Is my PSU powerful enough?

[OldAMD]

I went to a website to see if my 350W power supply is sufficient for my needs and the website said "Yes". I ordered the parts except the PSU.. at home I have a Sparkle 350W PSU.

Here's my specs:

350W Sparkle PSU
Athlon X3 3.0 GHz
2 GB Ram at 1333 MHz
Radeon 4670 HD
slow 80 gig hard drive
DVD/CD-RW player
2 Case fans.

 

[redkachina]

I think you just met your PC's minimum power requirements..IMO you should upgrade to better one..just to accommodate any upgrades later on

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The official ATI power recommendation for all of their 4600 series video cards is a 400 watt or greater power supply for one card and a 500 watt or greater power supply for two cards in Crossfire mode.

The recommendations are for an entire pc system.

Sparkle power supplies are not stellar performers. Sparkle does not manufacture their own power supplies. Instead, they contract other manufacturers to make psu's for them. Currently there are half a dozen Sparkle 350 watt models made by several manufacturers.

Corsair and Seasonic are two brands that have a reputation for high quality power supplies that consistently earn high marks in technical reviews. They are reliable, stable, and come with a 5 year warranty. Some of the newer models come with a 7 year warranty. Lately we've been seeing a few other brands offering some high quality units. One example would be the Antec Earthwatts and Antec TruePower New models which are a major improvement over Antec’s older psu’s like the Basiq models.

 

[jsc]

I'd get a more powerful power supply.

 

[keytthom]

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

try that. i dont know how reliable it is though

 

[OldAMD]

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

try that. i dont know how reliable it is though

I tried that and it says "250 Watts". That's why I didn't buy a new PSU.

 

[OldAMD]

The official ATI power recommendation for all of their 4600 series video cards is a 400 watt or greater power supply for one card and a 500 watt or greater power supply for two cards in Crossfire mode.

The recommendations are for an entire pc system.

Sparkle power supplies are not stellar performers. Sparkle does not manufacture their own power supplies. Instead, they contract other manufacturers to make psu's for them. Currently there are half a dozen Sparkle 350 watt models made by several manufacturers.

Corsair and Seasonic are two brands that have a reputation for high quality power supplies that consistently earn high marks in technical reviews. They are reliable, stable, and come with a 5 year warranty. Some of the newer models come with a 7 year warranty. Lately we've been seeing a few other brands offering some high quality units. One example would be the Antec Earthwatts and Antec TruePower New models which are a major improvement over Antec’s older psu’s like the Basiq models.

Can you give me a link to your source? Some dude that I know has a Radeon 5870 and it only consumes 190 Watts.

I also heard rumors that people ran the HD 4670 with a 250watt power supply.

Edit: The ATI website says that it only consumes 75 watts under full load.

 

[OldAMD]

while I agree with everyone that a Sparkle PSU would not be my first, 10th, or maybe even 50th choice on purchasing a PSU; but the 4670 draws very little power. People run it off Dell 250w PSU, I wouldn't, but they report no issues. The card does not need a 400w PSU.

Well, the Sparkle is 7 years old and never failed. The POWMAX 400 watt lasted 9 days and the PSU blew up.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The official ATI recommendation is on the 4600 series system requirements page of the ATI web site:

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-4000/hd-4600/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-4600-system-requirements.aspx

Remember, the recommendation is for an entire pc system, not just the video card. A lot will depend on how much overclocking and tweaking you do as well as which games you play and the settings.

 

[obsidian86]

its 7 yrs old i'd be wary even the top Japanese caps have an average 10-15 yrs lifespan and im willing to bet the sparkle does not have Japanese caps

 

[OvrClkr]

I would try it out first, if it don't work then just upgrade the PSU..

You can get a decent 500w (5 year warranty) for around 59.99$ (39.99 after rebate)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153052&cm_re=500w_psu-_-17-153-052-_-Product

 

[aford10]

I have to say, I'm not a fan of that thermaltake. It's got small rails, and thermaltake is known for overrating their specs.

This OCZ would be my top recommendation.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022&cm_re=ocz_550w-_-17-341-022-_-Product
This Corsair would be my 2nd choice.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008&Tpk=corsair%20psu

 

[OvrClkr]

I have to say, I'm not a fan of that thermaltake. It's got small rails, and thermaltake is known for overrating their specs.

This OCZ would be my top recommendation.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022&cm_re=ocz_550w-_-17-341-022-_-Product
This Corsair would be my 2nd choice.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008&Tpk=corsair%20psu

43a via 2 rails is way more than what the OP needs, im just giving him a solution that won't break the bank. I have dealt with many TT PSU's and to this date they are all still going strong w/o any hiccups. I guess you have had a bad experience with TT in the past?

The Corsair is a great buy but I would stay away from OCZ's PSU's as they do tend to cough when pushed.

 

[aford10]

No, actually I currently have two 430w Thermaltake PSUs. I'm fairly happy with them. My comment was more about the price of the alternatives. For a similar price, I'd rather have the bigger PSUs. I currently have that OCZ in my main PC. Not all OCZ PSUs are good, but that model is.

I bought that same PSU to build a system for a friend. There wasn't any power hungry parts, just the 4770 video card. The TT wasn't big enough to push it.

 

[OvrClkr]

So you purchased the TT TR500w and it didnt power up a 4770?? Might want to RMA that PSU.

I have a TR500 powering a GTS 250 (1gb)/4 HDD's/x2 550BE at 3.8Ghz since last year and have not had 1 issue so far.

 

[aford10]

No, it was this 430w. They have similar sized 12v rails though.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16817153023

 

[obsidian86]

the tr500 is a Cwt

the tr2 430 is a Hec

 

[JohnnyLucky]

ct1615 - I know manufacturers overestimate. There is a reason for that. People insist on purchasing low budget, low quality psu's of questionable performance and value.

I have a different reason for recommending a 400 watt psu. A 400 watt power supply seems to be the lowest wattage for a high quality psu.