is a 350W Enermax good enough?

[wrz0170]

In still not deciding which way to go yet whether to continue with AMD or Intel, I am also trying to piece together what hardware that I have now, that I can keep.

2 CDROMS
One hardrive

Is my Enermax 350W good enough to run a XP2100 or 2200

or

Intel 2.2 or 2.4 ghz? I think the p/s does have a 12v plug.
speaking of which, how good is that stock HSF?

Does the fact that I will be getting a board that has the LAN and sound built in thereby eliminating the two cards?

[aznlurkerz]

a 350 Watt Enermax should be enough but if u want to be sure just got for a 400 watt if u want. but dont get anything lower then 350 watts.

[Scott Tiger]

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Does the fact that I will be getting a board that has the LAN and sound built in thereby eliminating the two cards?
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Not sure I understand your question but yes, getting a board with those two built in will remove the need to buy two extra cards. You won't notice the difference between a pci nic (Network Integrated Card) and the built in one but you may notice the difference between and a Soundblaster and onboard sound. It's up to you really. You can always disable the built in sound on the motherboard and use a sound card later if you like though.

Good luck

[wrz0170]

Aznlurkerz,

I have the 350W Enermax now. It is what powers my current system. Never had an iota of a problem with it. But I also know a good p/s is not cheap. So if I could save some hardware from my old system, great!

But at the same time, I don't want to be just getting by either.

I tell you, this is a tough decision between Intel and AMD. I have built both and never had problems with either. I have the funds for an Intel 2.4 and related hardware(including p/s if needed) or I could save some money and go XP2200 and rev it up.

It's mind boggling.

[wrz0170]

Scot Tiger,

Sorry for the mix-up, what I meant is that I am sure anything that is in a system requires a certain amount of juice to run it. Everthing wants a piece of that p/s. I was just curious if having two built in features in a board lessens some of the power requirements or if it is the same. I could only assume that it is the same. Just looks different, one is a card, ther other just built in.

[bill1971]

wrz:
I would guess that the cards would pull more power,(more circuitry/chips), but only slightly so. If you jump from a 350 Enermax to a 431watt, you're talking about a big price jump as well. I have both and looking at the specs, the 350watt actually puts out 2 more amps on the 12 volt rail than the 431watt, but you gain a little on the +3.3 and 5.5+ rails with the 431.

I've read a good review about Thermaltake power supplies. For
about $78 you get a 500 watt PS with what seems to amount to the PS equivalent of a UPS's Automatic Voltage Regulation(AVR),
which would adjust for any input voltage drops or momentary system demand surges. Nice feature to have for stabe running.

In the end I'd advise to go with the 350 that you already have,
and upgrade the PS when that time comes, since that item is
relatively easy to swap out.

While we're talking about it, do the specs,reliability, etc., warrant the high price of those PC Power and Cooling PS's? Thanks.

- Bill

[Scott Tiger]

AZ - Oh, okay. I've seen you post here quiet a few times before and was wondering why you would ask something like that. My memory isn't the best so I was taking it for granted that I had you mixed up with someone else.

Bill - that's a pretty good break down between different psu's. I'm considering a new psu as well and think I'll be getting the Enermax from newegg. It has the dual fan feature and everyone's saying that a 350 would fill my needs.

Shawn

[woodbutcher]

I agree with bill on this one. If you already have the 350 stick with it. One thing I will not skimp on is a quality PS. I have several boxes running and one of them is the "fabeled"? ECS K7S5A. This MB is known to be finiky (sorry, can't spell today) and I'm using an Enhance ATX-1125BTX and have never had a problem. It's rated at 300 watts and I have a cd, cdrw. sparQ drive, 2 HD and the floppy and again, no probs.

WB

[Richard Cranium]

Pentium 4 requires a new kind of power supply that ensures the delivery of 10-12 A from the 12V line of the power supply.

Although Pentium 4 doesn't really need much more power than AMD's latest Athlon, Intel decided to avoid the mess that happened to Athlon-owners who used underpowered voltage supplies in their systems, resulting in frequent system failures. Intel is not following AMD's basically ignored compatibility list, which is hardly worth the paper its not written on

http://www17.tomshardware.com/cpu/00...120/p4-13.html

[absalom]

Originally posted by wrz0170
In still not deciding which way to go yet whether to continue with AMD or Intel, I am also trying to piece together what hardware that I have now, that I can keep.

2 CDROMS
One hardrive

Is my Enermax 350W good enough to run a XP2100 or 2200

or

Intel 2.2 or 2.4 ghz? I think the p/s does have a 12v plug.
speaking of which, how good is that stock HSF?

Does the fact that I will be getting a board that has the LAN and sound built in thereby eliminating the two cards?

Enlight a powersupply that satisfy your needs performance and price can't go wrong.You can check the specifications for the enlight 420 watts here at the enlight website http://www.enlightcorp.com/ewebsite/index.htm

you can go with pagecomputer or computers4sure http://www.computers4sure.com/produ...oductid=1210550 for $48.95 or pagecomputer http://www.pagecomputers.com/cgi-bin/page/B9652703.html
for $42.95

newegg.com carries them but they are out of stock you can check the spec sheet at there site http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?style=album