Power Supply - Enough?

[John DonaldsonNepean]

I used the various online power calculators to determine what I need for my computer (at least for now until I can afford to buy one in a month or less) and the results for my components came to just over 200Watts

I'm not using a computer Case, just open motherboard on the table (done this for years) so no case fan to worry about either power/wattage wise...

I have the following:

Motherboard
Gigabyte F2A88XM-H3H

Motherboard Power Sockets
24 Pin and 8 Pin

Power Supply
Dell PS-5251-2D (250 W)
20 Pin and 4 Pin

Ram
2 Sticks @ 2 Gig Each DDR3

CPU
AMD A10-6790 4.0 GHz (just below the 6800)

CPU FAN
Using cooler which came with CPU

Video
Built In (not using card)

DVD-WR
USB External DVD_RW

Hard Drive
Not using (Booting off Ubuntu Live CD)

Does the online PSU calculator sound accurate in that I could use the 250 Watt power supply just to try out my motherboard and CPU?

I'm used to using way old P4 computer with 1Gig ram and am excited to jump up and start using (for regular internet use not gaming)

Just curious if I could boot the new computer, browse a couple of internet pages to see how fast it works and then shut down using the old 250 Watt powersupply since the online calculators keep giving me 206 - 215 Watt requirements for power supply recommendations

 

[lucasz]

I would get a higher quality PSU just for peace of mind. You can get one for $30.

 

[Znoxz]

The cx 430 is only $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

 

[lucasz]

That's what I was going to recommend

 

[John DonaldsonNepean]

Thanks to each of you. I will of course get a modern one.. I just wanted to know if I could boot it up and use the old power supply for about fifteen minutes to see what it's like to use a 'REAL' computer for once before I shelf it again until pay day

 

[lucasz]

You could try it

 

[John DonaldsonNepean]

Well, I did it. And, it worked.
I used just the motherboard, the AMD APU (built in graphics card) a USB external CDR-RW and a sATA hard drive... with the old 250W powersupply and it worked GREAT. I used the computer for about an hour with no problem. The only 'problem I ran into was that I was using a harddrive with Ubuntu on it from another computer and so the video driver was not compatible and kept going to low res default driver. If I did an upgrade or adjusted the video settings somehow in Linux it probably would have fixed itself.

Just wanted to focus on the PSU (Power Supply Unit) issue on this post. Will post another question about moving OS on HD from one computer to another.