Is a 300w power supply enough for my system?

I've got a 5-year old 300w power supply (Antec PP-303X). I'm about to
add a IDE RAID controller and another hard drive, and a few more case
fans, and am wondering if I need a new power supply. Here's what my
system will have after the upgrades:

ABIT KT7-RAID mobo
Athlon Tbird 1.2 GHz
GlobalWin FOP32-1 heatsink
2 sticks of PC133 RAM
2 IDE 7200 rpm hard drives
Matrox G400 AGP video card with 16 mb
PCI 3ware IDE RAID true hardware controller
PCI network card
PCI generic soundcard
ISA modem
DVD-ROM drive
CD-RW drive
floppy drive
USB memory card reader
4 case fans
keyboard
mouse

I checked some of those online power supply calculators... the Extreme
PSU one and the Takaman one (which were set to 80% utilization) said I
need a PSU around 270w, and the JSCustom one said I need a PSU around
300w. I've read that you shouldn't exceed a PSU's wattage by 80%, and
I also should have some "extra" wattage in case I add more components
in the future. So do you think my 300w power supply is enough?

wrote:
I've got a 5-year old 300w power supply (Antec PP-303X). I'm about to
add a IDE RAID controller and another hard drive, and a few more case
fans, and am wondering if I need a new power supply. Here's what my
system will have after the upgrades:

ABIT KT7-RAID mobo
Athlon Tbird 1.2 GHz
GlobalWin FOP32-1 heatsink
2 sticks of PC133 RAM
2 IDE 7200 rpm hard drives
Matrox G400 AGP video card with 16 mb
PCI 3ware IDE RAID true hardware controller
PCI network card
PCI generic soundcard
ISA modem
DVD-ROM drive
CD-RW drive
floppy drive
USB memory card reader
4 case fans
keyboard
mouse

I checked some of those online power supply calculators... the Extreme
PSU one and the Takaman one (which were set to 80% utilization) said I
need a PSU around 270w, and the JSCustom one said I need a PSU around
300w. I've read that you shouldn't exceed a PSU's wattage by 80%, and
I also should have some "extra" wattage in case I add more components
in the future. So do you think my 300w power supply is enough?


sounds good! i think your psu is enough. but note that 300W PSU equals
not 300W PSU. on the PSU is a label which indicates how much power on
specific cables is available. can make a difference, but i think your
antec psu should do the job.

i actually use a 350W Enermax PSU on athlon 2000+, 1gb ram, 9600XT, 3
HDS, 2 optical drives, soundcard, 2 network, tvcard, stuff on usb

and it runs very stable.

regards
marcel

In article .com,
says...
I've got a 5-year old 300w power supply (Antec PP-303X). I'm about to
add a IDE RAID controller and another hard drive, and a few more case
fans, and am wondering if I need a new power supply. Here's what my
system will have after the upgrades:

ABIT KT7-RAID mobo
Athlon Tbird 1.2 GHz
GlobalWin FOP32-1 heatsink
2 sticks of PC133 RAM
2 IDE 7200 rpm hard drives
Matrox G400 AGP video card with 16 mb
PCI 3ware IDE RAID true hardware controller
PCI network card
PCI generic soundcard
ISA modem
DVD-ROM drive
CD-RW drive
floppy drive
USB memory card reader
4 case fans
keyboard
mouse

I checked some of those online power supply calculators... the Extreme
PSU one and the Takaman one (which were set to 80% utilization) said I
need a PSU around 270w, and the JSCustom one said I need a PSU around
300w. I've read that you shouldn't exceed a PSU's wattage by 80%, and
I also should have some "extra" wattage in case I add more components
in the future. So do you think my 300w power supply is enough?


It's touch and go. With PSU's being relatively cheap and little price
difference between the low and mid rated ones, go for at least 400W.

--
Conor

Windows & Outlook/OE in particular, shipped with settings making them
as open to entry as a starlet in a porno. Steve B

Last PC that I built two years ago, got down to individual voltage
requirements in terms of amperage for each component. Found some power
supplies inadequate, even though the same overall wattage rating.

If you're going to keep the PC for awhile, also factor in component aging
that eats more power as well.

You will determine any added hardware, therefore, only you control that.
Therefore, only you can make a power supply determination on that particular
factor.
.............
Jonny
wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got a 5-year old 300w power supply (Antec PP-303X). I'm about to
add a IDE RAID controller and another hard drive, and a few more case
fans, and am wondering if I need a new power supply. Here's what my
system will have after the upgrades:

ABIT KT7-RAID mobo
Athlon Tbird 1.2 GHz
GlobalWin FOP32-1 heatsink
2 sticks of PC133 RAM
2 IDE 7200 rpm hard drives
Matrox G400 AGP video card with 16 mb
PCI 3ware IDE RAID true hardware controller
PCI network card
PCI generic soundcard
ISA modem
DVD-ROM drive
CD-RW drive
floppy drive
USB memory card reader
4 case fans
keyboard
mouse

I checked some of those online power supply calculators... the Extreme
PSU one and the Takaman one (which were set to 80% utilization) said I
need a PSU around 270w, and the JSCustom one said I need a PSU around
300w. I've read that you shouldn't exceed a PSU's wattage by 80%, and
I also should have some "extra" wattage in case I add more components
in the future. So do you think my 300w power supply is enough?

what brand of PSU? What model?

"Jim" wrote in message
nk.net...
Last PC that I built two years ago, got down to individual voltage
requirements in terms of amperage for each component. Found some power
supplies inadequate, even though the same overall wattage rating.

If you're going to keep the PC for awhile, also factor in component aging
that eats more power as well.

You will determine any added hardware, therefore, only you control that.
Therefore, only you can make a power supply determination on that
particular factor.
............
Jonny
wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got a 5-year old 300w power supply (Antec PP-303X). I'm about to
add a IDE RAID controller and another hard drive, and a few more case
fans, and am wondering if I need a new power supply. Here's what my
system will have after the upgrades:

ABIT KT7-RAID mobo
Athlon Tbird 1.2 GHz
GlobalWin FOP32-1 heatsink
2 sticks of PC133 RAM
2 IDE 7200 rpm hard drives
Matrox G400 AGP video card with 16 mb
PCI 3ware IDE RAID true hardware controller
PCI network card
PCI generic soundcard
ISA modem
DVD-ROM drive
CD-RW drive
floppy drive
USB memory card reader
4 case fans
keyboard
mouse

I checked some of those online power supply calculators... the Extreme
PSU one and the Takaman one (which were set to 80% utilization) said I
need a PSU around 270w, and the JSCustom one said I need a PSU around
300w. I've read that you shouldn't exceed a PSU's wattage by 80%, and
I also should have some "extra" wattage in case I add more components
in the future. So do you think my 300w power supply is enough?




Isn't there something about, even though you get a high wattage SPU, you got
to make sure it can provide enough current on particular DC rails?? Think
its the +12V and plus +5V..... but can someone elaborate?

wrote:
I've got a 5-year old 300w power supply (Antec PP-303X). I'm about to
add a IDE RAID controller and another hard drive, and a few more case
fans, and am wondering if I need a new power supply. Here's what my
system will have after the upgrades:

ABIT KT7-RAID mobo
Athlon Tbird 1.2 GHz
GlobalWin FOP32-1 heatsink
2 sticks of PC133 RAM
2 IDE 7200 rpm hard drives
Matrox G400 AGP video card with 16 mb
PCI 3ware IDE RAID true hardware controller
PCI network card
PCI generic soundcard
ISA modem
DVD-ROM drive
CD-RW drive
floppy drive
USB memory card reader
4 case fans
keyboard
mouse

I checked some of those online power supply calculators... the Extreme
PSU one and the Takaman one (which were set to 80% utilization) said I
need a PSU around 270w, and the JSCustom one said I need a PSU around
300w. I've read that you shouldn't exceed a PSU's wattage by 80%, and
I also should have some "extra" wattage in case I add more components
in the future. So do you think my 300w power supply is enough?


In my opinion, it's not a good idea to push power supplies. There rated
limits are PEAK limits, not average. In your case, I'd go with a brand
name 350W PSU or higher. An Antec PurePower 350 (I think that's the
proper Antec model line) would be a minimum for me given your system
configuration. There are many other brand names that can also be used,
the example I gave was just that: an example of a minimum.

Ari

adsci wrote:

sounds good! i think your psu is enough. but note that 300W PSU equals
not 300W PSU. on the PSU is a label which indicates how much power on
specific cables is available. can make a difference, but i think your
antec psu should do the job.

i actually use a 350W Enermax PSU on athlon 2000+, 1gb ram, 9600XT, 3
HDS, 2 optical drives, soundcard, 2 network, tvcard, stuff on usb

and it runs very stable.

regards
marcel

most replys on your matter seem to suggest to buy a bigger psu.
i dont think so.

on my rig the processor (1.6ghz athlon 2000+), the ram (2gb 233Mhz), the
hds (3hds) and the videocard (9600XT 128mb) comsume more up to much more
power than your system.

the power my system consumes while playing games is ~230Watts measured
at the power plug. im using a 350 Watts PSU and it runs more than
stable. i never had a serious crash even while playing newest games over
hours.

whats the point of buying a new 350Watts PSU when

a) the computers additions sum up to a maximum of maybe 20-30 Watts only?
b) the computers power consumption sum up to estimated 230 Watts on load?
c) theres already a good 300 Watt PSU in there?
d) all online PSU calculations suggest a 300Watts or lower PSU? the
calcs already do calculate some reserve in.

dont waste your money on a new PSU. test your system stability with the
old one first. there is simply no point to invest in a 300W psu with a
system that consumes around 200W. only invest if you see any instability.

regards
marcel

In article .com,
wrote:

I've got a 5-year old 300w power supply (Antec PP-303X). I'm about to
add a IDE RAID controller and another hard drive, and a few more case
fans, and am wondering if I need a new power supply. Here's what my
system will have after the upgrades:

ABIT KT7-RAID mobo
Athlon Tbird 1.2 GHz
GlobalWin FOP32-1 heatsink
2 sticks of PC133 RAM
2 IDE 7200 rpm hard drives
Matrox G400 AGP video card with 16 mb
PCI 3ware IDE RAID true hardware controller
PCI network card
PCI generic soundcard
ISA modem
DVD-ROM drive
CD-RW drive
floppy drive
USB memory card reader
4 case fans
keyboard
mouse

I checked some of those online power supply calculators... the Extreme
PSU one and the Takaman one (which were set to 80% utilization) said I
need a PSU around 270w, and the JSCustom one said I need a PSU around
300w. I've read that you shouldn't exceed a PSU's wattage by 80%, and
I also should have some "extra" wattage in case I add more components
in the future. So do you think my 300w power supply is enough?

http://www2.beareyes.com.cn/jpic/1/2...5_212826_1.jpg

3.3@20A 5V@30A 12V@15A ) +5VSB@2A
180W max on 3.3 plus 5V rails.

The KT7 RAID uses a HIP6301 according to this.
http://www.ocinside.de/index_e.html?...kt7_vcore.html
http://www.intersil.com/data/fn/fn4765.pdf (HIP6301 datasheet)

It looks like the eight pin MOSFET drivers use +12V and so the
drain for your processor is on the +12V supply (best guess)

A 1.2GHz processor is listed as 59W. At 90% conversion efficiency,
this is (59/12)*(1/0.9) = 5.46A from +12V. Which is getting pretty
close to the limit for a single pin on the ATX 20 pin power connector.
Really makes me wonder whether my sleuthing above is correct...

When idle, the three disk drives draw 0.6A each from +12V.
At spinup (the 20 seconds just after PC is switched on), the
disks can draw over 2amps a piece for the motors. So Takaman
shows the spinup power consumption, but not the normal desktop
consumption. But you are still not over the +12V limit
(5.46 + 3*2.5 = 13A of 15A available). Most supplies can
take a slight overload for the time it takes to spin up
the drives, and overcurrent is never set to exactly the
spec limit for the power supply.

Takaman lists the G400 as 10 amps from 3.3V, but I expect
neither +3.3V or +5V to be limiting you here. (Your PCI
cards are chump change, in terms of power consumption.
I'm only trying to address the big consumers here, because
the small fry are too hard to guess at with any accuracy.)

The CD/DVD isn't going to draw power, unless you are booting
from a CD, and even then, the current profile of the
motor on the drive will not peak at the same time as
the hard drives. (And due to the optical disk industry
being very protective of their power numbers, we have no
real data to go on, other than the bogus
boiler plate numbers. All the optical drives out there
cannot be drawing exactly that same power number.)

I really don't see a reason to panic.

Have a look in your hardware monitor (or use a multimeter),
and see if the supply voltages are within 5% of their rated
values. If the +12V seems to be below 11.4V, then I'd consider
looking for another supply. A multimeter, connected to a
spare disk drive connector, will allow you to watch the +12V
voltage rail, during the 20 seconds it'll take to spin
up the disk drives.

AFAIK, those old Antec supplies are from HEC (I've got another
model, 352X), and the HEC supply I've got, doesn't seem to be
badly made.

So my guess would be, close to the limit on the +12V rail,
for the first 20 seconds, and comfortable the rest of the time.

Paul

Paul wrote:

http://www2.beareyes.com.cn/jpic/1/2...5_212826_1.jpg

3.3@20A 5V@30A 12V@15A ) +5VSB@2A
180W max on 3.3 plus 5V rails.

The KT7 RAID uses a HIP6301 according to this.
http://www.ocinside.de/index_e.html?...kt7_vcore.html
http://www.intersil.com/data/fn/fn4765.pdf (HIP6301 datasheet)

It looks like the eight pin MOSFET drivers use +12V and so the
drain for your processor is on the +12V supply (best guess)

A 1.2GHz processor is listed as 59W. At 90% conversion efficiency,
this is (59/12)*(1/0.9) = 5.46A from +12V. Which is getting pretty
close to the limit for a single pin on the ATX 20 pin power connector.
Really makes me wonder whether my sleuthing above is correct...

When idle, the three disk drives draw 0.6A each from +12V.
At spinup (the 20 seconds just after PC is switched on), the
disks can draw over 2amps a piece for the motors. So Takaman
shows the spinup power consumption, but not the normal desktop
consumption. But you are still not over the +12V limit
(5.46 + 3*2.5 = 13A of 15A available). Most supplies can

Hmm, this page says that 10A is available on the +12. Or am I
misunderstanding it?

http://www.thetechzone.com/reviews/c...ly/page3.shtml


take a slight overload for the time it takes to spin up
the drives, and overcurrent is never set to exactly the
spec limit for the power supply.

Takaman lists the G400 as 10 amps from 3.3V, but I expect
neither +3.3V or +5V to be limiting you here. (Your PCI
cards are chump change, in terms of power consumption.
I'm only trying to address the big consumers here, because
the small fry are too hard to guess at with any accuracy.)

The CD/DVD isn't going to draw power, unless you are booting
from a CD, and even then, the current profile of the
motor on the drive will not peak at the same time as
the hard drives. (And due to the optical disk industry
being very protective of their power numbers, we have no
real data to go on, other than the bogus
boiler plate numbers. All the optical drives out there
cannot be drawing exactly that same power number.)

I really don't see a reason to panic.

Have a look in your hardware monitor (or use a multimeter),
and see if the supply voltages are within 5% of their rated
values. If the +12V seems to be below 11.4V, then I'd consider
looking for another supply. A multimeter, connected to a
spare disk drive connector, will allow you to watch the +12V
voltage rail, during the 20 seconds it'll take to spin
up the disk drives.

AFAIK, those old Antec supplies are from HEC (I've got another
model, 352X), and the HEC supply I've got, doesn't seem to be
badly made.

So my guess would be, close to the limit on the +12V rail,
for the first 20 seconds, and comfortable the rest of the time.

I looked inside my Antec, and it's made by Channel Well.

I've been thinking about a Seasonic S12 380w PSU. All the other
manufacturers have a strong possibility of using bad caps, and Seasonic
claims to use higher quality caps. Although I've heard that early
shipments of the Seasonics used bad caps, too....

Thanks for the replies, everyone.