PSU Question

[EHM-1838 Andrew]

I have had my present computer now for about two years,and in that time it has performed perfectly no mysterious crashes etc.My setup only has a 250 watt PSU but it seems to be fine as i say.On this setup i have a soundblaster external,cordless mouse and joystick plus the usual assortment of drives DVD Cdrewriter etc.Now the other day i installed a GForce 6600 card to replace my Radeon 9200,the 6600 is a mid range card not a super stonker but it does draw more power than the 9200.Now after getting some help from the simflight forum people to get it installed correctly after many hours of mucking about i finally got it to work.I posted my thanks to the simflight boys and explained that it was up and running and mentioned to them that my computer did only have the 250 watt power unit(which as i said has performed flawlessly for two years now)and there was much gnashing of teeth and warnings of computer parts being burnt out etc so what i did was to unplug my floppy drive which i never use and also my DVD and CD drives temporally of course just to cut down the power.My question am i being overly cautious?does anybody here have a 250 watt unit running without problems.I can get a new one but this week has been very expensive ie FSX,Graphics card etc
.By the way my power unit is ATX so will any ATX type replacement work with my setup?
Cheers and thanks
Andy

[EHM-0005 Maarten]

Hi Andy,

The videocards of the present consume quite alot of power, so I recommend you to replace your PSU. When you don't have enough power, your systems becomes unstable and performs bad.

When you're going to buy a new PSU, I recommend to buy a PSU of a good brand (got a Antec myself; it's quite well). A bad PSU can destroy your whole system (from the CPU till your mouse :S ). I bought a 500 watt PSU, but my system does not require it all, but eh, you got something for the future.

ATX is fine for you, there's also ATX 2.0 but these normally work on normal ATX as well.


EDIT:
While I was writing this reply, my aircraft went overspeed (I was doing the throttles manually); I am glad it's not a PP flight. I guess this is the same as making a phone call (no handsfree) while driving your car

[EHM-1838 Andrew]

Originally posted by Maarten
Hi Andy,

The videocards of the present consume quite alot of power, so I recommend you to replace your PSU. When you don't have enough power, your systems becomes unstable and performs bad.

When you're going to buy a new PSU, I recommend to buy a PSU of a good brand (got a Antec myself; it's quite well). A bad PSU can destroy your whole system (from the CPU till your mouse :S ). I bought a 500 watt PSU, but my system does not require it all, but eh, you got something for the future.

ATX is fine for you, there's also ATX 2.0 but these normally work on normal ATX as well.


EDIT:
While I was writing this reply, my aircraft went overspeed (I was doing the throttles manually); I am glad it's not a PP flight. I guess this is the same as making a phone call (no handsfree) while driving your car

Maarten
Thanks for your thoughts.I hope i didnt spoil your flight.It looks like yet MORE spending.
cheers Andy

[EHM-0005 Maarten]

Off course you didn't.

The PSU is underestimated many times, but a bad PSU can screw up your system quite badly.