Im using a 350 watt psu but my video card recommends 400. Also I plan on getting an athlon 4000+ san diego soon and im not sure whats recommended for it.
2006-11-24 15:48:11 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
No its not as bad as if you were to use something high, because then it would blow it up...it should work, but if not u will have to go buy a new one
2006-11-24 15:50:56 · answer #1 · answered by Meg 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dangerous? No. Not really. But you'll probably burn it out trying to power too much stuff with a small power supply. I can already tell you (without even knowing what you have in your computer) that you need something bigger than 350 watts. 450 watts is "average" these days for a PC that DOESNT have a fancy video card, 4 auxilary cooling fans, etc.
... and please don't listen to Meg. You can't get too large of a power supply. The computer will only use up what it needs from the power supply. Like say.... 368 watts from a 500 watt power supply. The power supply does not force feed 500 watts to everything. It just doesn't work that way.
Bryan IS right though. Underpowering your stuff could cause problems to your motherboard, graphics card, etc. You definately don't want that.
2006-11-24 23:53:55 · answer #2 · answered by Lloyd 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it's very bad. The other answerer had it sorta backwards. It's like having a 32 oz. pitcher of water and only drinking 12 oz.
If your power supply is too small it will cause the ?? to overheat because it doesn't have enough power. The rating on a power supply( wait-if your talking about an AC adapter (like a phone charger etc. then it would be worse to have a charger that is too large-it will ruin the battery)
OK back to the power supply. the rating on the power supply means that you should not use it for anything that requires MORE power (current-rated in amps or watts) than the power supply can put out. It will cause the item to overheat and will ruin the power supply. For example: you can use 3000 watt power supply/inverter etc. to power a 4 watt night light-no problem use the same power supply to power a 4000 watt appliance and it could ruin the appliance (like an air conditioner) and would probably ruin the power supply by overloading it.
2006-11-25 00:05:24 · answer #3 · answered by dulcrayon 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Athlon 4000+ san diego might not even start with a 350 watt unit.
You should get at least 400 watts with at least a 16 amp rating on the 12v1+ line. I wouldn't call using a 350 watt psu with that dangerous. It would be running at maximum power and might damage other electronic parts by undervolting them. If the 350 watt unit fails from running at maximum power, it can wipe out your motherboard too when it fails.
2006-11-24 23:59:38 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Using a power supply under what is recommended can cause you computer to randomly crash and reboot if one the components doesn't have enough power running to it. It can also put more stress on the components causing them to wear out sooner than they should. If you upgrade your power supply buy an Antec and if a 400 watt psu is recommended by one that is rated at at least 450w. Antec makes high quality psu's that are better than the other ones on the market.
2006-11-24 23:56:52 · answer #5 · answered by basebll824 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You should get a better power supply, one that can handle the video card's needs. If the card doesn't get enough power, it could not work correctly, be slow, or it could wreck the card by not giving it enough power and the card won't last very long. It could also overwork and overheat the power supply, making it last not as long as it should and causing other problems.
You might look at getting a 500 watt power supply. Just make sure you have enough power for everything.
2006-11-24 23:53:27 · answer #6 · answered by Bryan A 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would get at least a 500 psu, and also get a AMD x2 cpu as these result in better computer performance
2006-11-25 00:05:00 · answer #7 · answered by brad_s_wells 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋