I am currently using a Seasonic SuperSilencer 400W PSU. I'm planning an upgrade from this system: - AMD Athlon 64 (Socket 754) 3000+ - 1GB PC-3200 DDR - 2x SATA HDDs, 1x PATA DVD-RW - Radeon 9800 Pro - 2x 120mm case fans, 1x PCI slot fan To this one: - Intel Core2Duo E4300 - 2GB PC-6400 DDR2 - 2x SATA HDDs, 1x PATA DVD-RW (same as above) - Radeon X1950 XT - 2x 120mm case fans, 1x PCI slot fan I plan on overclocking the E4300 pretty much as far as I can take it before heat, noise and stability become an issue (I'm aiming for at least 3GHz). Am I going to need a new PSU? Thanks.
Since you're planning to overclock your CPU, you're going to need a better PSU, and that Radeon X1950 XT needs a lot of power to run it also. I recommend you get something about 550W and over.
Well, that's some crappy news, heh. Perhaps I could just hold off on overclocking until I get a new PSU. Is that X1950 XT still going to blow up my machine with an E4300 at stock speeds? Thanks for the advice so far, everyone. I'm pretty frugal, so I'm guessing most of you face this sort of thing more often than I do. ;)
A 400w Seasonic is a hell of a lot better than the $50 600w power supplies a lot of people use to run rigs much more power-hungry than yours. If that power supply is fairly new (less than 2 years), it should run your rig even overclocked without any problems. If you're going to stick with stock for a while, you're almost certainly good even if that power supply is over 2 years old. Double-check the amperage rating on the +12v rail - 25a should be more than enough for what you're doing, and if you've got more than 30a, you're definitely in the clear.
A 400w Seasonic is a hell of a lot better than the $50 600w power supplies a lot of people use to run rigs much more power-hungry than yours. If that power supply is fairly new (less than 2 years), it should run your rig even overclocked without any problems. If you're going to stick with stock for a while, you're almost certainly good even if that power supply is over 2 years old. Double-check the amperage rating on the +12v rail - 25a should be more than enough for what you're doing, and if you've got more than 30a, you're definitely in the clear. RayvinAzn
Ah, thanks for the advice! You may have just saved me some cash. The specific model I'm using is the Seasonic SS-400HS. The specs show a total of 29a between the two +12v rails, so power-wise, I'm probably good to go for an overclock, right? Oh, and I probably should have mentioned that I'm building the system on the now-famous Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (Rev. 1.3) motherboard. I also just thought of something else: my Seasonic PSU only has a 20-pin ATX power connector. I realize you can just use an adapter (in fact, I'm pretty sure I have one lying around somewhere), but is this something to take into account or be wary of when overclocking? It's probably a silly question, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Thanks again!
Try and go for a the P35-DS3. It's got Penryn support.
20 pin PSU? Yeah, you better find a substitute for a 20+4pin ATX connector (try and find a reliable adapter) to give enough juice to your motherboard. Also, you may need an adapter for an 8 pin EPS12V CPU socket.
Try and go for a the P35-DS3. It's got Penryn support.
20 pin PSU? Yeah, you better find a substitute for a 20+4pin ATX connector (try and find a reliable adapter) to give enough juice to your motherboard. Also, you may need an adapter for an 8 pin EPS12V CPU socket.
Wesker776
I'm pretty conservative when it comes to PC upgrades. By the time I'm ready to build again, even quad-core will be old news. My system performance is just dandy in everything but the newest games, so if it wasn't for the fact that I'm still using a motherboard which only has AGP, I would just toss a new graphics card and some more RAM in the machine and call it a day. In fact, based on the generally meh quality of most of the games I've seen previews of recently, holding off another year or so on upgrades doesn't actually sound too painful. :P Quite frankly, I'd like to see PCs utilize a more unified architecture a la consoles before I upgrade. This sort of thing is long past due, especially considering that the PC market wouldn't be anywhere near as huge as it is if it weren't for gear-hungry gamers. I think Microsoft has finally caught onto this on the software side with DirectX 10, but without an updated hardware model to go along with it, it's pretty much pointless -- or, at least, it has appeared so in every DirectX 10 benchmark so far. But hey, I'm just rambling. Once again, many thanks for the replies, everyone. Any other thoughts or advice?
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