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Thread ID: 94995 2008-11-20 00:38:00 Is 13A on 12V enough for Athlon XP 1800+ utopian201 (6245) Press F1
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721528 2008-11-20 00:38:00 Hi
My comp is an Athlon XP 1800+ with 2 HDD, 1 CD ROM, 1 DVD writer, 2x ddr sticks, geforce ti4200, 1 floppy drive and 1 120cm fan

I've come into possession of some old computer bits. 2 of these are power supplies (both say P4 ready).
One is an Enermax 250w (12V rated at 13A, 5 hard drive power connectors)
Another is a Seventeam 300w (12v rated at 15A, 4 hard drive power connectors)

My current power supply in my machine is an iCute 320w (12v rated at 16A, 4 hard drive power connectors). The iCute is quite a good psu (has 2 fans: bottom + exhaust) and has proper wire fan grills instead of metal stamped ones. The only problem is that it is quite noisy (like a quiet hairdrier). The 'new' PSUs (Enermax and Seventeam) are practically silent (well I can't hear them over the sound of the iCute). Both only have a single exhaust fan. The Enermax has a wire fan grille, the seventeam uses a stamped metal grille.

But before I switch to the lower rated PSUs, I was wondering, will they be able to support my system? I don't intend to add anything more to the system. Also why would the Enermax, which has the lowest 12v rail, have the most hard drive connectors?

According to some PSU calculators, i need 265w. But is that just a rough guide?
utopian201 (6245)
721529 2008-11-20 01:15:00 P4 ready, is like same vintage as the Athlon....should be no problems.... SolMiester (139)
721530 2008-11-20 01:45:00 I cant believe my main computer can now be referred to as a vintage :p It can still manage to play back 720p h.264 content smoothly if I increase the fsb to from 133 to 145 :D

Can using an underpowered PSU damage the computer? Or if it is underpowered, will it just not start? Or worse, start, but have stability problems (eg rebooting, shutting down during use etc).

I'm thinking of switching it over and if there are any problems, just change it back. But not if there is the possibility of permanent damage...
utopian201 (6245)
721531 2008-11-20 19:38:00 I cant believe my main computer can now be referred to as a vintage :p It can still manage to play back 720p h.264 content smoothly if I increase the fsb to from 133 to 145 :D

Can using an underpowered PSU damage the computer? Or if it is underpowered, will it just not start? Or worse, start, but have stability problems (eg rebooting, shutting down during use etc).

I'm thinking of switching it over and if there are any problems, just change it back. But not if there is the possibility of permanent damage...

Yes, this is all true, however, none of your components are power hungry....
SolMiester (139)
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