Using an Old 300W PSU in an Athalon X4 rebuild

[Soultribunal]

Originally Posted by fortkentdad

I took a look at the 300w PSU - it is a FSP / "Sparkle Power" unit, with "noise killer" and the Radio Shack line of computers it was in was their i-next line. I googled that and was surprised. I thought with a name like "Sparkle Power" this would be a no-name cheapo - but I guess FSP/Sparkle Power is a pretty well known maker of OEM PSU that are considered good quality. Found lots of posts on forums asking if they were any good - and the replies seem to suggest they are just fine. Not top of the line but not a product to be avoided. The one that shorted was a Logisys PSU which I found are prone to exploding! And at least one sample box had a fake Bronze sticker. That one is in the garbage. Glad I found the short and decide not to try and fix it.

ANYway - I've decided to just pull the 9800 card and use the on-board video - that drops even ASUS's recommended PSU power down to 250 so the 300 should be OK. Thought maybe I don't need three fans going on that rig but changing the number of fans from four (counting the stock CPU cooler) down to two didn't change ASUS's recommended minimum power supply. 20% over minimum should be good.

AND I looked at the ASUS recommendations for minimum power if I put a HD 7950 into my rig - it says minimum should be 600 - which makes my Antec 620m barely good enough. If I go with a 7850 I am good to go with a recommended 500w minimum.

The IT tech at our office and I chatted about PSU and he recommended I look for a PSU with at least two 12v rails. My 620m is a single 12v rail unit. So, maybe I upgrade to a better PSU for my main rig and retire the 620 to the back up unit downstairs. Hmmmm. Will be watching for "can't pass it up" sales on PSU's with multiple 12v rails, modular design and at least 700w or better.

Ironically the Sparkle ones ( I think I know the one you have) we used in the Telecom industry for our BCM units, and they have about a 5-7 year lifespan. And even when they kick it, the Hardware remains intact usually. I only know because for the last two years I have steadily been replacing them in these units for Antec EW380 as they die or they reach the end of their usable life.

AS for the Power recommendation, I think a solid 600W would power that 7950 just fine. Those power calculators are garbage. I've run a 590 full tilt with a i7 and didn't draw more than 400W. I cannot see a 7950 needing more than that.

-ST

[great_big_abyss]

Originally Posted by fortkentdad

I took a look at the 300w PSU - it is a FSP / "Sparkle Power" unit, with "noise killer" and the Radio Shack line of computers it was in was their i-next line. I googled that and was surprised. I thought with a name like "Sparkle Power" this would be a no-name cheapo - but I guess FSP/Sparkle Power is a pretty well known maker of OEM PSU that are considered good quality. Found lots of posts on forums asking if they were any good - and the replies seem to suggest they are just fine. Not top of the line but not a product to be avoided. The one that shorted was a Logisys PSU which I found are prone to exploding! And at least one sample box had a fake Bronze sticker. That one is in the garbage. Glad I found the short and decide not to try and fix it.

ANYway - I've decided to just pull the 9800 card and use the on-board video - that drops even ASUS's recommended PSU power down to 250 so the 300 should be OK. Thought maybe I don't need three fans going on that rig but changing the number of fans from four (counting the stock CPU cooler) down to two didn't change ASUS's recommended minimum power supply. 20% over minimum should be good.

AND I looked at the ASUS recommendations for minimum power if I put a HD 7950 into my rig - it says minimum should be 600 - which makes my Antec 620m barely good enough. If I go with a 7850 I am good to go with a recommended 500w minimum.

The IT tech at our office and I chatted about PSU and he recommended I look for a PSU with at least two 12v rails. My 620m is a single 12v rail unit. So, maybe I upgrade to a better PSU for my main rig and retire the 620 to the back up unit downstairs. Hmmmm. Will be watching for "can't pass it up" sales on PSU's with multiple 12v rails, modular design and at least 700w or better.

I've run a few Sparkle (SPI) powersupplys in my lifetime. In fact my son's rig and my HTPC are each using Sparkle supplys as we speak. They're great little units. Not feature rich like the Corsairs of this world, but solid and reliable all the same.

Originally Posted by Bond007

Yeah some FSP are fine. If your running integrated I would likely use that PSU as well.

As for your 620w...its a great PSU. A 7950/7970 and an AMD CPU would be pushing it pretty hard, though probably no issue. Don't worry about multiple rails.

I doubt that. His APU is a lower power AMD CPU (100W), and the 7950 isn't a huge powerhog either (compared to the last gen of cards). You'll be fine with a 620W powersupply.

[Bond007]

Originally Posted by great_big_abyss

His APU is a lower power AMD CPU (100W), and the 7950 isn't a huge powerhog either (compared to the last gen of cards). You'll be fine with a 620W powersupply.

You are right. I wrote that as I was running out the door this morning. Not sure what I was thinking about.

Your 620w should be fine with an APU and 7950

[fortkentdad]

Put my new toy the Hampton Energy Monitor onto my downstairs rig to see how many watts that machine was pulling - sans video card - barely broke 110w when I ran the Windows Index (4.0 btw). So I dropped in one of my HD 6670's (it only has room for one such card) and ran the test again - 122w. Adding the video card increased demand by 12 whole watts. I also ran 3D Mark11 to see if that would test it anymore - nope - still a max of 122w. (Mark11 score was 1400 :( ).

So I guess the 300w Sparkling PSU will do just fine, even with the video card installed.

And I'll just stick with the Antec 620m on my A10 rig as I said in another post where I reported on the watts that machine is drawing (320w).

More money for games eh?

[Bond007]

Yeah a 6670 would pull less power than the originally mentioned 9800gt. Running programs like furmark/prime95 would increase power consumption more, but there is no need to push things. Just monitor consumption in game ect. By the sounds of your current power usage though I don't think you will have a problem.