Power Supply Question

[TeejayV]

Right now, i have this setup:

AM2 3600+ CPU @ 1.9Ghz, 65nm 65W
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro Heatpipe Cooler
Asus M2N-E NForce 570 Ultra Motherboard
2x512MB Kingston DDR2-667 Dual-Channel RAM
Asus Radeon X1950 Pro w/256MB GDDR3 and OEM Artic Cooler
80GB WD SATA Hard Drive w/8MB Cache
LiteON 18x Dual-Layer DVD Writer
Generic Black 400W ATX Mid-Tower Case


today, i want to upgrade a little by buying 2gb more of memory (probably another DDR2-667 Kingston twin module)
and also thinking of getting a AM2 5600+.

In the future, i'm thinking of dropping a geforce 8800gts 320 into this system.

Will a 400W psu suffice for just today's upgrade? (memory and cpu), because the 5600+ runs at 89w (unless i'm wrong).

I know in the future i'm going to be needing something more when i get that new video card, probably in the 650w range. But i can't afford that atm. If anything, i would just buy the video card and the psu together, hoping that the 400w PSU will be good enough to handle a 5600+

Any responses are welcome, thank you in advance!

 

[Zepper]

A real 400W PSU with the power properly alloted among the rails would be adequate for even the proposed upgrades. However I doubt that any PSU included with a case will be adequate. Some few bundled PSUs are decent - most are crap. Which do you have?

.bh.

 

[TeejayV]

it's just some generic 400w psu, i don't see a brand on it anywhere. It just came with this generic case that i got from a computer store here in the area... sorry

 

[oynaz]

400 watts is definitely enough. The question is whether or not your PSU is of good quality. If your rig has been stable till now, chances are that it is decent. I would keep it for now.

 

[TeejayV]

k, thank you very much for the info guys. I think then i will stay with this PSU till i get that new video card (may as well upgrade it then). Sorry but i have one more question though... since now i'm just running with DDR2-667 RAM, if i were to upgrade it today with gaming performance in mind, and i didn't want to replace the ram (just add more to the existing memory). Should I get another 2x1024 MB sticks of Kingston value ram?

http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do...wProduct&cmd=pd&pid=007475&cid=RAM.475

that's the ram i speak of. Will this be good? or should i go for some DDR2-800 Ram instead? The reason why i'm asking is because the 667 ram is about half the price of 2gb of the pc2-6400 ram. But i'm not sure that if i buy the pc6400 ram will be underclocked to match the speeds of the pc5300 ram. I'm kind of noobish to how all this stuff works, i would appreciate any advice!


Thanks again in advance

 

[Zepper]

All RAM will run at the timings of the lowest speed modules. You can try setting the timings yourself to override the auto settings. You may be able to OC the RAM a bit with a bit of overvolting to get a speed somewhere in between. I've had negative experience with KVR - I've not had one module of it here that wasn't DOA or eventually had to be RMAd. I'd prefer not to have to rely on their Lifetime warranty... No more KVR for me!

You need to find the label on that PSU even if it means pulling it from the case to read it. You'll want to know the specs for the 12V rail(s) which should be on the label before upgrading as that is most important these days.

.bh.

 

[Googer]

Problem solved.

http://www.pcpower.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=S75QB