Strong Enough Power Supply?

Da Mail Man

Da Mail Man

Active Member
greetings,

i have a biostar mother board and took a 3.6 processor and using the clock speed, bumped it up a bit to just under 4.0ghz speed.

my question is; i have a 400 watt power supply. will that be sufficient? using xp pro, 2 burners, a couple of case fans and don't do any gaming.....also 1.0gb ddr ram........thanks!
 
StrangleHold said:
Depends on what 400w P/S it is, name and model. And what video card your running.
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...thanks for the reply...it is a "generic" powermax...as i see it, power is power (yeah, i know there may be differences in regulation and filtering) however, is 400-w enough?
 
Da Mail Man said:
...thanks for the reply...it is a "generic" powermax...as i see it, power is power (yeah, i know there may be differences in regulation and filtering) however, is 400-w enough?
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And differences as to whether it can actually put out its rated power (at above freezing temperatures for more than 1 second :)). The rail distribution is particularly important, though. Powmax and other budget PSUs typically have very small +12V rails, which is where a modern system draws the vast majority of its power from.

As Stranglehold has said, your video card may add to your total power draw significantly, and it's important to know what it is. I wouldn't trust a Powmax PSU for any system I really cared about, though.
 
ceewi1 said:
And differences as to whether it can actually put out its rated power (at above freezing temperatures for more than 1 second :)). The rail distribution is particularly important, though. Powmax and other budget PSUs typically have very small +12V rails, which is where a modern system draws the vast majority of its power from.

As Stranglehold has said, your video card may add to your total power draw significantly, and it's important to know what it is. I wouldn't trust a Powmax PSU for any system I really cared about, though.
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..thanks for the reply however, that still doesn't realy answer my question i suppose. as far as the video card goes, i am currently using the "on-board" system although, i have another that i have not installed. so, again, REGARDLESS of the manufacturer, my question still stands as to if a (or any) 400 watt power suppy will be ok for the aforementioned system?
 
Yeah 400w would be enough, the question is does the Powmax (really) put out that much and how much amps it has on the 12V
 
StrangleHold said:
Yeah 400w would be enough, the question is does the Powmax (really) put out that much and how much amps it has on the 12V
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thanks for the reply....am letting the system idle for part of the day just to monitor temps and so far the system idles at a 97*f cpu temp.....as far as the amps on the 12v side, i will check and get back to you...what should they be?
 
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Well if its a dual rail, at least 16 on each rail, if its a single rail no less than about 25 amps. I dont like Powmax but if you have it running and it doing ok I would not worry about it. The only bad thing is if they go south they can take out more than there self! Just start looking for a better one.
 
StrangleHold said:
Well if its a dual rail, at least 16 on each rail, if its a single rail no less than about 25 amps. I dont like Powmax but if you have it running and it doing ok I would not worry about it. The only bad thing is if they go south they can take out more than there self! Just start looking for a better one.
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...the figures are as exactly as you state them on the supply....thanks!
 
Da Mail Man said:
greetings,

i have a biostar mother board and took a 3.6 processor and using the clock speed, bumped it up a bit to just under 4.0ghz speed.

my question is; i have a 400 watt power supply. will that be sufficient? using xp pro, 2 burners, a couple of case fans and don't do any gaming.....also 1.0gb ddr ram........thanks!
Click to expand...

You already overclocked, so why don't you just see if it works? If it's not restarting or performing badly, then it should be fine (mostly).
 
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