K9N2, ran fine, now 4 red leds

[ellswortha101]

Ok so i have built a new system off of a k9n2, and old anthon 3200+ and some crucial ram, i had it all set up it was running windows xp and i was getting like 70fps on WOW with everything on high :) but then the sound card began smoking so i shut everything off i i found out the pins weren't seated right. i un plug the creative x-fi card and turned it on and what do you know, it worked fine. Just to test it i used it for another 30 minutes. then i moved it to my living room where i already had 1 pc and a dlp tv, and when i plug it in the fans and my leds would flash real quick and all components would briefly be powered. no i got it to work but i get 4 red leds, which means the cpu is uderpowered, or damaged. i do not believe this is accurate however as i had this before and it ended up working fine the next day, buy its already been a day. Any suggestions. the PSU is generic POWMAX 500w and the processors cheap if thats the problem, everything else was a fortune :(

HERES MY PSU LINK (EBAY) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=170280572251

[jlreich]

If the motherboard diagnostic LED's are telling you the system is under powered that would be the first thing I would look at.

That PSU is rather cheap. A good quality PSU is going to cost you at least $70, easily going well over $100. ;) Look at the horrible specs on that thing. A measly 25A on the +12v rail, 70% efficiency. :eek: That thing isn't up to the task of powering a modern system. ;)

[ellswortha101]

Alright sounds good, can anyone give me some advice on what to get ie how many amps if i eventually go into SLI mode and i have no clue what --% efficiency means so clarification would be great on that. thanks.

[jlreich]

If you want to go SLI I would recommend a 750w with 60A on a single +12v rail. One like this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009). If you decide to stick with a single card you can easily go with one like this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005). Depending on what cards you want to SLI the 650W may be fine as well, but they would have to be low end cards. On the other hand if you were going to SLI some GTX 280's you would want to go with an 850W. Regardless, 550W with at least two +12v rails with 18-19A each is considered minimum for a basic modern system.

Efficiency is how much of the power is actually used to power your components. At 70% you are losing up to 30% of your electricity to heat and other things. There is always going to be some lose, but you want to look for something that is 80+. That is the standard these days. Anything less than 80% speaks of cheap internals.

And the PSU should have some nice weight to it. One of the PSU criteria laid out by our hardware guru Saphalline is if you can throw it at your friend and they don't bleed, throw it in the trash. :p

The PSU is the heart of your system, something you don't want to cheap out on. ;)

[ellswortha101]

thanks, i borrowed my friend's 650w (generic lol) psu and everything is fine. i still can't believe something isn't broken after the sound card "Difficulties"

[ellswortha101]

would you think that this power supply would be any good?

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=AK800&cat=PWR

I don't really want to spend a fortune, but i was wondering if this would be sufficient for a 9800gtx, phenom 9950, and maybe another graphic card down the road? looks good to me and it's a bargain price :)

[jlreich]

Honestly I would much rather see you get the quality Corsair 650w over that cheapo 800w. Think about it, the corsair that is a quality 650w unit sells for almost twice the price on sale and after a $20 MIR of the 800W unit. To sum it up, you get what you pay for. ;)

I know it's hard to put so much cash out for a PSU when it seems it doesn't directly effect performance. But I also see so many times when someone goes to build a new machine they spend a bunch of cash of the mobo and other components only to squeeze in a crappy little PSU. It should be the other way around. ;) The PSU and motherboard are the most important components in the system. Neither should be scrimped on. ;)

It's your cash, but I hate to see you spend so much on good components only to starve them of good clean power.

And it actually does effect performance. When you are pushing your system with the latest game and the PSU can't keep up you lose performance and degrade the health of your system at the least. At worst you end up destroying your system.