Power supply question

[Red-Machine]

Guys I wonder if you could help me with this.

I'm thinking of upgrading the processor on my old Windows ME pc from a 1.5GHz P4 to a 2.0GHz P4.  I'm wondering if my current PSU could take it.  I have an extra 300-watt PSU I was planning on using, but it's full ATX, whereas my rig can only take micro ATX PSUs.  I was looking up the officcial literiture on my model, where it told me I had a 133-watt PSU which seemed a little odd to me, so I cracked it open and found out I was actually running a 200-watt one.

The system specs will be thus (with new processor):

TriGem Dublin mobo (Intel 945G-based)
2.0GHz Pentium 4 400MHz FSB
2x PC-133 256MB SDRAM units
AGP 4x nVidia GeForce FX5200 128MB
56k pci modem (can be removed if neccesary)
10/100 pci ethernet card

Can my old 200-watt PSU handle it, or do I need a new one?

[NejinOniwa]

Err...


...looking kinda outdated there boy...even ALPHA is 4 years ahead of that configuration...do you want me to ship her to you, or something? >_>

[Red-Machine]

No, lol.  It's a hobby system!  I don't care about the specs on it, cos I have another comp and laptop with modern specs.

[NejinOniwa]

PHEW

I was fearful for a moment there.

Well, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about this, but in my general experience you should never have anything less than 300W on a system you plan on taxing much, for various reasons - if it's just a hobby system it should be fine though. And the non-NetBurst pentiums aren't particularly power-hungry what I can remember, so the only thing you should watch out for is that graphics card nagging too much at the power - I've also had cases (my brother's fiance's comp) of the CD drive locking up due to lack of power...but take care and you should be fine. Probably.

[Dr. Mario]

Yea. I agree with NejinOniwa. I have experienced that before. Be beware of GPU's current consumption - it's frigging huge. You probably would get away with ancient GeForce 2, but FX - I would rather watch that space, since you have a 200 Watts PSU. I had a 250 Watts PSU tripped on me while I tried to use Aero GUI on GeForce 7600 GS AGP video card (I was using Athlon XP at that time before I chucked it with Athlon 64.)

And if you're using Pentium 4 Prescott, be careful, it's a biggest power hog.

[partibmn]

its better for you to change it to at least 450w

[Dr. Mario]

;001 partibmn, IT does help!

But at least, let me answer an annoying question as why not many peoples can afford such juice box (power supply) at that scale. WHY?!

Simple. The parts have to be made much beefier. Transistors, transformers, diodes, and The Works, has to be large to handle munching upward to 400 Volts recifited DC at 8 Amps (from run-of-mills outlet AC rating) to run the hardwares to pour out 38 Amps total of low-voltage power (@ 450W).

The simple words are: Expensive power supply.

[Smokey]

Well, i would guess that a 200Watt PSU could handle that setup, since you're "only" upgrading your CPU by 500MHz, but still, keep an eye out for anything funny, and if it starts to go instable, get that 300W in there...

[NejinOniwa]

I found it safest to go with a fancypants 585W PSU.

[Dr. Mario]

-________- True. Very true.

Anyways, I have Ultra 450W power supply, and I got huge headroom (as far as I am going, my whole AMD Athlon 64 X2 system is only munching on 145 Watts worth of juice, I mean, the power supply's so cold! Anyways, I'm using Special Edition of Athlon 64 - 45W.)