Power supply

[Higgs]

Is there any negative to going with high power output such as Antec 550 watt even if you dont need that much? I have new comp with older monitor and the screen seems to have a supersonic flicker to it. I have the 9800 pro 128 card with older PF790 viewsonic monitor set to 75 Hertz and 1024 x 768 pixels. This is the Athlon 64 3200+ with dual 74G Raptors from ABSPC. Any comments?

 

[bfonnes]

I dunno. Get a new monitor? It shouldn't flicker at 75 Hz. Why would this have anything to do with the power supply? Maybe the monitor's power supply if it is going out...

 

[Connoisseur]

There's no negative to getting a better power supply. In all situations, the PSU only draws as much power as it needs for the system. So you're not gonna be seeing any higher energy bills than you already have . As far as the monitor, I agree with bfonnes. Unless your psu isn't providing enough power to the vid card, it's probably the fault of the monitor. You said so yourself that it was pretty old. It's very likely that it's crapping out on you. Before you invest in a new PSU, make sure that's the problem. What's your current PSU rating and model?

 

[Davegod]

A "problem" of high watt rated PSU's is often the fans have to be suitably high rated to cope with getting rid of the heat when at max load. A PSU that can vary the speed of it's fans probably wont have this problem though, AFAIK all antec PSUs do this?

 

[Maximilian]

The antec 550W is fine, some others have quad fans look cool but stink as PSU's so nothing wrong with a high wattage but just stick with good makers. Also join the LCD crowd

 

[Higgs]

Computer is new Athlon 64 3200+ with dual Raptor 74GB drives. 1GB corsair LL ram. As far as LCD crowd I am a gamer and dont know of a good LCD gamer monitor.

 

[Higgs]

Something is up with this new comp. Television in same room but different outlet has some interference with picture when this comp is powered up. Maybe it is the power or dual Raptor drives? My other P4 1.8 comp did not do this to the TV.