to boot or not to boot

naitkris

i have ordered various computer parts from various places and will have everything but the power supply tomorrow (hopefully). the power supply (either Thermaltake 480W or 560W depending on finances) may take another week (at least) to arrive as i haven't even ordered it yet.

thing is i will have a spare 350W power supply (don't know what make as i won't have it until tomorrow - again, hopefully) that i could use, but am worried about underpowering the system and damaging components.

below are the computer specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Newcastle
MSI K8N Neo Platinum
2 x GeIL PC3200 512MB Value RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro
2 x hard drives
DVD drive
CD burner
2 x 80mm case fans
6 x 40mm case fans
Wireless card
56k modem

so, what would people recommend? wait a week (or two) for the proper PSU to arrive? boot the system with the 350W PSU? boot the system with the 350W PSU but with less plugged in components? any advice would be greatly appreciated.

naitkris

StRiKeR

if you worry about doing damage to the system I dont think it will really, theres not enough to do so, unless you swap over the 12v and the 5v wires! 350w depends on the quality, if its good you should be ok till you get a nice PSU, I had the 480w thermaltake but changed it to a 470w enermax! seems to be better! this one is €130 from Peats, you should be able to get that cheaper from uk or the states, or komplett! I'm running 6 HDDs 2x DVDRW and a 6800GT with Ultra bios of that!

OfflerCrocGod

If it's a named brand PSU it will be able to handle that lot as long as you don't OC it, so go ahead turn on your new PC ~ nice rig by the way

naitkris

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

If it's a named brand PSU it will be able to handle that lot as long as you don't OC it, so go ahead turn on your new PC

ok, cheers for that advice. but it's definitely not going to be a top brand PSU as it was dirt cheap.

my worries are if it can't handle my system specs - will it damage the components in some way or will it just not start, or what will happen, anyone know?

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

~ nice rig by the way

thanks. but it'll only be nice if all the components work together properly - i chose them carefuly anyhow.

OfflerCrocGod

naitkris wrote:

will it damage the components in some way or will it just not start, or what will happen, anyone know?

Well at the worst what can happen is a brown out and if that happens you will be able to spot it nice and quickly ( errors and re-boots and glitches ) and just shut down your PC. Surely you can try it without all the IDE drives? Try it with a minimal build of your PC and keep adding components - for a week ( or so? ) even a cheap PSU should hold the fort no prob. I wouldn't worry too much but I suppose you can always be safe rather then sorry and wait until the PSU arrives. Personally I'd Just Do It

StRiKeR

OfflerCrocGod is right, I dont see how you can damage anything by using a PSU that hasn't got much juice in it! if its not enough to power up everything, its not enough to damage them! unless if your PSU is faulty and give more voltage than it should!Usually if you haven't got a PSU that can handle your system, you just get reboots, or power down that kinda things, or some silly things happens but I wouldnt say it will damage your system!

you could damage the crappy PSU by having it on heavy load but do you really care???