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IS this PSU enough?

T

TheLordsServant

Gawd
Joined
Sep 29, 2005
Messages
920
Well, this is a n00b question from my brother. He has a 350 watt Antec Smartpower PSU and he has 6 hard drives, 2 optical drives, a Radeon X600SE GPU, and a Athlon 64 4000+ along with 4 case fans. I think he needs a LOT more power, but he won't believe me, so how much power do you think he needs?
 
TheLordsServant said:
Well, this is a n00b question from my brother. He has a 350 watt Antec Smartpower PSU and he has 6 hard drives, 2 optical drives, a Radeon X600SE GPU, and a Athlon 64 4000+ along with 4 case fans. I think he needs a LOT more power, but he won't believe me, so how much power do you think he needs?
Click to expand...

I'm the "big brother" :)

I'm actually running 4 HDDs...TLS forgot that two of them are totally unplugged.

I've got, not only the X600SE(256mb, PCI-E x16) but a Radeon 9200SE(128mb, AGP 8x). ASRock Dual939-SATA2 mobo, so that I have both sockets. I'm using the 9200SE as secondary monitor, while the X600 runs primary, each usually on a 19" Acer widescreen LCD(1440x900). I was figuring it could be overheating, as it only does it when running anything video-intensive, but after thinking about the PSU and looking up stuff online, I've come to the conclusion that it's probably PSU, or lack thereof. Anybody else agree, or am I totally off?
 
He said
"I was figuring it could be overheating, as it only does it when running anything video-intensive"

What is the "it"?

If using a good 350W PSU he could be ok depending on the "it" issue.
If its a cheap PSU, I wouldnt risk it.
 
Ok, didn't know that's what you meant.

It used to randomly go blank, and come up with a message about VPU Recover. Now, I reinstalled Windows, and every once in a while the screen randomly goes black. When it does, I have to restart the computer, and when it boots, Windows pops up a message: "The device driver for Radeon X600 has caused the computer to stop working" etc.etc.etc. I'm halfway convinced it's PSU, because the video card is 3 months old....
 
The 350W Antec PSU should be sufficient. The 9200 and X600s are very far from energy guzzling GPUs. However, I didn't see the part you're running a 4000+ and the goods, but I still think it would be adequate. Or it could be right at its limit.
 
While the PSU is something you may want to consider . . . have you tried COMPLETELY uninstalling the drivers, using Driver Cleaner Pro to clean up any missed files, then reinstall the most recent?
 
Robbie Hanson said:
Ok, didn't know that's what you meant.

It used to randomly go blank, and come up with a message about VPU Recover. Now, I reinstalled Windows, and every once in a while the screen randomly goes black. When it does, I have to restart the computer, and when it boots, Windows pops up a message: "The device driver for Radeon X600 has caused the computer to stop working" etc.etc.etc. I'm halfway convinced it's PSU, because the video card is 3 months old....
Click to expand...

VPU recover usually kicks in when the graphics card loses it :)

The problem could be overheating or another issue, maybe the psu.
Its not too hard to tell if its overheating, check the heatsink. If it feels hot when VPU recover appears then its likely the graphics card is either overclocked/volted too far or is faulty.

If the graphics card heatsink doesnt feel hot then its likely a fault in the graphics card/driver or could be not enough power.
Try the graphics card in another PC and try another psu in the PC.
Let us know what happens.
 
Chernobyl1 said:
VPU recover usually kicks in when the graphics card loses it :)

The problem could be overheating or another issue, maybe the psu.
Its not too hard to tell if its overheating, check the heatsink. If it feels hot when VPU recover appears then its likely the graphics card is either overclocked/volted too far or is faulty.

If the graphics card heatsink doesnt feel hot then its likely a fault in the graphics card/driver or could be not enough power.
Try the graphics card in another PC and try another psu in the PC.
Let us know what happens.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, this is the only PCI-E computer in the house :(

It should not be overheating...the heatsink is warm to the touch, but not hot. And I even put a PCI slot fan unit in directly underneath, and now it's cold. The PSU is about a year old, and it appears to be working fine...and its the most powerful in the house. I doubt a 250 or 200 watt would run the thing.......

I didn't just run Driver Cleaner or anything...I completely reloaded Windows. Obviously, it's not a problem with that :)
 
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