I have recently upgraded my cpu and motherboard to a Barton 3000+ and a K&VT6 with Raid.

the machine worked fine for several hours whilst I loaded XP and transferred my settings etc.

Then whilst on this forum machine down powered no real explanation, I tried the start button nothing I unplugged and plugged back in and it started fine. I checked the Bios and found the CPU temp was running at 52C I thought this may of been the reason and left the machine to cool.

I have since found 52c is quite normal and the max this cpu will take is 85c (not recomended).

I went to switch the machine on today and got no response at all again further investigation my psu had failed. I replaced it with a spare I had and an hour later this one failed too, the replacement was a cheap looking thing and only 300w alot lighter than the psu that came out(also 300w though), so I already had a mind that I would upgrade it anyway. The bit that concerns me is the fact that two psu's have failed on the same machine with only a few hours use on a new mboard. Could it be that they were both under rated for the new mboard and cpu or could there be something else causing them to fail.

Can anyone tell me for sure that my psu was under rated as the book has no recommendations on psu size.

300W is quite small today. I would say 350W is minimum and 400W recommended with 3GHz processors.

(of course power consuming is sum of all equipment used, but you rarely see PCI bus graphics driver with 3GHz Barton processor.. )

Edited October 23, 200421 yr by georgahti

upgrade the psu to a 550w Pete.

Thanks Georg and Breff anyone else agree?

Thanks Georg and Breff anyone else agree?

28764[/snapback]

I agree with breff if they just make 550W as bulk product..

Yup, 300w is far to strained.

Fourthded! Another case fan wouldn't go amiss if your doubling the size of the PSU.

I recently purchased a case (for an office machine) the box states 300w psu in big bold letters as if its a good thing?

My original PSU was also standard with my case but my case is a full size case not a midi again seems strange that 300w would be an a case with 5 ata bays 2cd bays and 3 floppys.

I am still concerned that if I replaced the psu again that the same thing will happen.

Pete

You can never have enough power.

Fact is that u need more than 300W. I suggest that you buy as big PSU you can find for reasonable price and that fits in to case instead the old one.

Check that case does get enough fresh air since 0,5kW is already quite much heat power as well..