300W enough?

[8procstooslow]

It's about time I upgraded my creaking old Athlon Classic 850, actually I'm going to build a new system and relegate the old system to a proxy/print/scanner server and general, kick something off in the background and leave it server.
I am going to go Athlon MP (1.2Ghz) (running win2k/linux) and was wondering will my 300W power supply be enough to power the beast, please note that initially I will be using an old Geforce256. I don't need masses of video performance (only play the odd bit of Quake II) so the powerdrain could be fairly high until I get around to getting a newer video card.
Please no flame wars, I have chosen the Athlon route, cos it's cheap and fast, end of story.

 

[Kelledin]

I would say 300W is probably not enough. 400+ W is a better choice for that kind of setup...

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[Matisaro]

I agree with kelledin, however, I think that the 300w will be fine as long as you dont overstress it too much.(no overclocking young man!). A 400w psu is a good investment, get a nice enermax 431 and have a psu which will last you for a generation or 2.(computer generation, not human generation

~Matisaro~
"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
~Tbird1.3@1.5~

 

[starwrs3]

my athlon 1.2 runs fine with 250 watts with and ati radeon card

 

[lhgpoobaa]

READ THIS THREAD.
<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq&notfound=1&code=1" target="_new">http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq&notfound=1&code=1</A>

as u will see the most important thing is NOT the rated wattage of the psu, but the quality and how many Amps it can put out on the 3.3v, 5v and 12v lines.

a 300W psu should be fine, IF its a decent brand. my initial 300W psu was a crap generic that could get easily spanked by a 250W enermax.

Religious wars are 2 groups of people fighting over who has the best imaginary friend.