New Power Supply

[kane_magus]

(As per the edit to my last post, I'm back to using the Wii again.)

I'm going to go ahead and order a new power supply soon. Even if the current problem turns out to not be the power supply, I guess it'll still be a good idea to have a replacement for when this 5+ year old one does die. However, I don't know all that much about them, i.e. what would be a good buy for a replacement and such.

What's in my computer now is a FSP530-60GNA. I looked on newegg but couldn't find that exact model. Closest I found (without going with a lesser wattage model, which I'm thinking probably isn't a good idea) was this FSP600.

I'm hoping someone who knows something about power supplies can look at this and give me a "yeah, that'll be a good replacement, go for it" or a "meh, it's okay but you'd be better getting this instead" or a "are you retarded that's a horrible idea let me save you from making a terrible mistake" or something like that.

I'll probably hold off until at least Monday before placing any orders, so that I can get some input from the guys at work too.

Comments

[korby.livejournal.com]

Wow, 600W? For a 5 year old system? Do you have like 4 hard drives or something? Most computers that old never had anything more than about 300-450. Try this site and see what it tells you.

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Thanks

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

Yeah that's why I was asking, because I don't know what's necessary. All I knew was that the one that was in there before was 530W and the 600W was the closest I could find without going lower (based on some thing I vaguely remember reading in the nebulous past saying that you don't want one that's not powerful enough). Well, if I can safely go with a smaller wattage model then that opens up my options a bit more.

For the record, my comp contains:
- Pentium 4 3.0GHz (no clue if it's Prescott or whatever those other options were)
- Radeon X1650 AGP
- Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
- A D-Link Network PCI card
- DVD RW drive
- 4 sticks of, I'm pretty sure, DDR SDRAM
- 1 SATA 640GB HDD
- 1 oldass (it was in my pre-this computer for several years and honestly should probably just be taken out altogether because I don't even put anything on it anyway) 30GB SCSI HDD. I am considering getting another big SATA drive at some point to replace it though.
- As for fans, I have no idea of their stats or whatever. I just know there's one on the back of the case, one on the PSU, one on the CPU, one on the video card, and one on the front of the semi-detachable housing for the HDDs. I think that's all of them anyway.

That calculator suggested (rough ballpark based on me picking options probably sort of close to what I actually have) a little over 300W or so. I'd still like to get one that's at least remotely near to the one that was in there before, but it's good to know I could safely go below that without worrying about it too much. I'll probably go with something on the upper end of your range of 300 - 450.

By the way, is there any danger (aside from perhaps having a higher than necessary electric bill or whatever) from having one in there that's too powerful? Obviously it was fine with the 530W for 5+ years so I'd guess not, but still... I'd rather be sure in either direction before I go needlessly buying some monster that could snap my puny computer in half with it's excessive awesome power, I guess.

Thanks for the advice.

Re: Thanks

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

"with it'sits excessive blah blah"

Argh, I hate it when I do that.

Re: Thanks

[korby.livejournal.com]

If there are two or more options that sound the same, I'd err on the side of caution and go with the highest power demanding option. I'm pretty sure there's no danger in having a big power supply in a lesser demanding computer, just that it's kind of a waste of money on your part in the first place, and like you said, possibly higher power bills. Also don't feel like you need to buy the same brand of power supply as your old one. All the plugs are standardized so you shouldn't run into any proprietary issues. Just look for a good combination of price and positive reviews for the wattage you need.