Power suppl unit

freeze4real

Hi all, I'm planning on adding and upgrading some parts on my pc.

I cant remember alot of my pc specs but here they are,

Ram is 2gb, planning on adding 3more so 8GB,
HD is 320 sea gate barracuda,
psu cooler master 450w

GPU is none at the moment but planning on adding ATI Radeon 3870 x 2,

processor is AMD athlon 64 x 2.

I only use my pc for trading, so I use dual monitors and I only play AVP2 2 on pc so I dont need much power to run that.
Question is is my PSU supply enough ?

Monotype

Coolermaster what model?

How does 2GB + 3GB make 8GB?

Edit: It's an oldish model as I said before, and not a particularly good one at that. I think I might have said that you'd be okay if you were powering a light system and not overly concerned about the safety of your PC, but I wouldn't go throwing in a graphics card in there. That PSU doesn't even have the appropriate connectors. You can get around this with adapters but you'd be really better off with a newer, more efficient and stable PSU.

I hope you didn't spend too much on the 3870x2 - a modern midrange card would be cooler and less power hungry.

Whatever you do, don't go out and buy another PSU that has a high wattage rating. This means next to nothing in terms of quality and even what it's really capable of delivering. You seemed to be in a hurry with buying your components last time with leaving thoughts about compatibility and real measures of value (vs newer items) until later.

Edit 2: Also check that your motherboard is compatible with that much RAM.

Eboggles

Monotype wrote: »

How does 2GB + 3GB make 8GB?

I think he means 2GB + 2GB(3) .

freeze4real

Monotype wrote: »

Coolermaster what model?

How does 2GB + 3GB make 8GB?

Edit: It's an oldish model as I said before, and not a particularly good one at that. I think I might have said that you'd be okay if you were powering a light system and not overly concerned about the safety of your PC, but I wouldn't go throwing in a graphics card in there. That PSU doesn't even have the appropriate connectors. You can get around this with adapters but you'd be really better off with a newer, more efficient and stable PSU.

I hope you didn't spend too much on the 3870x2 - a modern midrange card would be cooler and less power hungry.

Whatever you do, don't go out and buy another PSU that has a high wattage rating. This means next to nothing in terms of quality and even what it's really capable of delivering. You seemed to be in a hurry with buying your components last time with leaving thoughts about compatibility and real measures of value (vs newer items) until later.

I meant 2gb x 3.

Yea I remember you said something about the cooler master but it's served me very well and no problems at all or whatsoever.


I'm actullay rysjing to get another psu at this stage.

But are you saying that the psi can handle the graphics card.

On the ATI homepage it says the 3870x2 model needs a pay if atleast 550watts mines 430.

Monotype

Realistically it should be possible to run on the previous PSU.

Power consumption of an entire system is about 330W. Actually draw by the system would be a little less given inefficiencies.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_3870_X2/21.html
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2008/01/ati-3870x2-review/4/

Now your PSU seems to be rated at 348W on the 12V rails. That's from realhardtechx, but I think they just got this figure from adding the two rails (14 + 15), so it is probably a little less.

Those tests aren't great as they take the power of the whole system, so what happens if the CPU is stressed as well? Power consumption could be higher.

Given that it's already a sub par PSU, it's cutting it a bit fine. I really recommend you get something a bit better unless you're really broke.

freeze4real

Monotype wrote: »

Realistically it should be possible to run on the previous PSU.

Power consumption of an entire system is about 330W. Actually draw by the system would be a little less given inefficiencies.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_3870_X2/21.html
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2008/01/ati-3870x2-review/4/

Now your PSU seems to be rated at 348W on the 12V rails. That's from realhardtechx, but I think they just got this figure from adding the two rails (14 + 15), so it is probably a little less.

Those tests aren't great as they take the power of the whole system, so what happens if the CPU is stressed as well? Power consumption could be higher.

Given that it's already a sub par PSU, it's cutting it a bit fine. I really recommend you get something a bit better unless you're really broke.

Thanks for the input, even though what I understood was the last paragraph.

That shows my knowledge about how pc work is close to zero. I'm actually thinking if getting a new psu because like uj said there's a possibility that it could be over stressed and I don't want to take any chances.

Monotype

Basically the idea of a PSU is that it converts alternating current (AC) at 230 Volts to direct current (DC) at 3.3V, 5V and 12V.

Most components in your computer use 12V so this is the most important. Some PSU makers will give their PSUs a higher wattage rating which they can derive from saying that you can draw a load of power from the 3.3V and 5V rails. This is useless for a modern system. So you end up with a PSU that says it's 500W but might only be as good as 400W. All the better quality PSUs will give you an honest rating rather just making their product seem better than it is.

So the PSU has to convert from 230V to 12V. So how well can it do the job? Some crappy PSUs can wobble on this and you could end up with 11V or 13V. They can get worse as you draw more power. This would stress your components a lot and likely cause them to die very early. The best PSUs give you a stable, consistent conversion to the right voltages.

Finally you should consider efficiency. Converting voltages isn't perfect and you lose energy through heat. Older PSUs are often only about 70% efficient. So 30% of the power that you're drawing from the wall is wasted. If buying a new PSU, I'd expect get at least 80% efficiency, so you're losing a lot less power now. There's efficiency ratings which cover these that all the good manufacturers will use, meaning that there's been a big push in recent years to improve and show off how efficient a manufacturer can make their PSUs.

Have a read through the PSU guide in my signature for more details.

Just be very careful what you are actually buying. I recommend that you do not just buy the first and cheapest "600W" PSU that you see as not all PSUs are equal.