Power Supply Question
- Thread starter mtzlblk
- Start date
Could I get by on 300W?
System:
-mobo: S478
-dual 3.2 GHz HT P4 processors
-one EIDE drive
-one (soon to be two) SATA drive(s)
-external Creative USB audio (powered via PC, no ac adaptor)
-CD drive
-Dual TV Tuners
-Multi-type memory card reader
-ADDING a Radeon X800 Pro AGP adaptor (reason for PSU upgrade)
System:
-mobo: S478
-dual 3.2 GHz HT P4 processors
-one EIDE drive
-one (soon to be two) SATA drive(s)
-external Creative USB audio (powered via PC, no ac adaptor)
-CD drive
-Dual TV Tuners
-Multi-type memory card reader
-ADDING a Radeon X800 Pro AGP adaptor (reason for PSU upgrade)
These are good:
http://www.alternate.de/html/product/details.html?artno=TN4V11&showTechData=true
That's a pack of two in the bay there. It's not really small, but pretty flat.
http://www.alternate.de/html/product/details.html?artno=TN4V11&showTechData=true
That's a pack of two in the bay there. It's not really small, but pretty flat.
_xxx_ said:
Those are my next options. I 'may' try to just bolt it on backwards outside of the case, which isn't pretty, but I don't really care about that so much.
I actually probably should get a bigger case..the one I have now is maxed out and my SATA drive flots off to the side and has nowhere to connect and since I want to buy a second SATA anyway, I will have to upgrade the case at some point and it would make sense to get the case/PSU together. Now that I think of it, the new graphics card will heat things up a bit, so I should get something that breaths better.
I have a 16 month old son and I just didn't want to spend a bunch of time moving everything over, but I guess one more late night won't kill me.
thanks.
I think that it what it is coming down to, but I'm going to buy something that has some level of quality and is sure to give me 18+ Amps at +12V, just to be sure. The price difference between a crappy and a medium-high quality PSU is not that great, so it doesn't make sense to go cheap.SugarCoat said:
Many of the smaller ATX supplies should meet your size requirements. Here's a reasonably priced one that has a good reputation (it's made by channelwell, the same as the antec truepower line):
http://www.xclio.com/product_b_01.php
You can get it at newegg here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817189003
What case are you putting it in?
Nite_Hawk
http://www.xclio.com/product_b_01.php
You can get it at newegg here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817189003
What case are you putting it in?
Nite_Hawk
BY JOVE NIGHTHAWK, I THINK YOU'VE DONE IT!!!!!Nite_Hawk said:
I should have searched for a 450W
Let's see,
-measurements work out
-100+ nearly rave reviews
-price is unbeatable and ~$10 less than the one I am RMA-ing to newegg
-specs are certainly in-line, with one more SATA connect than the one i am returning and 450W instead of 400.
The only thing that 'might' be a concern and has me confused is that it lists 17Amps on the 12+, which may be too small for dual processors..although some reviews listed it at 32, which is more than sufficient. Any insight into that?
I'm putting it into a micro-ATX case from HP. I was actually a bit jacked to upgrade the case, but I can choose to do it when i want, rather than 'have' to do it right now.
Thanks so much!
mtzlblk said:
Hi mtzlblk,
No problem, glad to help.
Regarding the +12V rails, this unit has dual rails. It's a fairly common practice these days. Some very new units actually have 3 12V rails. On this unit the first rail is 15A and the second rail is 17A. In practice it should work out fairly well.
Oh, be careful with newegg reviews as well. They censor bad ones. A very good resource for powersupply related issues is the hardocp power supply forum. There are two very good threads there: "Recommended PSUs" and "PSUs to avoid". You can reach them here:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1045259
The xclio I recommended above is only one of the PSUs that would fit in your case. It's one of the more economical options. I believe all of the supplies listed below would also meet your size requirements (though are more expensive to varying degrees):
http://www.seasonic.com/product/pc_atx.jsp
http://www.enermax.com/english/product_supply.asp
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=T51ATX&view=about
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=24480
Nite_Hawk
Nite_Hawk said:Hi mtzlblk,
No problem, glad to help.
Regarding the +12V rails, this unit has dual rails. It's a fairly common practice these days. Some very new units actually have 3 12V rails. On this unit the first rail is 15A and the second rail is 17A. In practice it should work out fairly well.
Oh, be careful with newegg reviews as well. They censor bad ones. A very good resource for powersupply related issues is the hardocp power supply forum. There are two very good threads there: "Recommended PSUs" and "PSUs to avoid". You can reach them here:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1045259
The xclio I recommended above is only one of the PSUs that would fit in your case. It's one of the more economical options. I believe all of the supplies listed below would also meet your size requirements (though are more expensive to varying degrees):
http://www.seasonic.com/product/pc_atx.jsp
http://www.enermax.com/english/product_supply.asp
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=T51ATX&view=about
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=24480
Nite_Hawk
Arrg. I had assumed that I got the 'one' solution that would work and was going to buy it, but then you opened the Pandora's box of shiny new things ; )
So how do I interpret 17A on +12V1 and 16A on +12V2? Does that leave me with 17 or 33A depending on how I hook it up? 17 is lower than i want to go on the +12V (18A), but close.
mtzlblk said:
Basically there are trade-offs to a dual versus single rail design. A single rail design lets you pump a lot of amperage to one perepherial if needed (IE the CPU) which can be beneficial in certain cases like if you are doing a lot of overclocking on a power hungry processor like the P4. On the other hand, a dual rail setup can supply cleaner power as you don't have to supply ~30A on a single rail.
According to the SFX12V powersupply design guide here:
http://www.formfactors.org/developer\specs\SFX12V_PSDGr3_ 1 public_br.pdf
The second 12v rail is used exclusively for the 2x2 4-pin power connnector found on motherboards for the CPU. The first 12v rail is used to power the 24pin motherboard connector and all the molex connectors.
According to the xclio specs:
12v1 = 15A = 180w
12v2 = 17A = 204w
so the 450w xclio should be able to supply a maximum of 204w to the 4-pin cpu connector.
According to sandpile.org here:
http://www.sandpile.org/impl/p4.htm
A 3.2Ghz P4 will draw anywhere from 104-125w under maximum load depending on which version of the processor it is. Some of this will be 12v and some 5v, with the majority being 12v. Thus, you may or may not be within spec running on the 450w xclio for a dual 3.2Ghz P4 system. You may want to consider another unit like the enermax liberty 500w which has dual 22A 12v rails, or the PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 510 ATX, which has a single 34A 12v rail.
Undoubtably there are probably other good quality supplies that would meet your needs. These are just a small selection.
Nite_Hawk
I'd rather be sure to have enough power, so I will look at a 500WNite_Hawk said:Basically there are trade-offs to a dual versus single rail design. A single rail design lets you pump a lot of amperage to one perepherial if needed (IE the CPU) which can be beneficial in certain cases like if you are doing a lot of overclocking on a power hungry processor like the P4. On the other hand, a dual rail setup can supply cleaner power as you don't have to supply ~30A on a single rail.
According to the SFX12V powersupply design guide here:
http://www.formfactors.org/developer\specs\SFX12V_PSDGr3_ 1 public_br.pdf
The second 12v rail is used exclusively for the 2x2 4-pin power connnector found on motherboards for the CPU. The first 12v rail is used to power the 24pin motherboard connector and all the molex connectors.
According to the xclio specs:
12v1 = 15A = 180w
12v2 = 17A = 204w
so the 450w xclio should be able to supply a maximum of 204w to the 4-pin cpu connector.
According to sandpile.org here:
http://www.sandpile.org/impl/p4.htm
A 3.2Ghz P4 will draw anywhere from 104-125w under maximum load depending on which version of the processor it is. Some of this will be 12v and some 5v, with the majority being 12v. Thus, you may or may not be within spec running on the 450w xclio for a dual 3.2Ghz P4 system. You may want to consider another unit like the enermax liberty 500w which has dual 22A 12v rails, or the PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 510 ATX, which has a single 34A 12v rail.
Undoubtably there are probably other good quality supplies that would meet your needs. These are just a small selection.
Nite_Hawk
Any disadvantage in being really sure and getting a 600w, other than spending more $$? Can i put too much power on the mobo?
I'm sort of torn between finding a single rail PSU to be sure I have enough output for both processors on the one hand, and getting a higher 550/600w with a better amount of amps (22+) on a dual rail, to also be sure I have enough.
There isn't really a simple answer...
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