Need a new psu for an old pentium iii pc

[falcon777xs]

Hello, internet!

I have a pentium iii pc build made from old parts and components ,I have installed windows 98 on it for playing old retro games.

The problem began when my pc refused to boot from any hard disk I put. After two or three months bios wouldn't detect the drive. After taking my thermaltake psu out of my main gaming pc and connecting it to my pentium iii pc everything worked fine and the hard disk was still alive. A few directories were destroyed but nothing serious (i hope).

Soooo, Looks like that 300W psu died and now I need to replace it. I would normally go with a cheap sollution like gembird, but I have heard a ton of stories about cheap no brand psus blowing up and frying parts.

Is it really worth spending 40 or 50 dollars for a psu from a brand like corsair or coolermaster for an old pc that propably doesn't consume more than 200W?

 

[WildCard999]

Well even if it is a older system I still wouldn't go too cheap as you don't want to ruin the system. This Corsair is dirt cheap after MIR and is a good quality unit.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($16.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $16.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-07 13:25 EST-0500

 

[vapour]

living in US?
what motherboard is it? Want to make sure new psu has the right cables, most of the time they are fine. Get this is good enough with $20 rebates:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($16.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $16.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-07 13:27 EST-0500

 

[falcon777xs]

living in US?
what motherboard is it? Want to make sure new psu has the right cables, most of the time they are fine. Get this is good enough with $20 rebates:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($16.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $16.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-07 13:27 EST-0500

I don't live in US, I live in Greece. And about the motherboard, I have no idea. It has agp, pci and three isa slots, award bios, the normal atx power connector and I don't kwow who the manufacturer is.

 

[vapour]

I will still get the CX450

 

[Azzyasi]

Make sure to read the amps for each voltage. Modern psu's are very weak on 5v and 3.3v since cpu load was shifted to 12v back in 2002 or so. P3 is before that. So do you have a dedicated 4pin molex on the mb near the cpu? If not, look carefully for a psu with at least 30A on 5v and 25A on 3.3v

I still have an old 350W antec PSU (SL250SP) for a vintage computer with 35A for 5V, 21Aon 12V, 28Aon 3.3V as a reference for your search.

 

[falcon777xs]

Make sure to read the amps for each voltage. Modern psu's are very weak on 5v and 3.3v since cpu load was shifted to 12v back in 2002 or so. P3 is before that. So do you have a dedicated 4pin molex on the mb near the cpu? If not, look carefully for a psu with at least 30A on 5v and 25A on 3.3v

I still have an old 350W antec PSU (SL250SP) for a vintage computer with 35A for 5V, 21Aon 12V, 28Aon 3.3V as a reference for your search.

Danm, I didn't know that. Thanks a lot.

 

[Azzyasi]

Make sure to read the amps for each voltage. Modern psu's are very weak on 5v and 3.3v since cpu load was shifted to 12v back in 2002 or so. P3 is before that. So do you have a dedicated 4pin molex on the mb near the cpu? If not, look carefully for a psu with at least 30A on 5v and 25A on 3.3v

I still have an old 350W antec PSU (SL250SP) for a vintage computer with 35A for 5V, 21Aon 12V, 28Aon 3.3V as a reference for your search.

Danm, I didn't know that. Thanks a lot.

You're welcome.
Keep in mind you need to look on the motherboard to confirm if there is or there isn't any 4pin molex. As i remember, that 4pin molex was named p4 power from pentium 4 (in willamette's era) so there is a good chance you don't have any such connector. Like this one

So if you don't have such 4pin connector present, then all the CPU power is coming on 5V and 3.3V and you need that old type psu with most amps on those voltages.

But if you do have a dedicated 4pin molex (2rows and 2 colums) on the motherboard, then the CPU and main components are powered by 12V like modern computers so there is no issue to grab any modern psu