Overlooked component leads to system instability

DarkFoss · Aug 10, 2003, 10:11 AM

Took a whole week of fiddling around reading the posts here, overclocker's and nforcer'shq. Couldn't figure out why I had to up my vcore higher than other's to achieve the same oc. Even had an electrician buddy come over and check the psu's line's as well as my outlets( checked myself but felt better after having a pro look at it). Nadda, everything was ok 12v rails a tad light at 11.86 but within spec. Yesterday it finally hit me and I checked the spec's on my APC Backup ups LS 500. Turns out it's rated for 315w while it was working fine with my old system my new sytem with case fan's lights ect was drawing 236 w and as soon as I oc'ed my 9700 it would draw 277w effectively casing it to become unstable. Went out and picked up
an APS Backup ES 725 rated at 450w and now my rigs running smooth again.

I thought about switching to a Belkin model since they get get great reviews seem a bit higher quality. However almost all of them had only 6 outlets compared to eight(I need 7) and none of them had a cable in-out for cable modem protection. Another factor is personal experience with APC. Saved my rig last summer, it was alot hotter and our area had frequent brown-outs. Wife and I went out to dinner one night and when we came home we must have had a very nasty one . It fried not only the breaker for my ac unit but half the main was cooked as well. Can't imagine what the voltage was like trying to power the house on half a 100 amp breaker. Needless to say the APC unit worked like a champ nothing damaged. Last was price 114.99 vs 169.99 for the Belkin at the same rating.

Sorry about the post being a bit long, hmm does almost sound like a sales pitch. No I don't have stock in the company

I just wanted to share my 2 experiences incase anyone's either having a similar problem or looking for a good reliable inexpensive ups.

XxStichesxX · Aug 10, 2003, 12:20 PM

well put it this way .. its like changing a car engine from a small block 305 to a 350.. of corse u would see MORE horsepower.. basicly more juice = more power !.. basicly what im trying to say if u have neons high rpm fans 2+ hds 2+cdroms (cdr dvd or whatever) it all takes lots of juice putting a bigger powersupply will give power to every thing and still have lots of juice left ..

right now im running a 400 watt powersupply im thinking of gitting a 500+ only thing is no $$$

~~craig588~~ · Aug 10, 2003, 01:12 PM

A 550 watt PSU wasn't even enough for my system. I have 3 cd/dvd drives, 4 HDs, 9 fans, a r9700pro, 3 pci cards, a floppy and 3 sticks of ram. I would sometimes get spontaneous reboots. I added a 350 watt PSU just for powering the drives and some of the fans and everything was stable again.

TuEKiD · Aug 10, 2003, 08:38 PM

makes me wonder bout my system, i have all these little goodies connected takin juice from my supply, im thinking about plugging my 9800 pro into a saperate 250W PSU, would that be ok to use on a 9800 pro? im not to sure about how much juice the beast takes up...

XxStichesxX · Aug 10, 2003, 08:46 PM

well today i found a very small 100watt powersupply im thinking of just running my neons and lazer leds on it since they seem to take enough juice

TuEKiD · Aug 10, 2003, 09:47 PM

u kno i was thinking the same thing but i have 3 of my fans already hooked up str8 into the MOBO, and its not worth just hooking up the light, plus the fans dotn have those type of power adapters and theirs no way in hell im gonna start soldering things...

brazilian · Aug 10, 2003, 11:15 PM

I'm not tired to say this, a 450w can be worst than a 300w!!!
It's not a wats issue, it's all about how much power going on in the RAILS!

Best link ever for psus (everyone should take a look at):

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/guides...ly/default.asp

cheers