Power Supply Question

[nickelmedia]

I see all of these specifications on power supplies that say AMD certified. Others don't. Some are house brand or generic. Does it relly matter if it is certified, or what brand it is? I'm installing a 1.4 tbird so could I just order the cheapest 350W or 400W from pricewatch and be safe?

Thanks for your help

 

[austinwilli]

you might as well buy a good one now or you will just end up with a generic one in the closet (like me) and a certified one in your system anyway - greatly improves system stability.

 

[nickelmedia]

would you recommend a 400 or could I get away with a 350W?

 

[ojai00]

if you're shelling out the money, might as well go for the 400 watt.

 

[leapingfrog0]

My hard disk clicks during lots of disk activity.. do you think my rig might be too power hungry? You can check out my rig stats in my sig.

 

[Jerboy]

<< I see all of these specifications on power supplies that say AMD certified. Others don't. Some are house brand or generic. Does it relly matter if it is certified, or what brand it is? I'm installing a 1.4 tbird so could I just order the cheapest 350W or 400W from pricewatch and be safe?

Thanks for your help >>



The total wattage is not all that important. What you need to know is combined wattage, which is another words for rated output of 5V and 3.3V bus combined. You may not exceed the maximum current on each bus and you may not exceed the total wattage. Usually (V1*I1)+(V2*I2) is over maximum combined output, so simple math is not going to give you the combined output ratings.

Cheap power supplies are designed poorly and most likely pushing all the internal components to limit whereas higher priced PS are designed with more margin and better engineering.

 

[Jerboy]

<< My hard disk clicks during lots of disk activity.. do you think my rig might be too power hungry? You can check out my rig stats in my sig. >>



Your HDD will click when 12V or 5V line plummet down too low even for split second. First start off with hooking up a volt meter on 12V bus. I would recommend an analog type as it responds faster than digital types. There shouldn't be much voltage fluctuation.