Is there some sort of guide on the internet to tell me if my PSU is powerfull enough for the rest of my system??

Thanks
Tom

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I haven't seen a reliable one. I'm afraid it's mostly educated guess work.

Hardware manufacturers tend to say what PSU is recommended for their parts, however, they also tend to try and down play power consumption and have a history of recommending very low wattage PSUs. Of course, when it comes down to it, it's not the watts that matter; it's the rails’ ampere and stability. While ampere increases with the PSU wattage, the proportion and quality may not. By contrast, while power consumption increases with performance (provided you are talking about hardware of the same class), the required quality of power from the PSU increases exponentially. This is because typically, newer faster hardware requires better quality of signalling and is more sensitive to voltage stability. Additionally, power consumption fluctuates over a much larger range in very short time periods. All of these things stress a PSU and will expose any weaknesses it has.

It’s important to understand that a weak PSU mean not only reboots and eventual failure of the PSU itself, but for other components as well. In its death throws, a malfunctioning PSU can kill other components. Furthermore, low quality PSUs put a lot more stress on the voltage regulation circuits of various components at high load, most notably the motherboard.

The relevance of all that is; as price increases, wattage and quality increases, but on a low quality PSU, wattage increases disproportionably faster leaving quality by the wayside, and vice versa. This makes it nearly impossible to actually fashion any sort of formula, when none of the industry standard measurements can be used.

This used to be the way with MHz. Everyone knows the truth of the thing now, but when I was trying to preach this many years ago, people were using MHz as yard stick as they use Watts now. Some people go a little bit further today and talk about amps, because when used in conjunction with watts it paints a better picture of things, but it still isn’t enough to draw any solid conclusions.

Your best bet is simply to ask a bunch of people whose opinion you trust and follow the general consensus.

giv us a spec n we mite b able to give a few suggestions

Roz

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Alright thanks for the info.

Here is what I got in the PC...
Motherboard: MS-6577 v3.1 (Neon)
Intel Celery 2.6Ghz
One Seagate 40MB HDD
One Seagate 60MB HDD
2 X 256MB Unknow Speed DDR RAM
Radeon 9600 Pro
PCI USB Card thingiemebob.
CD-RW
Floppy Drive
Thrity Something in One Memory card reader
Additional Fan
Ethernet card
USB Optical mouse, keyboard etc

All runing on a Bestek 250W PSU...

Sounds underpowered to me, what do you think.

Can you reccomend a good PSU for it?

Thanks
Tom

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Woh, sounds underpowered indeed.

A good make of psu antec,

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/90618

thats the 1 i have and i run sum much power consuming equipment. It should prepare you for anything else u decide to add/upgrade in the future as well.

hope this helps,

Roz

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I couldn't Upgade it any more even if I tried...

There are no spare bays. lol

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I'm a little surprised you'd be running a 250W in this day and age

Your system will require very little power. The CPU is probably your major draw, but I doubt that it even exceeds 100W. The 9600 Pro would consume no more than 50W, and the rest of your components would pad out less than another hundred. 480W is overkill. Antec generally make good PSUs, although the rail specifications are conspicuously absent on that website. It's also excessive in price - for little more you could get an OCZ powerstream.

You’d probably need no more than 12A on +12, and not even 15 on +5 and +3.3. Something in the 300-350W range, depending on manufacturer, would pull this off. I’ve seen the odd 300W that supplied as low as 12A on +12.

I'm not really sure what IS a good PSU, even though you've gone thropugh it I'd prefer a knowledgable second oppinion...

How's this?

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...?code=PSC-430W

Would it fit??? lol.

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Probably not very good. It lacks Active Power Correction Factor (evident by the presence of a voltage switch). Active PFC which makes the PSU more efficient and enables it to produce a more stable signal from low quality wall power.

I did a quick google search and was unable to find details on the rail supplies, which makes it impossible to judge. Admittedly, I wasn't very enthusiastic about it as the power supply made a more impression from the get go.

No website actually gives the rail supplies? Or atleast I can't find one...

Would you be able to point me in the right direction? lol

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You're right. They don't. Because they don't care. They're not maintained by people with any decent knowledge or desire to actually provide a good service.

Could it be that you might have to actually buy a PSU from an old fashioned retail store? Heavens no!

Do the industry a favor and avoid buying online.

What... As in... Walk..... into a... a.... Shop!?

MM.... It's risky... But I may try it...

What do I ask for... A decent twenty something pin PSU? lol

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An ATX PSU. It doesn't have to be strictly 20-pin, as long as it comes with a 24-20-pin adaptor or has 4 detachable. You want something in the 350W range with at least 12A on the +12V rail.

Ok,

I was reccomended a 'ColourSit' 350W PSU, with 12A on the +12 Rail for £20.

My dad paid the extra tenner and we settled on a...

'ColourSit' 480W PSU, 25A on the +12 Rail, 28A on the +3.3v Rail, and some other specs that I've completely forgotten about.

Anyway, I fitted it, and it hasn't exploded... Just yet.

And woah, the performance difference is AMAZING(ly un-noticable)...

Thanks for your help

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Another junk PSU

Oh well

People generally do have to suffer before they're ready to take good advice

JUNK!!??!?

Pish posh.

Its gold and it has a big fan! How CAN it be junk!?!?

...


Oh..

No Seriously though... I don't understand how it can be junk.. lol, Budjet, maybe, but, junk?

Its got more than the required Ampage, It doesn't have a voltage switch thingiemebob..

We only decided to get the 480 because if/when we decide to get a better PC in a couple of years, I could swap over the PSU's then.

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I guess is it is my fault

I did neglect to mention that no-brand PSUs are very risky; power ratings can be optimistic, possibly even false.

This is an example; for a decent 480W PSU, you'd expect 2 +12V rails of around 16-18A, not a single 25A rail

Never mind, I hope it works out for you