Do I need a new PSU?

IcepickFIA

IcepickFIA

IcepickFIA

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Joined
31 Dec 2008
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5
I recently upgraded my rig to support PCI-Express.

My original rig was such;
PSU: Akasa 460W ATX2.0
MB: Asus A8V Deluxe
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
RAM: Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2.0
GFX: HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X800 Pro IceQ II 256MB DDR3
SFX: Creative Audigy 2 ZS 7.1
Monitors: 2x Sun Microsystems 17" CRT (1024x768)
HDD: 2 x WD 200GB drives

The parts i have replaced are as follows;

MB: Asus M3A 770
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
RAM: Nanya Tech 1GB PC2-6400*
GFX: HIS ATI Radeon HD 4670 IceQ 1024MB GDDR3
Monitors: 2x Viewsoinc VA1916w 19" TFT (1440x900)

I didn't upgrade my PSU because an online PSU generator told me 460W was still more than adequate, even if i were too add 2 more hdd's and 4 usb devices.

Although I believe i have a couple of power related problems.
1. When windows is loading somtimes the load bar lags really long and sometimes it stops completely. This is usually caused by me changing something like a device driver. A hard reboot solves this problem.
2. Some games (not newest) running on max settings will stutter really bad and then reboot my system.

I am looking to buy Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB).

I am unsure of what PSU to buy, if any, and don't want to purchase my new RAM until i have figured this one out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.



*Bought from ** ***** :o, forgot i needed a different type of RAM for my new MB.
 
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I think you need more RAM mate. 1GB is not really enough these days.

Also, star out the competitors name.
 
He has 2GB atm I think....

I'd look at a new PSU, yes, go for a good quality one. Personally I wen't for the Corsair HX620, so I have a bit of power in hand for when I go quad and upgrade the GFX.
 
More RAM would be useful, but I can run everything i need to with this PoS 1GB stick.

I can even play GTA:IV smoothly, which was a pain to get running.

Do you know if my PSU is any good for my current setup though?
 
Like the generator said. you dont need a new PSU to run it. but imo a new one is always a good choice esp if you want an upgrade or to overclock in the future.

2. Some games (not newest) running on max settings will stutter really bad and then reboot my system
Click to expand...

Have you checked the temperature of your Graphics/CPU? thats usually the reason the system reboots as a fail safe.

If you find the GPU is running hot then download the latest ATI control panel/Drivers and adjust the fan speed under "ATI Overdrive"

Hope this helps. If not sorry :)
 
I have not checked the temperatures of my CPU/GPU under load. OTTOMH i think the idle is CPU28/GPU38.

The game i tested the rig with first was NFS:Most Wanted (2005) played fine on the settings i used with my AGP setup, but stuttered and then rebooted on full settings.

I guess 38 is a pretty high idle temp, but i can play GTA:IV (most recent game i have) fine and have had the game running for over 12 hours with no problems.

I dont have the Catalyst Control Centre installed, but will give it a try and see what my fan speed is and see about increasing it.
 
You most certainly do not need a new psu. My rig in my siggy only pulls 340w at the wall and it's a far more power hungry spec than yours. In fact your new graphics card draws less power than your old one. As for problem #2, the 4670 is a budget card so may be struggling with settings maxxed out.
 
460W is more than enough for such system and while that PSU is little unclear in how modern it is (total 12V) and efficiency lacks UL code tells its made by Enhance so it definitely isn't from the bottom of the quality barrel collection.
 
That PSU is fine with your current setup. Even if it wern't, it probably wouldn't cause stuttering frames etc... more like complete freeze and shutdown. How old is PSU?
 
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