Enough Juice?

[Slava]

:redface: I must admit: I am not an electrician and while I know a few things about hardware I have no idea how to tell if my computer has enough power or not.

P-4 2.4 GHz @ 2.9 GHz
512 Mb RDRAM
eVGA GF FX5700Ultra @ 550MHz clock/1.03 GHz RAM
Dual 120 Gb Barracudas 7000.2
48x CD-ROM
24x Yamaha 3-in-1 CD-RW
SB-Live XGamer
3Com NIC
5 case fans
350W A-Open stock PSU (came with my full-tower server case – not sure exactly who the PSU manufacturer is cuz I never looked)
WinXP Pro SP-1

I think I only have one or two unused PSU power connectors left in the box. All others are powering something like a fan or the video card.

I’ve experimented with this system quite a bit. Runs stable and fast enough for me. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic at 1600x1200 2xFSAA/4xAF and the rest of the Graphics options ON gives between 30 and 50 fps (average of around 40 fps). No problems. Reboot from Desktop back to useable Desktop takes about 35 seconds. But I’ve seen posts here which suggest that more power may actually improve overall system performance. So is there a straightforward way to check if the components get as much juice as they need to run at their fullest?

Thanks.

 

[Coyote]

Here's a link to a power wattage calculator. Go there and check off what equip/components you have and it'll tell you how large a power supply you should have (at least their recommendation).

<A HREF="http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/" target="_new">http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/</A>

Barton 2500+
Abit NF7-S v 2.0
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB Corsair Twinx 3200LL
9600 Pro
Enermax Noisetaker 420 watts
Win98SE

 

[jammydodger]

Does your computer work?


P4c 2.6@3.25
512Mb PC4000
2x120Gb 7200.7 in RAID0
Waterchill KT12-L30
Abit AI7
Ge-Force4 Ti4200

 

[davemar14]

If your comp is stable, don't worry about it. If components were being starved of power, you would have lock-ups and wouldn't be able to play games.

 

[Crashman]

Power issues don't make your computer slow, they make it non-functional.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Slava]

Thank you, thank you all. Really, I appreciate the input.

No, my PC is rock solid, stable and crash/artifact free even after all the overclocking. I am thinking of pushing the P4 2.4A currently at 2.98 further to about 3.1 or higher with water cooler and my FX5700 U to 600MHz clock and over 1.1GHz memory. I want 40K Aquamark3 and forget about 9800XT or nV6800 for the next 8-10 months

Peace.


<font color=green>Stingy people end up paying double. One kick-ass rig that will go strong for three years or one half-decent one every year?</font color=green>