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Thread ID: 76281 2007-01-27 11:44:00 Help, running a athlon 2000+ on a 235w psu!!!!!!! scratta (7982) Press F1
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519711 2007-01-27 11:44:00 Hi I have a bit of a problem at the moment. My 300w power supply is on its way out (random reboots, even in bios setup sometimes) and so im going to purchase a new psu shortly. However in the meantime I have an old psu (235w max) sitting around from a pentium 3 733mhz. I know this isnt an ideal situation but is it possible to get this running with my athlon 2000+? Im prepared to unplug stuff such as the cd drive and video card (geforce fx5600) as well as maybe underclock the cpu, but will that be enough? Dont want to turn on the comp with that power supply to make it go bang with that low a psu :D .

albatron km400a pro motherboard
athlon 2000+
512ddr pc3200 ram
40gb hdd
geforce fx5600

Thanks for your time :)
scratta (7982)
519712 2007-01-27 15:51:00 www.journeysystems.com drcspy (146)
519713 2007-01-27 16:09:00 I reckon it'd work. And I doubt very much that it can harm your mobo or anything else if you try it. No guarantees of course, but If I was in your situation I'd be prepared to give it a go. Greg (193)
519714 2007-01-27 19:51:00 I wouldn't.
Its not so much the watts, its the amps. And what brand is this thing? Get a reliable brand, less pain later.
pctek (84)
519715 2007-01-27 21:08:00 If you do any damage, you will have the cost of that PLUS still have to buy a PSU. A 300w unit is only $50 @ DSE Baldy (26)
519716 2007-01-27 21:42:00 what brand PSU? a good quailty one may run fine. i've seen worse setups before. however a cheap nasty one will fail quickly if it runs at all tweak'e (69)
519717 2007-01-27 22:31:00 Why do people on this forum always link to those ****ty PSU calculators? You may as well bust out a normal calculator and randomly start adding random numbers, you'd probably get a more meaningful value.

I agree that if the 235w is a decent brand then it should be sufficient to run that PC.
Pete O'Neil (6584)
519718 2007-01-28 01:11:00 Thanks for the replies. Not looking good :( . Brand is Hyena, which im assuming is a generic one compared to the likes of antec etc. 5v and 3.3v combined output is 125w, while the 12v is a pitiful 8A. But if I disconnect the video card and just rely on integrated graphics would that small 12v matter as much?

3.3V 15A
5V 23A
235w max load

Only things ill have running will be motherboard. cpu, hdd, ram (approx 3 or 4 fans total including one on the psu). Disconnecting video card, cd drive and setting bios settings to "non-turbo" type ones.
scratta (7982)
519719 2007-01-28 02:01:00 hyena....POS simple as that. don't bother trying to run it. those 235w ones where used to run p1 and p2 systems which is why they blow when used on larger pc's. in fact i wouldn't recommend it on your p3. tweak'e (69)
519720 2007-01-28 04:41:00 For what it is worth:-
The Hyena 235s were a bit better than some of their more recent offerings, however the Dick Smith 300w unit is probably not much better and they have phased them out recently. Somewhat better 400-w units can be had, new, for $50.
PENTIUM (426)
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