Thinking of upgrading but not sure about PSU

[ofn01]

I currently have the system listed at the bottom of this email
It has basically a 300W power supply, a prescott CPU, and a Radeon 9550SE

I want to upgrade to a 256Mb Abit 9600XT but I am concerned that maybe my
power supply is not up to it? It is a Fortron/FSP Group which I have read
are not too bad - but all the power calculators I use on the web seem to say
that you need around 300W and I am wondering if I should upgrade to an Antec
Trupower 380 just to be safe or whether the difference between the 9550SE
and the 9600XT power draw (they both do *not* need an extra power connector)
is small enough to not matter?

System spec:
128MB DDR Sapphire Radeon 9550SE graphics with TV-out & DVI (Catalyst 4.5)
Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz (1MB cache, 800FSB) with HT (Prescott)
MSI 865PE NEO-2 P MS-6728 Ver 2 (No D-bracket) 3.50 AMI BIOS
Nanya 2 x 256MB dual channel DDR RAM (PC3200) 400MHz
FSP Group FSP300-60PN 300W +3.3@28A, +5V@30A, +12V@18A,
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Western Digital 160GB 7200rpm hard drive with 8MB buffer
Sony DVD-ROM drive (16x)
Sony DW-D22A Dual-Layer IDE DVD+/-RW (black)
Windows XP Pro SP2
memtest86 1.27: 7.5 hour all tests no errors
speedfan 4.16: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

 

[DaveW]

You realistically need at LEAST the Antec True Power 430 Watt for all those
components in your system.

 

[ofn01]

You realistically need at LEAST the Antec True Power 430 Watt for all
those components in your system.

Cheers for the reply!

It all currently runs well with the 300W supply - ive memtested it and had
no problems playing games or leaving 3dMark running in a loop for an hour or
so.

Are you saying though that upgrading from the 9550SE (which has no fan) to a
9600 Pro or 9600 XT (which has a fan and presumably draws more power anyway)
would require upgrading the PSU from 300W to 430W or would you think the
300W is underpowered for the components in there already?

 

[Veritech]

Its "alot" of hassle just for a gfx card, i would say try the new xt see how
goes, and if the voltages look strange get the psu. But if budget isn't a
prob, then just get both to take that worry off your hands.

Although, you didn't ask for it, have you thought about getting a 9800,
shouldn't be much more expensive than the one you want, and the 256bit
memory will be more than worth it.

 

[Thomas]

You realistically need at LEAST the Antec True Power 430 Watt for all
those components in your system.

Oh come on... I'm all for being sure of yr PSU, but that is pure overkill
vor a system without SLI videocards... I am OC'ing a northwood quite far,
together with SCSI drives and an OC'd 9700. I am not even coming near the
limits of my Enermax 365....

Thomas

 

[ofn01]

Its "alot" of hassle just for a gfx card, i would say try the new xt see
how goes, and if the voltages look strange get the psu. But if budget
isn't a prob, then just get both to take that worry off your hands.

Although, you didn't ask for it, have you thought about getting a 9800,
shouldn't be much more expensive than the one you want, and the 256bit
memory will be more than worth it.

Budget isn't a huge constraint - though I won't want to go nuts.
I guess while I have built computers in the past and I am quite happy with
taking bits in and out - I just always *Worry* that something is going to
happen if I change something.

While a PSU change is pretty benign - I am slightly concerned that some
sites reckon your motherboard might need a BIOS upgrade to handle a new PSU
(not sure why), and at the moment this computer is actually running pretty
stable.

But I do want to upgrade the GFX card and if this computer had a PSU capable
of it I probably would consider the 9800. But I am probably happier to get
9600XT if the chances are that the 300W FSP Group PSU I have (which has 18
amps on the 12v rail) would be fine with it.

The problem is I can't find how much my Sapphire 9550SE draws and how much
an Abit 9600XT draws!