New powersupply sufficient...? Fortron 300w.....

toozerosickz · Post by **toozerosickz** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:18 pm

I'm new to this and searched for a long time trying to silence my TT 420 not so silent purepower. Anyways, I decided to mod the fans and was looking at the 300w powersupply thread and saw that a 300w would be sufficient instead. I don't want to spend $50+ or most likely even $40+. I see that the Fortron is pretty good? Looking at this fortron http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 937&depa=1 FSP300-60PN. Is it pretty quiet? I may overclock a lil bit.

I run:
AMD 64 3000+
K8n Neo2 Platinum
1 gig Corsair value select
120gb Seagate Barracuda
Geforce FX 5500 (i dont play any games)
NEC 3500a
Sony floppy
6 Arctic Cooling Pro 2l blue led 80mm case fans since they are quiet

May add a CD/rw but don't expect to. May add another hdd of same size or so.

toozerosickz · Post by **toozerosickz** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:22 pm

My system runs about 40c right now. A litlle unnder during early hour use and after a day of being on it runs no more than 45c.

greeef · Post by **greeef** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:28 pm

if you intend to overclock, you should get one with a higher rating, at least a 350W model, though that may still hold you back.

toozerosickz · Post by **toozerosickz** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:53 pm

Hmmmm, I really like that blue design and blue led to match my case. Is there any other quality psu 400w that look like that under $50 that someone can reccommend? Or just a quality, pretty silent psu under $50?

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:31 pm

I've got the Fortron 300 (check my sig) and it's been an awesome purchase. I been using it to replace the stock Antec TP 380S that came with my Sonata. It's been stable/cool/quiet for over a year now with no problems.
It should be fine for your needs since you only have one hard drive.

toozerosickz · Post by **toozerosickz** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:37 pm

Is there a way I can find out my wattage I'm currently using?

SometimesWarrior · Post by **SometimesWarrior** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 2:22 am

toozerosickz wrote:Is there a way I can find out my wattage I'm currently using?

There are power meters you can plug into the wall, such as the Kill-a-watt, and those cost $50 or less. If you know where to look, maybe you can borrow one (for example, my high school physics teacher had a few and let me take one home). Those will tell you the AC power usage; the actual DC wattage is the AC usage times the PSU's efficiency, which can be anywhere from 60% to 80%.

To get the DC wattage directly, you can use an ammeter. A clamp ammeter measures current by clamping a magnet around the power wires. You might find one you can buy or borrow from a hardware or electronics shop.

Going by the peak power numbers listed on computer parts will give you an inaccurate result, because you never see peak usage from all your components at once. All good power supplies can handle short peaks higher than their rated wattage, so what you want to find out is the maximum sustained wattage your system uses, and that isn't listed on parts spec sheets usually. That's why you need to measure the power, not just calculate it from datasheets.

With all that said, your system looks to be pretty standard, and chances are that someone with a similar PC build has used a Kill-a-watt on their system and posted their results on this forum. A bit of searching might turn up some useful numbers. My guess is that you would see no more than 200W maximum AC power usage, which means ~150W DC power or less (probably less). A good 300W power supply will have no trouble with that load.

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 2:55 am

Don't worry about the rating. 300W is more than enough for you. Even concidering overclocking. I run a similar setup (A64 2800+, 512MB RAM, 9600PRO) and I have never seen higher usage than 120W for this system (at startup) and my PSU-efficiancy is not good (I would be pleasantly surprised if it was as high as 60-65%). Anyway, concidering the better efficiancy in the fortron your should draw no more than mine, AC.

Rutger · Post by **Rutger** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 5:41 am

It's actually more important to calculate the amperage on the 12V rail than to measure the wattage (look in the PSU section of www.hardforum.com).

MSIs test report says that the FSP300 should work well with their board.
http://www.msi.com.tw/html/products/mai ... /power.pdf

Since you only have one HD, one optical and a Geforce FX5500 it should be sufficient for you.

mikellpp · Post by **mikellpp** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:32 am

I will second the motion that a good 300 watt p/s will work fine with your setup. I have an AMD64 2800 o/c to 2.4 ghz. My Kill-a-Watt meter shows about 105 watts draw at idle and up to 155 watts at load.

I am using the Seasonic Toranado 300 watt p/s. I have been running this setup since Septembe and its perfectly stable.

Talz · Post by **Talz** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 12:46 pm

I agree a good 300 watt should do fine for you, a 350-400 would give you more flexibility to upgrade in the future, especially in regards to a high end video card. It sounds like that is not of a high importance to you though.