Antec True Power

[ryboto]

My roomate recently purchased an antec truepower 380W psu. While it's by no means silent, the fan only connectors have made his computer much quieter than it was. The reason he got the thing was because the computer was restarting randomly at the windows loading screen. the system specs are:
Abit AN7 mb
ati AIW 9600xt
athlon xp 3200
512mb corsair
lite-on dvdr
samsung cd-r
maxtor 40gb ata
wd 80gb ata
wd 200gb sata

Now, we were told, from abit forum gurus that the reason the computer restarted was due to insufficient power when the computer called for everything to initialize. The thing would start, but only after multiple reboots, and the guys in the forum said it was because the caps in the psu finally got enough charge to keep everything going. Well, He now has the 380W true power, with nearly twice as much current on a few of the rails, and he still has the issue. Some of the guys in the forum are still telling me it's the power supply, and saying that systems require more than that to run, but i've seen in multiple threads here that pc's dont usually take more than 200W...or am i not reading everywhere i should be??

I feel it's not a faulty power supply, but bad power to his room, since it worked fine from a cold boot in my room. So, what i'm really curious about, is based on the system specs, and assuming the psu isn't faulty, does the 380W have enough juice to power his system??

[nici]

Yes the PSU does have enough power. It must be something else.. A broken part or short-circuit somewhere probably.

[MikeC]

I feel it's not a faulty power supply, but bad power to his room, since it worked fine from a cold boot in my room. So, what i'm really curious about, is based on the system specs, and assuming the psu isn't faulty, does the 380W have enough juice to power his system??

That good cold boot tends to confirm your insight. I doubt very much that inadequate power is an issue. Think about what else is connected to AC power in his room that might interfere with the PC. Things like flourescent lighting or other devices that feed back garbage into the AC line could be a factor. Has he tried another AC outlet in his room? How about borrowing a line conditioner or UPS to see if that helps? When set up in your room, did you try rebooting or booting many times over a wide time period? (AC quality varies with time of day -- higher loads on the grid also means more garbage.)

[GrahamGarside]

that psu has plenty enough power, if my Athlon 64 3400+ with 1gb ram,radeon 9800, 2 7200rpm HDD's and 2 optical drives will run then so will that system
Als I don't recomend the usage of the fan only connectors. The system will strart up quieter but they go off the psu temp and so when the psu warms up they speed up. Just running off 5V should do it

[ryboto]

I feel it's not a faulty power supply, but bad power to his room, since it worked fine from a cold boot in my room. So, what i'm really curious about, is based on the system specs, and assuming the psu isn't faulty, does the 380W have enough juice to power his system??

That good cold boot tends to confirm your insight. I doubt very much that inadequate power is an issue. Think about what else is connected to AC power in his room that might interfere with the PC. Things like flourescent lighting or other devices that feed back garbage into the AC line could be a factor. Has he tried another AC outlet in his room? How about borrowing a line conditioner or UPS to see if that helps? When set up in your room, did you try rebooting or booting many times over a wide time period? (AC quality varies with time of day -- higher loads on the grid also means more garbage.)

I tried the cold boot in my room twice. First time, it had been sitting unplugged for 5 hours while i wired in a new fan. When i booted it up it up it couldn't have been more than 25-29C. After a successfull boot, i let it sit again for about 5-10 minutes, i can't remember how long exactly..all I know is, i didn't let the PC get up to operating temp, it was still relatively cool when i shut it down.

I also made sure I unplugged the thing after it was off, and I assumed 5-10 minutes of no power would be enough to ensure that all power was gone from the psu. It turned on again the second time i tried. I didnt try it a third due to time constraints. I got it back in his room next, unplugged a bunch of junk, and it rebooted the first try. I tried minimizing the load, but reducing the fsb, but still rebooted. I let it sit for 5 minutes, plugged it back in, and turned the fsb back to normal for the 3200, and it booted fine. So, it seems that it's either the power to his room, or another issue that I just can't see..

[ryboto]

that psu has plenty enough power, if my Athlon 64 3400+ with 1gb ram,radeon 9800, 2 7200rpm HDD's and 2 optical drives will run then so will that system
Als I don't recomend the usage of the fan only connectors. The system will strart up quieter but they go off the psu temp and so when the psu warms up they speed up. Just running off 5V should do it

See, i knew there were people using it with an a64 system, I told the guys on abit forums that I've read reviews of the thing running systems like yours. But they just replied, "yea, but for how long, and what kind of use?" As for the fan only connectors...I attempted a 5 1/2 drive duct for the psu, to give it a bit more cool are so that it doesn't ramp up the fans, plus, he isn't as picky as I am about silence, so it doesn't bother him, plus the psu makes his computer much quieter than it was.

[GrahamGarside]

in fact I'm now running with a GF6800. It's close to the limits of the psu and yeah the lifespan may not be 10 years anymore but it runs and it's stable, I've had my system on without a reboot for 2 weeks with the 9800 running f@h