BleepingComputer.com: My success story

Let me say first that I have built all of my own computers except for my first one which was back in 1989. Whenever I have had a problem that has stumped me it's usually been a big one that has taken more technical knowledge than I can muster to fix it.

Getting more to the point, I have come on this forum ever since I found it and usually found what I needed without having to bother anyone with my own questions. When I did have to ask questions you have all been so helpful and knowledgeable and I wanted to say I really appreciate all your great advice.

I had suspected that my power supply from my previous build just wasn't powerful enough for my new system when I built it last year, but according to all the power supply estimators I could find, it was just enough. it is 450W. thats to run an intel 8400 dual core chip and two hard drives one dvd drive ati 4850 vid card and soundblaster audigy sound card. I was getting all kinds of random problems with the dual channel memory and even in single channel it wasn't booting and it would just hang at the bios screen sometimes.

Long story short, I finally purchased a corsair tx650w supply last week. ever since I installed it everything has run smooth as glass, even with dual channel memory and (check this out) with the old ps I could only run two fans or my computer wouldn't boot sometimes. I must have been riding the edge of power with that one and falling over the edge a lot.

The moral of this story? make sure you have enough power. or learn the hard way like me;)

I'm glad you figured your power supply problem out & all is well.

As for a "450 Watt" PSU, not all are created equal.

How well a PSU works really depends on a lot of things but 2 of the more important are,

1. How much of the rated power is on the +12V .

2. Was it rated by "peak power" or "continuas power" .

Most PSU's are rated by "peak power" , That is the maximum output it will produce for a few seconds under a full load.
That means a 450 Watt PSU may only put out 200 watts of continuas power.

A 450 Watt PSU rated by continuas power will hold a steady 450W under a full load.