Computer experts only please, read on........................?

Question

Can this spec work with a 300w power supply?
Intel pentium 4,
1gb DDR2 533mhz,
80gb hard drive,
CD/DVD rom player only,
Micro ATX intel motherboard

Answer 1

300W is pushing it, especially if you have a PCIe video card. More important than the wattage rating, though, is the amperage on the 12v rail. For a P4-class processor new enough to take on DDR2, I'd recommend NO LESS THAN 20A on the 12V rail, or a total of 25A if it has dual 12V rails.

Ideally, for that system, I'd recommend 450+W and 30+A on the 12V rail, but if you're not going to be pushing your system too hard, a 300W PSU might suffice.

Answer 2

Yes it will. The only thing that MIGHTcause you problems would be a high-end graphics card; say a Radeon 1650/1900/1950, or an NVidia 7300 or above. As it is, you didn't say, but from your question, running 1 HDD, 1 DVD/CD drive and any normal video card, even a high end card, will work fine with 300 watts.

Douglas D
MCP, MCDST, HDA, CSS
(I guess that would qualify as a computer expert)
PS- I am running an AMD Athlon 64 3800+, TWO DVD/CD burners, TWO hard drives, a Creative X-fi Extrememusic sound card, NVidia 6800/256mb, 1.5 gb RAM, all with a 400w power supply-I think you'll be fine.

Answer 3

I think that it should, I have built many computers with a 350w power supply using a full atx Intel p4 and 1 gig ram with a low level agp power card i.e. one not requiring a molex connection. If the power supply is old and your trying to save money, the worst that will probably happen is that you burn up the power supply.

Answer 4

Depends on the specification of the PSU. Generally, for a half-decent or better PSU, I'd say yes. But I wouldn't add either of the last three generations of high-end graphic cards to that rig unless the ampage on the PSU's 12v rail is over 16 amps. (I'm talking nVidia 6000, 7000 or 8000 series GPUs, or ATI equivalents - AGP or PCIe.)

Answer 5

1.connect all power cables inside
2. attempt to install windows,then run a so-called burn-in test (Sisoft Sandra has such an option) for 2-3 hours
3.If the system restarts while running the burn-in test there are good chances the power supply is not enough (considering that all other parts are good!)

Answer 6

yes it will work.i was running p4 .512 ddr2 533. 150 gb hard drive. 2 dvd . radeon x300se 128mb .i then upgraded to 1gb ram. nvidea 7600gt 512mb . it still wrked ok . i did buy a 500w power supply but this was only aas it was cheap. ebay £25 with gaurantee. hope this helps. you should be ok.

Answer 7

i have pentium 4 3.4 ghz with 250 gb hdd and 2 dvd/rw with a 300w psu and works well

Answer 8

You should use a specific Supply for Pentium 4 ... up to 400W
for more security

Answer 9

you dont mention any 'extras', graphics cards (especially pci-e ones) will require more power.
for a pentium 4, 300w is going to be on the borderline....if you need an udpgrade then i would go for at least a 400w.
if you go for pci-e graphics then 500w would handle it ok.

Answer 10

in a word,no...the pins in a memory module are utilized in an analogous thank you to a.g.p and pci-convey image enjoying cards each and each pin on a memory module has a particular job ,so if a pin replaced into broken the memeory may well be unusable sd-ram is the oldest sort of memory and has 168 pins,and has speeds of 100mhz(pc100) and 133mhz(pc133),there replaced into additionally a 66mhz module(pc66)yet those are not any greater avalible ddr-ram(double records fee)is the 2nd technology memory and has 184 pins,that's offered in distinctive speeds 266mhz(pc2100),333mhz(pc2700) and 400mhz(pc3200),those are the main conventional forms of memory yet at the instant are being replaced with ddr 2 memory that have 240 pins and are available in even greater speeds,533mhz(pc2/4200) ,667mhz(pc2/5300), 800mhz(pc2/6400),1ghz(pc2/8000), there are greater speeds in ddr-2 memory yet those are very costly with speeds inclusive of 1100mhz(pc8800) and are geared in direction of hardcore game enthusiasts,and nonetheless have 240 pins i wish this helped good success