Can this PSU cut it.

Quigs Snr

Guy is putting a system together

AMD Athlon XP 2000 Processor
Creative Geforce 4 Ti 4200 64MB DDR
Seagate U6 5400 RPM ATA100 40GB Hard Drive
NEC DVD 16/48X
GlacialTech CPU Cooler
10/100 Network Card
ECS K7S5A Motherboard
256MB PC2100 DDR RAM
Elite System Case
Sound Blaster 1024 PCI Soundcard
Floppy Disk Drive


Now he's gotten all these bits togther from various sources and isn't going to change any, however, I am concerned about the PSU, this Elite System case (53 Euro in PCSuperstore, Waterford and I'm sure the other PCSuperstore locations), has a generic 300W PSU (Cheap as ****, 14A on the 3.3V Line, 20A on the 5V etc......)

I don't think it's got enough juice for the task in hand, however I have seen these weedy PSU's power systems like this before. In fact for a while there I had a 300W running my own machine, pretty much as above, but with a Burner and another HD as well, oh and a GF4Ti 4600 instead of the 4200. I have since moved to the Enermax 431. No difference, but more peace of mind. Seems to be luck of the draw with these cheapo PSU's.

Anyway, anyone any experience with these particular PSU's / cases, I reckon the rest of the machine is fine so don't bother commenting on it(although I HATE the ECS board, but this one is secondhand and working fine, I've tested it).

PPC

I think if you flash the bioses of those boards and put some thermal paste under the northbridge cooler they work properly.
Theres some forums about that board on the net with fixes.

I'd get a 350w for that spec tbh. Just for safety really.

BigEejit

I have a similar case and power supply to this as well (bought from pcsuperstore as well, I bought from there because it was handy) ... I know, I know, $hitty case but cheap as muck ... I have a supermicro p6dge with 2 X 1GHz P3's, 1GB ram, a 29160 scsi card, 10000 rpm seagate 73GB hd, a burner, dvd, geforce 3 ti200, modem, sound card, 2 case fans and a drive bay cooler (3 small fans in that).... never had a problem ... (except noise, but i knew what I was letting myself in for with the hard drive, I had heard it running in a quiet environment, but I got it cheap and it is VERY fast) ...

tribble

(although I HATE the ECS board, but this one is secondhand and working fine, I've tested it).

Ah, it's not too bad. I find mine stable, it just ai'nt for OC'ing

10000 rpm seagate 73GB hd

OMG!:eek:


b

Quigs Snr

I could write a book on the ECS board. I have put together several systems with these, and found it to be a 50-50 pot luck type thing, if you got one that had problems (normally manifest in the form of frequent crashes at 133FSB).

You are referring to the chipset heatsink fix PPC, this is already done as it's one of the old machines I put together for someone else (who now wants a USB2.0 board) and it's been great for the last 6 months, I had one myself for about 9 months and they were ok if you got a 'good' one. (ps: the north and south bridge is one combined chip in these boards, thats how they can sell them so cheap.)

I think theres no harm trying the cheapo since the guys only just gone and bought the bleedin thing this afternoon ! At least I will get to say I told you so and can take the moral high ground which is important considering I will have to put it together for him !

Thanks for the replies.