Which Inexpensive power supply

Wolfshadw

Titan
Moderator
System Specs:

Motherboard: ASRock 939Dual-SATAII
Processor: AMD Athlon X2-4800+
Memory: Kingston (I Think) 2GB (2x1GB) DDR-400
Graphics: Sapphire HD4650 (GDDR2)
Single Hard Drive
Single Optical Drive
Windows 7 Ultimate

Background:

This is my all-purpose system. Essentially, just web surfing, e-mail, light gaming (DoomII/III, DiabloII) and software testing. I'm really not worried about game performance on this system. The games are more for a quick pick-me-up if I need it.

I recently loaded Windows 7 (from Windows 7RC). During the entire time Windows 7RC was installed, the system never crashed (ok, maybe once early on. I don't remember). When I got the e-mail from M$ saying I needed to remove 7RC, I installed Windows 7. That's when the trouble began. First, it was little more than 24 hours between crashes. Now, it's up to every few minutes. Crashes are different each time. Most are BSODs with different BCCodes, some are straight crashes and immediate reboots. After several nights of troubleshooting (reinstalling drivers and such), it crashed hard last night; to the point where it sounded like the fans were stuttering or struggling to get up to speed. Hence my belief that it's my power supply failing. I want to say the system has an Antec 500 watt PSU, but it could be a Coolmax 450. I'm just not sure and I'm not at home right now to check it. Either way, the power supply is probably around four years old.

Suggestions:

What I'm looking for is either other troubleshooting ideas I may have missed. I would run Memtest, but there's no way the system would remain up and running for a full test to complete. I could replace the HD4650 with an older 9200 to test the GPU, but I'm really thinking it's the power supply. Assuming the fault does lie with the power supply, what would be the lowest wattage PSU you'd put into this system?

I do prefer Antec, but would also be agreeable with Corsair, FSP, PC Power and Cooling and Seasonic. The other problem is, I'm about to be laid off and really don't want to drop a large bundle of cash for something I don't really need (for example, $110 for a Corsair TX 650). I'd probably be happier closer to $60.

So, any suggestions would be appreciated.

-Wolf sends