How big a PSU do you really need?

[griobhta]

Hey Folks,

I'm thinking of replacing my PSU as the machine is now located in the main living room and it needs a bit of a noise reduction makeover.

I have my eye on an globalwin psu which is rated at 22db. The only thing is that it is only 320w the 420w is twice the price.

Here is the system.

ECS K7S5A REV 2.1
XP2000+
Radeon 9500 pro 128mb
Yamaha F1E CDRW
Toshiba DVD-Rom Drvie
Samsung 120gb HDD 7,200rpm
Maxtor 80gb HDD 7,200rpm
512 DDR 2700
SBlive 512

only possible upgrades i see in ever on this machine are:
XP2600+
DVDRW to replace the DVD-Rom
and maybe at a push a USB 2.0 pci card.

Current HDD is a 330W enermax, havent really noticed any problems but its a good few years old now and is a lot on the noisy side. Its the noisest part of the system full stop.

Question really is this; Is 320w enough if it is a good psu?

thanks,

g

[Omardeth]

the amps are as important as the watts so keep that inmind . and if the supply is working fine but noisey , being it is old and out of warranty you can open it and replace the fans . that will cost ya maybe 10$ tops . if the supply is in good working order maybe changing the fans will do what ya need instead of buying a different power supply .

[VHockey86]

if you're looking to upgrade, id suggest giving yourself a little more overhead than 320W, however like Omar said, the amps on each rail are about as important as the maximum power output. Look for 15A minimum on the 12V rail.

[griobhta]

This is the psu i was looking at.

g

[DPA]

i ran a nearly identical setup except the 9500 was an 8500 on a 250Watt Antec PSU, however, that radeon 9500 is a power sucking machine, 350 is a suggested minimum.

[JPMiller]

OK... you have a particularly fussy Mobo...notoriously so... I happen to know for a fact that THIS PSU happens to work flawlessly with that motherboard...I own several myself and have built many systems with that mobo as well...never had a problem yet and if your interested .... THIS is the K7S5A bible... it would be well worth it to you to at least do the chipset heatsink mod and the cheepoman bios update....makes a world of difference in stability and speed.

[griobhta]

Thanks for the links JP. I'm using HoneyX bios which is suppose to be more tweaked for stability than cheapoman which is supposed to be for speed.

This PSU works fine even though it is 320w. What i need is a quiet one.

cant imagine i will be upgrading so much as eventually giving this whole rig to someone else so dont really need to much over head.

g

[DPA]

well griobhta, if you feel particularly lucky, you can do a PSU fan mod...

1. open the psu chassis after you have unplugged it and unmounted it of course

2. locate the red and black wires feeding the PSU fan, and clip them

3. remove the 80mm fan, and replace it with a triple wire 80mm fan.

4. run the wire around the components of the PSU and if possible, down the mass of wires with the atx plug

5. attach a fan controller or voltage regulator and then attach to a 3 pin connector on the motherboard [or a molex if you happen to have one]

works great if you have the extra parts, you just have to be careful that your PSU will not overheat from the lower Feet Per Second rating of a controlled 80mm fan.

i have taken the shells of other PSU's and used them on working PSU's for the reason of more holes in the metal for better airflow.

but if you really want to get the job done, get an Antec or Enermax 400w dual fan quiet PSU like me it did wonders for me.

[griobhta]

not really a fan of modding the PSU so will probably just get a new psu. Will give a go at modding this when i put it on one of my old machines.

Still wondering if it is worth trying a 320w psu in this system

g