What power supply do you reccomend for this setup?

**ZigZ** · 05-10-2008, 12:52 PM

I'm going to be using some old PC hardware, and I'm not really sure what PSU I should use to power it. Currently, the system is powered by a 580 Watt Generic power supply, but thats overkill.

The Sytem I plan to use:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1.7GHz
768MB PC2100 RAM
Zogis NVIDIA GeForce 5200 128MB AGP
Realtek RC97 Audio
80GB 2.5" Laptop IDE Drive
And maybe a slimline DVDR

Any recommendations for a PSU for this setup? I want the lowest possible wattage power supply I can get, because I'm not sure how much my old cars alternator and battery can push out.

**DarquePervert** · 05-10-2008, 01:21 PM

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/advf...iew&advfaqid=6

In order to get an idea of the power draw of your CPU, you need to determine what core of AthlonXP that system uses, as different cores have different power draws.

And you don't need the 3D card for an in-car installation. Go with a lower-power video card or on-board video if available.

**ZigZ** · 05-10-2008, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by DarquePervert

And you don't need the 3D card for an in-car installation. Go with a lower-power video card or on-board video if available.

Well, the onboard video card is that SiS Unichrome crap, it doesn't even work well with regular computing activities.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the FX5200 could be considered a low enough powered card.

According to extreme power supply calculator, my system should pull about 177watts, so I guess I'll go ahead and buy the dsatx 220 watt one, and just pay close attention to battery drain for awhile.

**2k1Toaster** · 05-10-2008, 06:02 PM

177W is 90% meaningless. It is like the pre-approval stage of selecting a PSU.

You need to know how much each rail draws. If you are drawing like 20A on the 12v rail, as part of that 177W, then the DS wont work. Same goes with if 20A are from the 5v rail, it wont work even though the total wattages are ok.

Also unichrome chipsets are perfectly fine for incar systems. You arent going to be playing Doom while driving.