Guest Peter James Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 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.. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breff Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 upgrade the psu to a 550w Pete. The opinions I express are mine and are usually correct! (Except when I'm wrong)(which I'm not) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peter James Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 Thanks Georg and Breff anyone else agree? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 Thanks Georg and Breff anyone else agree? 28764[/snapback] I agree with breff if they just make 550W as bulk product.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norman Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 Yup, 300w is far to strained. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 Fourthded! Another case fan wouldn't go amiss if your doubling the size of the PSU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peter James Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norman Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 You can never have enough power. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 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.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j.paul Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 http://www.directron.com/psu.html http://firingsquad.com/guides/power_supply/page2.asp There are no stupid questions, but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breff Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 check out www.autdirect.co.uk ,550w psu=£24.99 The opinions I express are mine and are usually correct! (Except when I'm wrong)(which I'm not) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 check out www.autdirect.co.uk ,550w psu=£24.99 28781[/snapback] this ain't bad at all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peter James Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 Ok Im convinced that the problem is the psu was under rated I will purchase a good quality 550w psu on Monday. Thanks for your input (excuse the pun) Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 pun? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dale Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 When something is funny and its not meant to be... ie Pete was talking about "input" given from people on the forum, but this also is the same word that is used to mean input for the PSU (of which the input to the mainboard is not powerful enough...) hence it becomes a little joke through the use of the meaning of the words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 When something is funny and its not meant to be... ie Pete was talking about "input" given from people on the forum, but this also is the same word that is used to mean input for the PSU (of which the input to the mainboard is not powerful enough...) hence it becomes a little joke through the use of the meaning of the words. 28855[/snapback] got it. had to read twice thou!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Fox UK Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 At least 450w is required for optimum performance and stability of the higher end processors of today. When you start adding stuff such as Platinum Creative soundcards, tons of hard drives and a Gaphics Card that costs just as much as the computer itsself is when you need something like a 550w. However, im sure that the PSU would not just "go", as the computer would be able to cope, just struggle with a 300w PSU. www.ebuyer.co.uk would be thebest place to get them from if its not urgent. Red Fox | Hosting Affordable and Reliable UK Based Web Hosting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dale Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 I dunno Warren... ive had a AMD sempron 2800 with a 300watt power supply and it looked like it was going to boot as the fans came on and the hard disks started, but u know something aint quite right when the mandatory "beep" is muffled and slow.... seems there wasnt enough power to boot the 128mb graphics card and 3 peripherals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dale Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 Quick point to note about ebuer... great company (and based in Sheffield...yay!!!) but they no longer have telephone support so if there is something wrong you have to use their online RMA process, which is annoying and slow to say the least! Also they cant ever seem to get anything out next day, even if you pay the extra they really struggle. But saying that they are now the biggest online computing supplier in the country and they are very cheap... Also you will notice that you get european power supplies with almost everything you purchase... god knows why... 99% of the time this aint an issue as UK IEC leads are about £1, although when you get transformers with europlugs on its extremely annoying and all ebuyer do is tell you to contact the manufacturer! <<Rant over>> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 Quick point to note about ebuer... great company (and based in Sheffield...yay!!!) but they no longer have telephone support so if there is something wrong you have to use their online RMA process, 28867[/snapback] You noticed too! I wanted to ask a couple of simple questions and it took me nearly a week to get a response. By the time they answered one of the products in question had been discontinued. Also you will notice that you get european power supplies with almost everything you purchase... 28867[/snapback] Until you mentioned it I never really noticed, thinking back though you're absolutely right. Luckily I've got a bottomless box of IEC leads in the back of the van! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 A decent 300W PSU will run most basic systems, CPU, Mobo, HDD, Disk drive, gfx card. A £10 PSU 300W PSU is more likely to cause instability and could damage components. Personally I'd say get a 450W PSU minimum at a good weight, I think £40 is reasonable. Although you say your CPU is running at 52 C degrees this is likely to be the reading off the cpu thermistor, located either to the side of the cpu or underneath the cpu, then you are relying on the fact that the bios is giving you the correct reading. It does sound like you could have a problem with your thermal paste/pad between CPU and Heatsink, too much paste is as bad as too little, can you give a little more detail about this. To check the stability of your hardware you could use 95prime, using the torture test, or you could use SETI both these will put a constant load on the cpu and if you have monitoring tools from windows you can watch whats happening. Then you could replace your CPU fan with a water cooler block Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norman Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 Or you could cool it with one of these. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Fox UK Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 Or you could cool it with one of these. 28945[/snapback] Brilliant!!! Does it cool your beers? Red Fox | Hosting Affordable and Reliable UK Based Web Hosting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellman Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 Brilliant!!! Does it cool your beers? 29138[/snapback] nope, it heats the liquid in the pipes via thermal transfer from the cpu heatsink, perhaps Georg could make use of it to warm his beer up Regards Bellman Service Engineer and all round nice bloke ) The views above are mine and NOT those of my employer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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