Athlon PSUs *DO* matter- PROOF!

[graspee]

I have an Athlon 950 on an Abit KA7 motherboard, all 4 slots filled, each with 128MB Apacer PC133 CAS2 RAM, in an Enlight case with Enlight PSU.

My problem was that the system wouldn't even POST with the RAM set to 133Mhz unless I upped the core voltage to 1.85, and this made the Geforce display 1600x1200 with very wobbly display- (like the pixels were dancing about- especially noticeable on small text).

So, I changed the enlight 250W PSU (HPC-250-102 REV C) FOR A Macron 300W MPT-301...

And now I *can* run the RAM at 133Mhz with the default 1.80 core voltage.

So, even though I prolly wasn't drawing 250W from the Enlight PSU (which is not supposedly one of the dodgy model numbers), it was doing something wrong- like, I dunno, the stability of the voltage it was putting out was bad- or something- (hey! I'm a software guy!)

So, now I'm a happier lemur, but I just thought I would warn people who are having any similar probs with their shiny new Athlon.

P.S. Here in UK the Athlon 950 cost me £616, and the 1GHz version would have been £300 *more*! What kind of person do you think would pay £300 for 50Mhz??? Think of the cooling equipment you could buy for that kind of money! BTW, in the UK it is hard to get hold of any PIII over 866Mhz, but the Athlons are available if you go to the right place. (I use Dabs Direct, who are not without their problems, but at least they're not cowboys, and the p&p is free on internet orders).

[Jagermy$ter]

In my system eventualy everything was fine with the original 235Watt PSU that came with my case. But after replacing my Viper 770Ultra with my new Hercules 3D Prophet DDR GeForce card, my system went spooky!
After booting i wanted to test the GeForce card with 3DMark 2k, and suddenly my (SCSI) cd-rom player and writer drawers opened itself and then closed again! A few secconds later when i finaly managed to run 3DMark, I heard my fans slowing down when the GeForce went to work! Finaly my HDD's stopt rotating and my system halted! After replacing the 235Watt PSU with a 300Watt model, all problems were solved!! SO YES! IT DOES MATTER!

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AMD Athlon 650/MSI K7 Pro/384MB/Seagate Barracuda 20GB 7200/IBM DTTA 10GB 7200/Hercules 3D Prophet Geforce 256 DDR-DVI/SB Live!/TEAC CDR56S SCSI writer/Toshiba 36x SCSI reader/Philips 40x IDE cdrom/Creative DVD Encore DXR3/Etech TA128 external ISDN adapter/Iomega Zip100p/S.logic SCSI controller/Iiyama Visionmaster Pro 410 17"/Logitech Cordless iTouch desktop/Canon BJC6000 printer/HP ScanJet4200USB scanner/Bigtower (in-win) case with 4 extra coolers, 2 hdd coolers

[miha76]

Quality of the PSU is not in the power output bit in few pasive components inside PSU.

Does are capacitors and inductive coils, so if does parts, are not good inside one of 235W PSU then you people while see lots of instability.

I use only 235W with **** load of components on 0,25 micron K7500@700 and evrything is fine, no wierd things or lockups.

[USSVoyager]

Well, I know that you need a 300W PSU, but I just wanted everyone to know that even the cheapest 300W PSUs will work fine with an Athlon system. My 300W PSU has an ACME stamp on it! Anyone who lives in the UK - go to www.overclockers.co.uk and pick up a PSU for £25 - that is cheap for the UK! (I only wish I went there - my PSU was £60; the only PSU I could find at the time)

USSVoyager

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Speed is everything - Warp factor 9, Mr. Sulu!