Geforce4 TI and 300watt PS

[Windfire]

Hi. I noticed the spec requirements for a Geforce4 TI board is a 300watt power supply.

My question: Is this really necessary? My new P4 2GHz Gateway only has a 250watt power supply. Is this okay? How many PCs do they really expect to have 300 watt power supplies?

It would seem you would only really need that much power if you had a box that was just loaded with devices.

Any comments welcome.

 

[LittlePenny]

With a smaller power supply you are more likely to have irregular current flow during high stress situations.

 

[Windfire]

Yes, that is a possiblity.

However, does anyone have any practical experience with this? We all know that engineering and marketing like to create buffers if only to reduce the chance of problems--even if remotely.

I'm trying to get a feeling if this issue is a real problem, or only an academic one.

I've been pricing power supplies, and generic 300watt power supplies are under $50. At PC Power & Cooling (http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/power_supplies/index_p4.htm) they have a nice quiet 400 watt power supply for $169. That is what I would like but I don't want to spend the money.

 

[ben6]

I've been running a Ti4600 under pretty heavy loads on a 300W PSU (2 HDDs, Athlon 1800+ XP , nForce, CDRW, DVROM ) without issue. I would recommend the best PSU you can buy if you're getting a 4600, but I haven't had any issues...

 

[V3]

You might as well go for bigger PSU than 300W, but 250W PSU, you might get blue screen alot under Windows.

 

[Windfire]

Ironicaly, my P4 is in the shop because the power supply failed. The new one will be 250 watts!

In the mean time I installed the Leadtek TI4400 in my older P3 866 that has a 250 watt power supply. It has 256MB CAS2 Mushkin, 2 HDs (both 40GB), 2 CD ROM drives and so forth.

No problems. Of course, I've only tried it for 30 minutes or so.

I'm going to give it a try with my P4 and see if I have any stability problems. I have a feeling that I won't.

FYI, here are some 3DMark 2000SE scores comparing a Geforce2 MX400 w/64MB to my new TI4400 on my P3 866.

3DMark: 2447 / 6829
Fill Rate (single): 169 / 930.8
Fill Rate (multi): 330.5 / 2098
Dot3 Bump: 24.3fps / 133.7fps

 

[Pete]

they have a nice quiet 400 watt power supply for $169.

That kind of money will net you a brand new Antec SX1080 case with a PSU thrown in for free. If you end up needing a new PSU, buy something under $50, probably an Antec from Buy.com for ~$40 (it's been a while since I've checked prices, though).

 

[tkopp]

Doesn't Gateway use nonstandard power supplies and motherboards? Swapping out another power supply may not work. And theirs might not be as weak as a standard 250w power supply.

 

[tb]

I've been running an athlon XP 1900+, 512 mb, 2 hdd's+ cdrw with a geforce 4 ti 4600 or radeon 8500 with a noname (YUAN KEE) power supply with 230 watts.

Thomas

 

[stevem]

There are many aspects to a PS's performance. The majority of quoted output figures are next to meaningless... A rule of thumb is to look for a combined 3.3V+5V value, which should be 200W or more. If there's no combined rating, multiply VxI (max) for the above rails which should sum to 250W. The 12V rail should be capable of at least 12A. I've successfully used a very inexpensive PS with a range of P4 & AthlonXP systems. (FYI, Eagle DR-A350ATX - 3.3V+5V combined=190W, 12V=13A, ripple/noise is surprisingly low, stability is good). Hard to beat for $35 with a reasonable medium tower case thrown in...

 

[Windfire]

The Leadtek TI4400 has been working perfectly in my Gateway (with 250watt power supply) for over a week. I'm not concerned at all now.

I asked Gateway and the 250 is the largest PS they have. They said I could get a different power supply and that it would bolt in fine--you probably wouldn't be able to use their quick-release features though.

In any case, I tried the 4400 in two computers, both with 250w power supplies. No problems.