Psu + Amd 64 3200+

Tenderised Meat

Hello,

Im upgrading pretty soon and I was just wondering what sort of PSU is suitable for this CPU. Would a 350W/360W be okay?

edit: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=118126&cks=PRL is the kit Im buying, any comments on it are welcome.

Mutant_Fruit

I'd go with a minimum of the Chieftec 360watt, but if you want to make sure you won't have to change your powersupply again if you upgrade to newer componants in a year or two's time, go for the 420watt version, or a thermaltake 480watt.

Avoid cheap qtec at all costs! A good PSU rated at 350 watts is quite likely to beat a cheapass qtec rated at 450watts, and the good psu will live longer!

Tenderised Meat

I think I'll go for the Chieftec 360W. Thanks!

naitkris

i've used a 300W cheap PSU on a AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 1GB RAM, 2 drives with no problems as a stop-gap solution before my 560W Thermaltake arrived (which is overkill, I know)...

i also tried with another different brand 300W PSU and found the machine wouldn't start properly with this other 300W PSU - so it really does depend on the make and how the rails are set up on the PSU, not just the total power in Watts...

duridian

With 300W youre really borderline with any newish stuff like AMD64 or P4C or newer. Of course brands vary a lot too, the cr@ppy ones give you the peak rating which is meaningless(much the same as the way that bad speakers give you the peak music power output PMPO, in other words the point at which speakers become weapons of mass destruction(ooh... I hear the CIA's search bots coming ))
The good brands give you the continuous power which is what the psu can really handle. Fortrons are supposed to be remarkably good in 300W from what I've heard they underrate their PSUs. 400W or more in a good brand is a better rule of thumb if you plan on adding a few bits later to the pc.

Azza

Yeah probablyu around 400w should cover you. By the way avoid qtec psu's at all cost.

Prior Of Taize

I bought a 64 3200+ 2 weeks ago and for €70 i got a Hiper 520W with gold platewd heat sinks and 3 fans. Its a asolid PSU but i guess you want one which doesnt have so much power...It keeps the case really cold on its own....

kmb

I have the qtec 450 watt which everyone hates it seems but i am running:
2x160 satas
1x dvd writer
1 dvd
9700 pro
sound card
amd 64 bit 3200
neo motherboard
scanner
printer,786 mb ram
etc etc and never a problem.

Why do they hate cheapish psu"s?

(Here comes the avalanche!)

balkieb2002

I bought that kit from komplett and have no problems so far, great motherboard, good memory and sweet processor and all very easily assembled. i have a tagen power supply and i runs the pc grand as well.

Azza

Q-Tec have bad press because they severly overstate the actually wattage. They usually only output 70% of there stated wattage. Combined with the fact they have crappy rails and very short power connectors.

I had a q-tec 550w. Peak voltage was 285w.

Mighty stuff.

Venom

Q-Tec products suck. Every computer based forum on the web agree on this.

TacT

you got lucky, my 550W gold plated Qtec couldn't power my xp2100+ 512mb ram, 2 hdd, a CDRW, ISDN TA and a Gf4 ti4200. My 350W codegen did a better job

Mutant_Fruit

kmb wrote:

I have the qtec 450 watt which everyone hates it seems but i am running:
2x160 satas
1x dvd writer
1 dvd
9700 pro
sound card
amd 64 bit 3200
neo motherboard
scanner
printer,786 mb ram
etc etc and never a problem.

Why do they hate cheapish psu"s?

(Here comes the avalanche!)

When you run motherboard monitor (or some such program) what are the voltage rails like on your qtec?

duridian

kmb wrote:

Why do they hate cheapish psu"s?

(Here comes the avalanche!)

It's not cheap if you compare the Qtec's real output. Rather than saying dear and cheap perhaps it's better to phrase it as respected brand and non-respected brand. Anyway it's their own fault for using bad components and being deceptive about the wattage. I was going to say Qtec were the Ladas of the pc world, but that wouldn't be fair to Lada, at least they never tried to pass off their 1300CC Riva models as rally cars.

kmb

All my values are correct.So what am i supposed to be experiencing?I have my system overclocked by 5% using the neo bios feature.

Anyway,maybe some day i will be happy to waste the guts of €90 on a psu which isnt qtec brand but until then i am satisfied with my lot.
What psu would ye recommend i consider my my kit?Also the 9700 pro has a floppy drive connector for extra power and if all is not well then this goes bellyup!!!

regds kieran

ViperVenoM

[rant] q-tec golllddd psu couldnt hack my 9800xt...then it blew up in my server...oh how good of it the ... @&$%#^&%!!!!!![/rant]