PC Power Supply; Will I need to Upgrade it?

fender

I have just bought a new motherboard with an AMD 4600 dual core cpu.

I plan to take out my old Athlon XP 1900 chip and motherboard and put the new one in. The current set up has a 300watt power supply. Will this be ok for the new board and chip?

Thanks.

Blacksheep1979

If it's a decent psu then it's bordeline ok depending on how many hd's cd drives etc you have, really you want to upgrade.

chris667

Why not try it out? If it falls over replace it, if not, save your money.

Blacksheep1979

Because if it fails it can damage other components...

amonra

Dont spoil the ship for a 'afpth of tar, change the PSU while you are at it.
You know it makes sense !

vyseyboy

New motherboards / cpu's / graphics hardware put most of the strain on the 12V rail of the power supply.

The quoted power in watts rating isn't really descriptive of the suitability of the PSU. Look at the amount of amps available on the 12V rail (or both rails, if there's two {ideally there is!}) It's hard to say without knowing your exact specifications / graphics hardware, but if I were you I'd be looking for at least 20-25A in total at 12V.

Chances are, you need a new one, it might start up for a while like that, but it'll never last, and like Blacksheep said, you're putting your hardware at risk somewhat.

chris667

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

Because if it fails it can damage other components...

I might agree with you if fender was upgrading something other than the motherboard. Dual core CPUs are much more power efficient than their predecessors.

I thought a professional like you would have known that.;)

If you upgrade your graphics card, or a decide to install a raid, then think about it. But don't go for some cheap, no-name thing, as cheaper ones do fail more often, and look on that wattage on the front of the box with an extremely large pinch of salt. The specifications of the cheaper ones can be a bit, ahem, creative.

Of course, if your current PSU is sounding louder than it used to, all bets are off. Vyseyboy has the right idea for what you should be looking at when you buy one.

But if it aint broke...

Hope this helps.:cool:

banger9365

Electrolytic capacitor aging. When used heavily or over an extended period of time (1+ years) a power supply will slowly lose some of its initial wattage capacity,so buy a new one
Athlon XP 1900 chip @35W AMD 4600 dual core @ 87 W

Nilrem

Also, don't modern motherboards tend to require more power on a different voltage line than the old ones? (was it old motherboards needing most wattage on the 12v line and it changing to the 5v line, or was it the other way round).

Either way for the cost of a modern, reasonable quality* higher wattage PSU i'd definitely go with a new one when changing the motherboard/CPU, especially when the old PSU was possibly borderline.

Having said that I tend to replace the PSU whenever I upgrade my machine's motherboard/cpu, if the current one is more than a year or two old at the time of the upgrade.


*Not QTECH or similar 650 watts with LEDs for £30 , something like an Antec (you can get one of their "basic" 380's for under £30, or one of their better ones for a bit more such as their more efficient "earthwatts" 380's for £33 from ebuyer).

chris667

I still maintain you are worrying unnecessarily. Even if what banger9365 said was universally true, the power consumption of your new processor will be a fraction of what your old one drew.
Think about it - if it was true that all power supplies became somehow deficient after a year, you'd have to replace it every year, and looking at the numbers of old PCs still in use, I'd maintain that is wrong.
Buy one if you like (see the post above for good advice about brand names) if you want reassurance, but don't think it'll change your life.

[Deleted User]

chris667 wrote: »

I still maintain you are worrying unnecessarily. Even if what banger9365 said was universally true, the power consumption of your new processor will be a fraction of what your old one drew.
Think about it - if it was true that all power supplies became somehow deficient after a year, you'd have to replace it every year, and looking at the numbers of old PCs still in use, I'd maintain that is wrong.
Buy one if you like (see the post above for good advice about brand names) if you want reassurance, but don't think it'll change your life.

For the sake of £40, it's hardly worth putting your new kit at risk with a prone to failure dated PSU that's more than likely quite dusty inside.