KVR Audio

Sepheritoh · Post by **Sepheritoh** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:02 pm

Here may be some little bit of useless information for those more clever than me.

I recently upgraded my whole system to 2X P4 2.8GHz. The one machine I left in the original box. The other one I built into a special bigger box that has space for the extra hard drive, an extra graphics card a DVD drive and a DMX soundcard. Driving all that crap was a 300W powersupply. Now, who was I to question the wisdom of the friendly salesman who sold me the box. (Oh yes, almost forgot, it had 4 fans to cool everything and a place for the 2nd monitor to plug into the powersupply).

All fine, untill last week, when suddenly.... my monitor started making funny clicks and then switched off. Swearing at it did not help. I could feel a very comforting heat coming from the backside of the box. As it is a very cold winter here in Jo'burg I was greatfull for the extra heat and very unhappy for the thing not working. Faithfull in machine-kind I pulled the powercord from the back, waited for about half an hour and switched everything on again.

All went fine for another 2 hours or so....then....click...click.....black screen.

Suspecting something was wrong I went to the chinese lady at the market and purched a brand new 500W PSU. Installing new new monster was a bit of a problem as I had to throw out one fan to make space, but now my computer has a nice ventilation hole on top. I'll get round to fixing that somehow.

Results are that my computer has been very noiseless for the last 2 days and I had no clicks and black screens since.

After this very long story, for those who are still reading: is a 500W powersupply really the correct option? Am I not killing the fly with a bomb?

Mirabebe · Post by **Mirabebe** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:07 pm

You should obviosly locate an 800W powersupply. No matter what the cost. If you are unable to locate one - you should contact a powersupply manufacturer and arrange for a custom one to be made. If they refuse - you should purchase the appropriate wire and wrap it on the transformer yourself! To be on the safe side - make two and install them in serial fashion.

Also - you should probably double up on ventilation. And keep the window open.

Sepheritoh · Post by **Sepheritoh** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:09 pm

t-willy · Post by **t-willy** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:11 pm

i had a similar problem a while back. i had a 300 watt power supply that crapped out. i upgraded to a 400 and everything is fine now. i honestly don't know what wattage is required for what. i'd say your safe with the 500 now though.

lates

t-willy

Sepheritoh · Post by **Sepheritoh** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:14 pm

What CPU and add-ons are you running on the 400W?

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:21 pm

well a lot of PowerSupply's lie about their wattage.. and arent the wattage on the label ALL THE TIME.. or something like that

tomshardware (:D) had an article on it awhile ago where they tested several Powersupply's and had some nifty color graphs with their real wattage and other informative stuff I really cant remember nor bothered to try.. :doh: oh well..

check tomshardware.. I'm sure it must still be there.. somewhere..

some help I am

t-willy · Post by **t-willy** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:32 pm

Sepheritoh wrote:What CPU and add-ons are you running on the 400W?

AMD Athlon XP 1.6 ghz
two hard drives
cd burner
dvd player
oxy 8 via USB
radeon 7500
creative sb live

lates

t-willy

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:51 pm

actually it was anandtech and the article is here:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1841

quicker link to a text chart:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=1841&p=20

Sepheritoh · Post by **Sepheritoh** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 8:25 pm

The monster I got is the PH-500 Gold. Not listed on that table, but assuming what seems to be industry standard I should get about 380W from the 500W PSU. Considdering I had a 300W (Premium) that packed up, which only really gave me about 240W or less, I should be better off. Just for safety. I decided to plug in both monitors directly to the wall unit and save the powersupply a bit of work.

If t-willy is driving all his stuff, which seems more work than mine is doing with the radeon off 400W I should in theory be OK.

And just to think, I started off this discussion thinking I have too much power and might be overheating something.

pj geerlings · Post by **pj geerlings** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 8:34 pm

FWIW, I'm a PC Power and Cooling junkie - the last three machines I've built for myself have utilized this brand ( @475Watt or better )

They are really nice and they make you pay for it too

peace,
pj

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 8:38 pm

well Im using a 350 watt enermax PSU

and have powered by it:

athlon 2000+ XP
DVD+RW drive
DVD-ROM drive
Athlon 8500le videocard
floppy drive
160 GB hard drive
ethernet nic
revolution 7.1 audiocard
ps/2 keyboard
and 3 or 4 usb perphierileilerals

no probs here.. though I wouldnt really try to add too much more to this..

Rouqmirg · Post by **Rouqmirg** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 8:48 pm

I'm thinking plugging both monitors into the wall instead of the power supply would have been the thing to try first.

I don't really see why you would want an extra plug on the power supply...maybe someone can shed some light on this.

Sepheritoh · Post by **Sepheritoh** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 8:56 pm

Rouqmirg wrote:I'm thinking plugging both monitors into the wall instead of the power supply would have been the thing to try first.

I don't really see why you would want an extra plug on the power supply...maybe someone can shed some light on this.

My monitor screens come with power cords that plug directly from the computer PSU. Other than that there was no reason.

hjack · Post by **hjack** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:00 pm

in case no one mentioned the powersupply noise ...
i´ve burned my powersupply last year , due to excess of consuming pieces inside and plugged to it ... quickly gone to get a new one , and buyed the cheapest one .. hmm great , i just never thought that the cheaper ones are the most noisier

...

Sepheritoh · Post by **Sepheritoh** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:10 pm

Rouqmirg wrote:I'm thinking plugging both monitors into the wall instead of the power supply would have been the thing to try first.

I don't really see why you would want an extra plug on the power supply...maybe someone can shed some light on this.

And come to think of it. Here is another reason

What powersupply?