redoing old build need help on PSU

VA Supremacy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
475
So I'm rebuilding an old computer my Brother built so I can play some games in XP

I have no idea the type of PSU or the best one. As far as power I would do the highest possible but its possible not to find the same PSU for it.

ASUS A7V8X-X 462(A) VIA KT400A ATX AMD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131451

placa+mae+asus+a7v8x+x+soquete+a+462+for+amd+athlon__39504C_1.jpg
 
You will need to hunt for a PSU with a relatively high combined +3.3V and +5V capacity. Unfortunately, many of the newest PSUs have less than 150W combined on those two rails, making them just about useless on such a legacy platform.

Second, do you have a graphics card you can use on that motherboard? IIRC all Socket A motherboards use AGP graphics cards and don't have any PCI-Express slots at all. And late-model AGP cards are now all but impossible to find new.

Third, you will have to settle for IDE (PATA) hard drives and optical drives unless you happen to be lucky to find a PCI SATA card.
 
I have an older PC power and cooling 510 sli, modded for better air flow, it would be perfect for your legacy build

maybe you have a something to trade?
 
Uggh. Why? You realize that board requires a crappy AGP video card to work right?
 
You will need to hunt for a PSU with a relatively high combined +3.3V and +5V capacity. Unfortunately, many of the newest PSUs have less than 150W combined on those two rails, making them just about useless on such a legacy platform.
mmm, how about http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182006

Second, do you have a graphics card you can use on that motherboard? IIRC all Socket A motherboards use AGP graphics cards and don't have any PCI-Express slots at all. And late-model AGP cards are now all but impossible to find new.
Geforce 6200 AGP cards seem fairly easy to get and i'd think with a 6200 in that board the limiting factor would not be the GPU.

Third, you will have to settle for IDE (PATA) hard drives and optical drives unless you happen to be lucky to find a PCI SATA card.
PCI sata cards are easy to get.

Despite that though I would consider how much it is worth investing in such old kit. If you already have everything except the PSU and you know it is in good working order then it may be worth buying a PSU to get it going again. Otherwise you will probably get more bang for your buck by building a new low end system.
 
It was my Brother's build so I want use the board longer as possible.

Can any PSU work? I mean any with the small P4 which goes to its own connector on the board?

basically the PSU died and the hard drive was put out to pasture.

Mad Dog Prowler SoundWave 4.1 Sound Card
VisionTek X1300 ATI Radeon 256mb PCI (after I use the AGP that was there originally)
AMD Athlon something installed on the board
Corsair VS2GBKIT400C3 PC-3200 2GB Kit
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 (bought from Microcenter yesterday looked open though)
using Lite-on dvdrom and dvd burner drives
Sunbeam Tech IC-SS-SVBK Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Silent Storm
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST380215A 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM
 
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It was my Brother's build so I want use the board longer as possible.

Can any PSU work? I mean any with the small P4 which goes to its own connector on the board?

basically the PSU died and the hard drive was put out to pasture.

Mad Dog Prowler SoundWave 4.1 Sound Card
VisionTek X1300 ATI Radeon 256mb PCI (after I use the AGP that was there originally)
AMD Athlon something installed on the board
Corsair VS2GBKIT400C3 PC-3200 2GB Kit
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 (bought from Microcenter yesterday looked open though)
using Lite-on dvdrom and dvd burner drives
Sunbeam Tech IC-SS-SVBK Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Silent Storm
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST380215A 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM

Unfortunately, the A7V8X-X does not have the P4 connector at all - only a single 20-pin ATX connector. Therefore, you will need a PSU with a decent amount of +3.3V and +5V capacity.

At this rate, if you have to replace even two major components on that old system, you would be spending much, much more than what the system is worth. At this point that entire old system is worth only about $30 to $40 at most.
 
You can use a modern PSU like 500w. That system really doesn't need much on 3.3v and 5v which is why most people were using like 350w PSUs back then. I have an Enermax 350w PSU from that era that still works that I can sell you for pretty cheap if you want though. The 20-pin only version of this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103455 32A 3.3v 32A 5v

If anything, the newer PSUs actually offer less combined capacity on the +3.3V and +5V rails. In fact, some of the newest PSUs provide less than 100W total on those two rails combined! When those systems were all the rage, the typical 350W PSU of that era provided more than 150W combined on the +3.3V and +5V rails but less than 200W on the +12V rail. Most modern high-wattage PSUs provide much less +3.3V/+5V combined capacity than the low-wattage PSUs of old. Plus, some modern PSUs will not work properly or at all if it detects an insufficient load on the +12V rail (as it might happen on a legacy platform).
 
Those CPUs didn't draw much power and the video card should be using +12v. Corsair 400w provides 20A on 3.3v and 5v... less than the 350w I have but I don't see it being too low.
 
Those CPUs didn't draw much power and the video card should be using +12v.

True. But many modern PSUs requre a relatively heavy draw on the +12V just to even operate at all. Unfortunately, the GeForce 6200 does not draw much, if any, power off of the +12V rail (or any rail, for that matter). This is a phenomenom called cross-loading performance.

And given that the Athlon XP uses (relatively speaking) a fair amount of power draw on the +3.3V and +5V rails compared to that of more recent platforms, plus the fact that the OP is planning to use a PCI (not PCI-e or AGP) graphics card (legacy PCI graphics cards and those based on newer GPUs that are on legacy PCI cards use primarily the +3.3V and +5V rails), my recommendation to use a PSU that provides at least 150W of combined +3.3V and +5V capacity still stands. (And this coming from a person who has had experience with attempting to use modern PSUs on both newer and older platforms, and who had experienced a situation which a 500W current-model PSU worked flawlessly on a newer i5 platform but did not function properly on a legacy Athlon XP platform.)
 
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Just a few amps should be enough.

You did not factor in cross-loading behavior when you came up with this. Many modern PSUs behave poorly in cross-loading tests where very little current is drawn from the +12V rail(s). And some modern PSUs require a minumum of 20% load on the +12V rail just to even work at all. This would be disastrous for a legacy platform that typically draws much less than 20% of the maximum capacity of the +12V rail(s); in this case, any modern PSU would have shut themselves down on that legacy platform just as the system is booting into Windows.
 
No... I read some reviews...

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=711&type=expert&pid=5

2A on 12v was fine there...

Depends on the PSU.

Also, many of those newer PSUs provide much less than 150W combined on the +3.3V and +5V rails. These legacy systems actually peak above the maximum that many newer PSUs provide on the combined +3.3V and +5V wattages. They peak at nearly 200W (this is just booting into Windows) on the combined +3.3V and +5V rails. In my experience none of the newer PSUs worked properly or at all with any of the older systems that I had on hand simply because none of the newer PSUs that I used provided enough +3.3V and/or +5V capacity.

With that notwithstanding, there are a handful of newer PSUs out there right now that will not work at all with a legacy system because they require the ATX+12V 4-pin P4 connector or the EPS+12V 8-pin connector to be physically connected to the proper motherboard socket just to even turn on at all. This is because some of the manufacturers have now incorporated a safety interlock to prevent such mismatches in standards. For those particular PSUs, they would not even power on at all if only the main ATX power connector is connected.
 
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Unfortunately, the A7V8X-X does not have the P4 connector at all - only a single 20-pin ATX connector. Therefore, you will need a PSU with a decent amount of +3.3V and +5V capacity.

At this rate, if you have to replace even two major components on that old system, you would be spending much, much more than what the system is worth. At this point that entire old system is worth only about $30 to $40 at most.

I only have to replace the PSU unless is there is newer cheap quality board that handles XP? I thought everything out can't handle anything below Vista?

Also I was meaning that could I use a newer PSU with a P4 that is the same as an old PSU without the P4 since I've not seen anything without it.
 
I only have to replace the PSU unless is there is newer cheap quality board that handles XP? I thought everything out can't handle anything below Vista?

Also I was meaning that could I use a newer PSU with a P4 that is the same as an old PSU without the P4 since I've not seen anything without it.

In this case, just look at the combined +3.3V/+5V capacity for the particular PSU that you're considering. If it turns out that you'd have to get an extremely high-wattage current PSU just to get sufficient +3.3V/+5V combined output, you might as well retire that old system completely since such a PSU would have cost you a lot more money than what the system is currently worth. And that could be the difference between getting a new system when you need it and being stuck with an old, totally obsolete system permanently for the rest of your life (in this bad economy).
 
Also is there any current boards that in the low price range or any range for that matter that are of good build quality that can work with XP home well? I was planning on bringing this back with the leftover stuff I have or build a carputer with the OS being XP home and whatever the small integrated boards possibly ITX or something
 
I only have to replace the PSU unless is there is newer cheap quality board that handles XP? I thought everything out can't handle anything below Vista?

Also is there any current boards that in the low price range or any range for that matter that are of good build quality that can work with XP home well?
Wut?:confused:

Virtually any mobo built circa 2003 and newer will work with XP Home just fine. Any new mobo out today will have good support for XP. XP isn't dead yet. I mean it's dying but driver support still exists for many motherboards and hardware for XP.
 
Obviously I messed up the first time when I wrote it.

So I can install XP Home even on the AM3 boards?

I might sit on this for awhile.. I can even put XP Home on my Compaq Presario running Win 2000 Pro if I wanted to...

I'll way my options then.
 
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