OPTiK Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 When I bought my machine, the dude at the counter told me that the PSU that came with my case (cheap no-name PSU in a Nspire case) would be enough at 350W. Now I want to but an ATi PCI-E video card in my system and I need to know if I need to upgrade the PSU and I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. See my sig for system details. Thanks Guys! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
declan Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Personally, go higher, and spend some money on a descend PSU, when they go bang it painful, pocketwise, though 350w would cope, best with say 500W, gives room to grow. Oh and my DX 386 40Mhz runs os x fine, even the 1/2MB GFX runs QE too. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-92087 Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTiK Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 Thanks for the advice declan... So if I get like a 400W-450W I'm safe? Does it have to be TruPower? Oh and my DX 386 40Mhz runs os x fine, even the 1/2MB GFX runs QE too. LOL LOL I saw that on demonoid. Some twit wanted to know if he could run Vista on that. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-92125 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboss Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 my dell uses a 350w power supply with a p4 550 and a 6800 gt.. i upgraded the psu to 450 w.. bought a $60 PSU.. well worth it. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-92196 Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTiK Posted April 9, 2006 Author Share Posted April 9, 2006 my dell uses a 350w power supply with a p4 550 and a 6800 gt.. i upgraded the psu to 450 w.. bought a $60 PSU.. well worth it. have you noticed an increase in proformance? try running with the 10.4.3 gma drivers, they're usually the most compatible (for most hardware) What does that have to do with my post? LOL j/k Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-92273 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboss Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 lol i accidentally quoted the 10.4.3 drivers post.. and yes, ive seen an increase in performance during full load because im sure my hardware wasnt getting enough juice but now since its got 450w, there is a noticable increase. during idle.. not really.. also, having a larger psu is better since there is less chance of it reaching full capacity and thus it lasts longer and is more reliable. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-92280 Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTiK Posted April 9, 2006 Author Share Posted April 9, 2006 Cool, well thanks for the info guys, I think I know what I have to do... I wonder if it'll fix my overclocking problem. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-92470 Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicheusz Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 bigoss I don't belive that you can see performance increase on better PSU this is nonsense anyway I thin that you will must buy new PSU because new PCIe card take lot of power If you have more than one HHD and some other stuff 350 PSU will probably make your system unstable special in heavy use like games Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-92504 Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTiK Posted April 11, 2006 Author Share Posted April 11, 2006 Well I think that just happend to me.. My comp went all messed up and wouldn't start any OS... I had to remove a stick of ram restart and shutdown and reinstall the ram and now everthing is jiffy. My PSU in there now is just the cheap stock one that came with the case. 350W PEAK at best. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-93669 Share on other sites More sharing options...
declan Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 A better power supply will give you more stability, especially when overclocking. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-93832 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboss Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 bigoss I don't belive that you can see performance increase on better PSU this is nonsense anyway I thin that you will must buy new PSU because new PCIe card take lot of power If you have more than one HHD and some other stuff 350 PSU will probably make your system unstable special in heavy use like games well i had a noticable 3dmark05 improvement and the average fps for most of my games increased by quite a bit. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-93849 Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTiK Posted April 11, 2006 Author Share Posted April 11, 2006 A better power supply will give you more stability, especially when overclocking. That makes sense because the last set of ram modules I bought before the GeIL modules was f**king up all the time... now my GeIL is starting to f**k up. So I think it is a PSU problem. In single channel mode they work just fine... it's when they're running in dual channel I get errors in windows and Mac OS returns kernal panics. Weird to say the least. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-94017 Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicheusz Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 well i had a noticable 3dmark05 improvement and the average fps for most of my games increased by quite a bit. that is very interesting, can you give any numbers? In my opinion, games performance depends on GPU, CPU, RAM bandwith specially, HDD can increse load speed but PSU It is posible that when system is overload: game useage, video editing, or overclock PSU just can get so much power and system is power off/reset Most system reset are conected to bad cheap low woltage PSU or broken RAM memory That makes sense because the last set of ram modules I bought before the GeIL modules was f**king up all the time... now my GeIL is starting to f**k up. So I think it is a PSU problem. In single channel mode they work just fine... it's when they're running in dual channel I get errors in windows and Mac OS returns kernal panics. Weird to say the least. PSU and RAM rather make you system unstable than give some errors Did you try mem test on RAM? (this is on every live linux distro you can run in from boot prompt) Put it for few hours and see that this give you any error if system will restet then this may be PSU if error RAM Did you search for any clues in windows. There are avesome tool in options pleace > administration tools (sorry I don't remember right name English is not my native language) > computer managment, serach for hardweare errors specialy IDE/cdrom kontrolers in logs. And try some SMART prgram for your HDD to check condition From what you say it looks that you overclock you computer. This give error very often. When you increse FSB in most cases this will increse PCI speed PCIe AGP IDE RAM, they are much more sensitve than CPU for this hange. Use some tools to check did you PCI is more than 33MHz. And set CPU/ PCI ratio to make PCI bus closest to this number. Try different fsb for cpu and ram if it is possible. You can try put different RAM latency to make it more stable. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-94640 Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0nfused Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 If it is the power supply that came with your case, it is probably rather {censored} and can only do 350W peak. The P4s suck down a lot of power, especially if you are overclocking. I recommend that you get a decent power supply (around 450W) from a company like Enermax, Antec. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-94736 Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTiK Posted April 12, 2006 Author Share Posted April 12, 2006 Thanks guys for all your input. The ram issue was a faulty stick. Today I returned it and for ram that is rated for my mobo and it's running perfectly. I can overclock using the profile with no problems at all (those you of you who read my previous topics know what I'm talking about). While I was at the store I was asking the tech dude there about PSUs and he basiclt suggested everything you guys suggested. He turned me on to an Antec TruePower 550W (not sure if I need all that much) for a reasonable price, $119 CAD. So I think I'll go with that deal. If it is the power supply that came with your case, it is probably rather {censored} and can only do 350W peak. The P4s suck down a lot of power, especially if you are overclocking. I recommend that you get a decent power supply (around 450W) from a company like Enermax, Antec. Well I don't have a P4. I have a Pentium D 805. Don't know if it makes all that much a difference. But I see your point. BIGGER IS BETTER Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/14416-psus/#findComment-95031 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts