Power Supplies...oh my

[Tyguy]

I've been getting some bsod's lately (after reimaging with windows 7) and I believe my power supply is the culprit. Before putting windows 7 on my machine i had vista which would sometimes not start up correctly and would leave me pressing the power button until it did.

I just remembered my power supply is all of 350W and, in my mind, the obvious problem. I have an 8800GT along with a q6600 and i wanted to get a good idea as to how much wattage i need, especially with new hardware in mind for the future. Should i go as high as a 700-800W?

 

[Viperidae]

No.

The 8800 is going to be the biggest power consumer, but only at about 165 watts under full load. Next will be CPU, which yours (assuming you meant q6600) will be 100 max. So you're sitting at almost 300, and that'll be only when you're calculating pi to a billion decimal places while rendering 3D graphics at the same time. Optical drives and mobo consumption are pretty negigible (depending on how many extra things you have, of course).

The problem rarely lies in a lack of wattage, but in the quality of the PSU design (and if you're really unlucky, misrated rail amperage).

What brand is your PSU? Model?

 

[Tyguy]

I believe it is a thermaltake but it's from 2004...

 

[Asus]

Do you know what the amps are on the +12 volt rail? There is a sticker on the side of the PSU with a chart. It's definitely possible for a 300watt PSU to power your system but if the power is lacking on the +12v and is on the +5 and +3 instead (older design) then that could be it.

My Intel Q9300 with my 4850 or when I had my 8800GTS OC both only sat around 270watts when playing games. I think I have a 550 watt Corsair unit in mine atm. Plenty of room for upgrading hardware with that. Even to SLI/Crossfire.

 

[VirusType2]

My computer used to reset randomly and I suspected it was the power supply. This went on for nearly a year.

Thanks to Asus' advice, I cleaned the RAM sticks and the slots of dust using compressed air and I haven't had the problem since. Might want to try that first.

 

[Asus]

Yeah, ram and PSU problems are hard to track down. Both are random and don't have real solid evidence that they are bad since they sorta work too. lol

 

[huntingbear]

GOLDMEM!!!!!!