Hi gregoryew,
It sounds to me as if you’re building a computer, and you have some
questions about the specifics (though I may be wrong). I have built
several systems for myself, and I will share my experience with you,
as well as other information I have found to be helpful on the
internet. First off, power supplies:
About three weeks ago, I too was shopping for a power supply, for my
AMD Athlon XP 2000+ CPU. I conducted a brief search through Google,
however power supply reviews are hard to come by. The consensus on
most sites was that a good power supply needs to be purchased, and
that purchasing a low-cost $20-40 supply will lead to problems in the
future, if not immediately. Several people on the amdmb.com message
boards recommended the following brands: Sparkle, PP&C, Enermax, or
Antec. You may view the entire thread here:
http://www.amdmb.com/vb/showthread.php?s=127ea304bd080013bf92ab4ac5a723a4&threadid=135384.
The size of the power supply is not dependent only the motherboard and
the processor. The number of drives, the video/sound card you have,
and the speed of your Hard Drive also plays a major role in the power
consumption of the system. However, not all power supplies are what
they seem to be. As Antec's PDF file on their new line of TruePower
supplies pointed out
(http://www.antec-inc.com/pdf/truepower_inclusion.pdf), "Traditional
power supply designs typically feature circuit sharing for the 3.3V
and 5V lines off the output transformer." 3.3v is the voltage your
CPU runs off of; while 5V is what your PCI cards and some of your
drives run off of. Because of the fact that they share a transformer
on many (cheap) power supplies, you will not be able to use the full
wattage of the power supply. Take for example my old power supply: It
came with my case, which I bought cheaply on eBay. It did share the
circuit for the 3.3v and the 5v power. According the label on the
side of the unit, the combined rating for 3.3v and 5v (the maximum
power which the unit can distribute between the devices which require
3.3v and 5v power) was 120W. However, my power supply was rated at
300W! When shopping for a power supply, do not cut costs, and make
sure to get a power supply that does not have an integrated circuit,
or you will end up with a much lower wattage than you expected (as did
I).
Now it is time to figure out the wattage needed. It's very hard for
me to give an accurate figure without the specifications of your
computer (or future computer), but I would recommend at least a 350W
power supply, especially in case you needed room in the future to
expand. On a daily basis, you will not be using 350W of power, but
the extra power will be needed when your hard drive first spins up, or
your CD drive is operating at a high speed. I have had an excellent
experience with my Antec TruePower supply, and I would recommend the
Antec TruePower 380W supply. It can be purchased at buy.com for
$65.72 (http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10324394&hdwt=0&loc=101),
and is the cheapest place on the internet to purchase the product
(taking into account shipping charges).
Alternatively, you may want to browse the websites of other reputable
power supply manufactures:
Antec www.antec.com
Enermax www.enermax.com.tw
Sparkle www.sparklepower.com
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Now on to your other questions:
To determine which way to attach your power LEDs to your motherboard,
pick them up and look at them. There should be writing on them,
labeling which device they control. Always make sure that the
labeling is pointing out, i.e. that it is pointing away from the other
pins. If there is no writing, the colored wire goes on the left pin,
while the white wire goes on the right (assuming you are looking
directly at the pins you will be placing the connectors on).
The power led wire is supposed to have three holes, but only two
wires.
I hope this helps, and feel free to ask for clarification in
necessary,
rmn-ga |
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