of their CPU fans and an
extra case fan.

My standard 300W PS in my Inwin case (Powerman, IIRMC) just wasn't cutting
it anymore. My system would reboot out of the blue, especially in
processor-intensive situations. I had seen and heard enough horror stories
to make the upgrade and get a decent PS. Been stable ever since.

My 2¢,

f_f

 

[John Hall]

And don't forget a good surge protector, and if you can afford it, a UPS by
APC or other good brand. So many flakey computer problems are caused by
degradation of electronic components due to power spikes and fluctuations.

JK

 

[Toshi1873]

NEVER trust the advice of a salesman! They are paid to sell, so always make
independent enquiries! She may however be right, but the only way to find
out is to try it with the 300w PSU and replace it if need be.

As opposed to asking complete strangers here on USENET?
(j/k... kinda)

To answer the O.P., getting a new power supply from a
reputable vendor (Zalman, Antec, and a few others) is
always a good idea. Especially if you get one with the
side intake fan to help pull heat away from the CPU area
and out the back of the unit.

 

[Opticreep]

since your spending all that money why not spend the extra 60 - 100
dollars and get a nice new case and power supply, then you wont have
anything to worry about.

Because for that extra 60-100 dollars, I could've just gone with an
Athlon 64 3400+ instead of Athlon 64 3000+. So I just want to be
really, really sure that I'd need a 350 Power Supply before I buy one.
Especially since my system doesn't have all that many components (no
floppies, zip drives, and not secondary CD Drives or secondary Hard
drives)

 

[DaveW]

300 "generic" watts is actually far less than 300 watts into a real world
load at the computer's operating temperature. Time to upgrade your PSU.

 

[Fitz]

I wouldn't take the chance on a generic power supply to run the system
you're building. I'm running an AMD64 3200+ system, and just the RAM is
worth over twice as much as the Antec TruPower 430W ps I installed.

With the first snowfall of this year, we've had power surges, brown outs,
and hours of full outages over the past 3 days. The CyberPower UPS has done
it's job admirably, providing backup power and running the computer through
the shutdown sequence when needed. I'll never go without one.

Fitz

 

[Xocyll]

As opposed to asking complete strangers here on USENET?
(j/k... kinda)

The difference is that random strangers on Usenet aren't getting a
commission for convincing you that you need product X, the salesperson
is/might be.

Salespeople can and do lie to sell products, for the simple reason that
they don't make any money if they don't sell things.

That's the big downside of having salespeople on commission only.

Xocyll

 

[Tom McEwan]

Salespeople can and do lie to sell products, for the simple reason that
they don't make any money if they don't sell things.

My favourite lately is when they try to sell you expensive
precision-machined cables and conenctors for digital TV/radio receivers,
when half the point of digital receivers is you don't need such a great
signal for them to work properly.

 

[walter mitty]

My favourite lately is when they try to sell you expensive
precision-machined cables and conenctors for digital TV/radio receivers,
when half the point of digital receivers is you don't need such a great
signal for them to work properly.

Yes you do. If the digital signal goes haywire you'll get nothing - with
an analog at least you'll get a noisy signal approximating the original.
Sky digital is a bloody nightmare if a drop of water gets in the LNB or
the weather conditions are truly awful : whole box just freezes. Give me
analog anyday.

 

[larrymoencurly]

I'm building a gaming computer with the following parts:

Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card
80 GB Hard Drive
DVD/CDROM Drive

I already own a computer case with a *generic* 300W power supply.

The saleslady at the PC store I visited insisted that I'll need a
350-Watt power supply to go with all the other things I bought. I
told her I already had a 300-Watt power supply at home.

1. What brand is your generic? You can find the manufacturer by
taking the UL ("RU" symbol) or CSA registration numbers from the label
and going to www.ul.com and www.csa.com to look them up. The UL
number is Exxxxxx, the CSA number Lxxxxxx.

2. What brand does the saleslady want you to buy?

http://takaman.jp has the best power needs estimator I've seen, and
unlike most others it gives not just the total wattage but also the
amps needed from each voltage rail. For a system similar to yours,
only with a Radeon 9700 (no 9800 listed), it says you need about 256W:
14.3A @ +5V, 13.8V @ +12V, and 2.4A @ +3.3V. However, I've found
that this estimator grossly understates the +3.3V needs, often by a
factor of three, whether the mobo uses the 4-pin ATX12V connector or
not. C'T magazine measured 8.6-12A @ +3.3V for XP2400+ systems
equipped with NVidia Ti500 graphics cards, and even my 1.6 GHz AMD
Duron measured about 5A. So compensate for Takaman's error by adding
about 30W to the power total.

I strongly agree with what others have said about claimed ratings
being inaccurate because I had the world's worst 250W PSU (PC Power &
Cooling used the 300W version as an example of how bad a PSU could
be), and it wouldn't run a 1.3 GHz Duron and low-power graphics card
(nothing else) for more than thirty seconds at a time, although it was
able to run a 1.7 GHz Celeron with the same graphics and a CD-ROM and
5400 RPM HD. OTOH one person said that his 250W Fortron/Sparkle (top
quality brand) ran something like an XP2400+ Athlon with fairly fast
graphics card, CD burner, DVD drive (can't remember if it was a
burner), and 1-2 7200 RPM HDs.