[estople]

I got a steal on an ATX tower case, but its PS doesn't have the 12V four pin connector dealie. I got an adapter cable from a PC shop up the street and the machine's running OK, but I was wondering - is this OK to do? Are there special circuits in ATX12V PSs for that cable? Will the CPU core draw more than an HD (or four)? Am I overloading my 300W PS with a celeron 1.7? WIll I be overloading it with my planned P4 2.8 GHz Northbridge upgrade?

TIA...

[Hemal]

hmm what other parts do you have?- graphics card especcially...a 300W powersupply for a p4 2.8 is very weak and you might be running on a thin wire

[estople]

Fairly minimalist right now, 256 Mg RAM, 80 Gig WD HD, CD burner, D845PESV mobo, and a Radeon 9250 w/ 128 Meg. I plan on jumping the RAM to 768 Meg or 1 Gig along with the processor bump. PCI boards include NIC, dual parallel and V.92. This things not even breathin' hard yet.

[Hemal]

haha...well IMO i would def. find another PSU- there not that expensive, and always just stay on the safer side, as long as your not runnin too hard then right now you should be fine but with more ram, a better CPU and if you plan to upgrade your video card, def. make the move

[warriorscot]

Your current PSU is adequate from experience people tend to think you need more than you do you can get away with surprisingly little power.

[Hemal]

agreed with warriorscot- im running a 64 3400+ with a geforce fx5700 with only a 350W psu but as i was saying before...i am looking to get a 400 or 450W PSU

[warriorscot]

Yeah its always nice to have a margin of error and exceptional requirements but my new rig would probably manage on 300W, you are hard pressed to build a system that wont run on 350W. Its not worth the bother if it isnt giving you any trouble.

[estople]

OK, guys, thanks! No plans to upgrade video card right now, this machine isn't for serious gaming. I'll stick with the 300W PS for now and keep an eye on the voltages with each upgrade.