about power supply

I think I may need a new power supply (a new case actually).

My question is, does it matter if a power supply is rated as beeing
for a AMD or a P4. Some people have posts saying that they are selling
a power supply ment for a P4, but shouldn't it work for *ALL* ATX
cases?

If I get a 350W PS, it will be ok for current and hopefully future,
right?
My home's power is quite clean, if that matters. My current PS is
crap.

I'm gone be putting a Radeon 9500 128MB soon, which is power hungry in
itself.

V-man

On 8 Jul 2003 07:46:06 -0700, (V-man) wrote:
My question is, does it matter if a power supply is rated as beeing
for a AMD or a P4. Some people have posts saying that they are selling
a power supply ment for a P4, but shouldn't it work for *ALL* ATX
cases?
The P4 thingy is just a marketing thing in most cases. What works for
the P4 will work for the AMD.

If I get a 350W PS, it will be ok for current and hopefully future,
right?

The crux of the matter is getting a good PSU, not just a high enuff
wattage one. :P
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On 9 Jul 2003 07:05:50 -0700, (V-man) wrote:

What do you mean by good? They all look like boxes to me.
Some PS are marked as being a certain Watt. But there is other info
such as continuous power output beeing lower. I'm gone have to walk
Yesh, that's one trick they do use. Some brands uses model numbers
which mislead you into thinking it's higher wattage, then say
something else in small print. Others give you the peak wattage, which
maybe they can sustain for all of 10 seconds.

Best is to get a reputable one from say a brand like Antec or Enermax.
At least they are tried and proven to be what their labels claim to be


Rule of thumb, if it's cheap, it can't be that high wattage or
reliable. About USD 25~30 is the minimum for a good 300W.

into a store and check out. And what exactly is a switching PS? My old
one (250W) says that.

It's just the type of power supply. AFAIK, all ATX PSU are of the
switching type. The term switching apparently comes from the way the
PSU supplies the required current by switching on and off for
different periods of time. Need more power, it switches on more often.
I think it's also referred to as pulse width modulation?

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ATX and the revised ATX are different. P4 needs the revised ATX versions,
they have two additional connectors (a 4-pin square and one that looks like
an AT power connector from way back when) in addition to the standard ATX
connector.

I think I heard this somewhere. So a regular ATX won't work with a P4
motherboard?
Do you think that things will change a couple of years later, and I'll
need a new case again.
I'm not upgrading my mobo right now, but I'd like to get a 5GHZ chip +
mobo sometime.

The thing is, these guys keep changing "form factor", or some
connector or some other minor thing making upgrades difficult.

V-man

heres a GREAT power supply for P4 and ATX boards with Plenty of voltage and
19amps on the 12V end (for Maximum stability).......
http://www.buyxtremegear.com/housebrand430w.html and its the one i have
......... 430W $25.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!





"V-man" wrote in message
om...
ATX and the revised ATX are different. P4 needs the revised ATX
versions,
they have two additional connectors (a 4-pin square and one that looks
like
an AT power connector from way back when) in addition to the standard
ATX
connector.

I think I heard this somewhere. So a regular ATX won't work with a P4
motherboard?
Do you think that things will change a couple of years later, and I'll
need a new case again.
I'm not upgrading my mobo right now, but I'd like to get a 5GHZ chip +
mobo sometime.

The thing is, these guys keep changing "form factor", or some
connector or some other minor thing making upgrades difficult.

V-man

"V-man" wrote in message
om...
I think I may need a new power supply (a new case actually).

My question is, does it matter if a power supply is rated as beeing
for a AMD or a P4. Some people have posts saying that they are selling
a power supply ment for a P4, but shouldn't it work for *ALL* ATX
cases?

If I get a 350W PS, it will be ok for current and hopefully future,
right?
My home's power is quite clean, if that matters. My current PS is
crap.

I'm gone be putting a Radeon 9500 128MB soon, which is power hungry in
itself.

V-man

I get very good performance with the
Enermax Whisper EG-465P-VE 430 Watts
available he (US$88)
http://makeashorterlink.com/?L2CB52D35

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 20:46:55 GMT, "Brooks" wrote:

heres a GREAT power supply for P4 and ATX boards with Plenty of voltage and
19amps on the 12V end (for Maximum stability).......
http://www.buyxtremegear.com/housebrand430w.html and its the one i have
........ 430W $25.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For $25, you must mean a 200W power supply with a 430W sticker on
it...

--
L.Angel: I'm looking for web design work.
If you need basic to med complexity webpages at affordable rates, email me
Standard HTML, SHTML, MySQL + PHP or Javascript. No ASP, CF or Frontpage.

On 11 Jul 2003 09:53:52 -0700, (V-man) wrote:
ATX and the revised ATX are different. P4 needs the revised ATX versions,
they have two additional connectors (a 4-pin square and one that looks like
an AT power connector from way back when) in addition to the standard ATX
connector.

I think I heard this somewhere. So a regular ATX won't work with a P4
motherboard?
Do you think that things will change a couple of years later, and I'll
need a new case again.

It's quite possible.

I'm not upgrading my mobo right now, but I'd like to get a 5GHZ chip +
mobo sometime.

Unfortunately no one can really accurately predict if anything you buy
today will be all that upgradable beyond about 6 months time. About
the only major component that hasn't changed in quite some time is the
monitor.

The thing is, these guys keep changing "form factor", or some
connector or some other minor thing making upgrades difficult.

The problem is usually related to power in one, shape or form.
Today's processors require much more and much cleaner power than what
was available a year or two ago, and those processors had much more
stringent requirements than what was available a year or two before
them.

The issue with the P4 wasn't so much that Intel thought everyone
should upgrade their power supplies for the fun of it. Intel just
wanted to avoid the problems that AMD had with people using really
****ty 10-year old power supplies with brand new Athlons. When people
did this, their new Athlon systems would crash randomly, and people
blamed it on AMD for making some sort of shoddy processor. Intel had
the advantage over AMD though of being able to force a new power
supply type onto the market and requiring it for all P4s. As such, no
clueless user could try to use a totally out-dated, low quality power
supply on a new P4 system.

Unfortunately for your situation, this may happen again in the new
future. When Intel introduced the new P4 power supplies, their chips
were only consuming 50-60W, now some P4's are pushing close to the
100W mark, and I suspect that within two years time it won't be
uncommon for desktop chips to consume more than 100W. What's more, in
addition to simply requiring more power, the chips are requiring
cleaner power as well, so the power supplies purchased with original
P4 systems might not cut it. It's therefore possible that a new power
supply spec will come out in the not-too-distant future, though I
suspect that you'll be safe for at least two years time.