Power supply, how many Watts?

Question

Hello!
I had som trouble when doing music on Steinberg Cubase SX2. When the CPU load reached 30% it started to jump, up to 30% extra and then back. Once it occured it continued pumping up and down.
I increased the performance mode in Bios from Slow to Turbo on my 875N NEO main board, and it worked. But not for long since the computer turned back to Slow mode without me doing anything. After turning back to Turbo once again the system didn't boot. The D-Bracket's diagnostic LED's gave this message:
"Boot Attempt - This will set low stack and boot via INT 19h"
I don't know what this means.
I let my system cool off and restarted it and it worked - in Slow mode!
I got the feeling that the power supply couldn't deliver enough Watts and Performance mode automaticly turned back to a safe mode.
My power supply delivers 300W. This is what I have installed:
1 DVD-ROM
1 CD burner
2 Harddisks
Graphics card - MSI Gforce4 MX440SE-T
Sound card - EMU 1212m
In performance Slow mode - I have used the diagnostic tool SiSoft Sandra and getting very different results when running CPU, memory and cache benchmarks. Sometimes the results are half of what the supplied reference curves indicates. But other times everthing is correct. All the bus speeds are OK.
Can this be explained by not enough Watts. If so how much power should a system like mine have?
KA

Answer 1

Here's a post I wrote in May in another forum, when I discovered the importance of a good PSU
Your system crashes? Did you really...
...check all components??
In 90% of cases, you will forget the most important component, the Power Supply Unit (PSU). Before spending money in changing RAM, MB, graphic card, read this:
I Wanted to share my experience in my last crash issues.
I have a fast P4 2.8G 512Mb, GT4600, 2HD, 2 optic drives...
Never had issues, till I begun adding hardware:
LAN, Surround Sound, wireless keyboard/mouse, USB hubs, IEEE devices...
Random varried hang-ups, reboots, crashes, never the same circumstances
I noticed a CPU temperature increase. Suspecting an overheating, I tried running my PC with the case open. My problems became very rare.
Then, I upgraded to a Radeon 9600 Pro: crashes, reboots, overheating of CPU. I invested in a ThermalTake Subzero 4G cooler with independent power supply. My problems disappeared or rather became sparse. I again thought it's the overheating.
Last week, my Subzero 4G advanced cooler died, and the CPU burned up to 75¡ã before crashing. I returned my subzero and went with a Zalman 7000Al-Cu cooler.
System experienced seldom reboots, crashes and was no longer possible to work on it. Sometimes, it will reboot during the boot process, before even windows begins to load.
This time, I finally thought at my Power Supply Unit, a generic 300 Watt.
Browsed a bit on google, and found that my 300 watt would never be able to supply my too heavy equipped system.
The Power Supply Unit (PSU), is maybe one of the most important components in a PC. But it's also one of the less known. we often buy or assemble a PC. The case includes often cheap generic 300-350 Watt PSU. All works, till the day you add a HD, buy a new power hungry graphic adapter, increase RAM... then crashes, reboots, overheating appear.
They are related to the PSU delivering high load voltages to the units and low voltage to other parts, since it is over loaded. Often it ends with CPU overheating, PCI/AGP cards burned. In my case, I now think it was overvoltage to burn my PCI card controlled Subzero Cooler.
After long hours of browsing the forums for PSU reviews, I changed to an Antec Truepower 550 watt PSU, and no more reboots, crashes or over heating.
Also, this solved my LAN router (supporting 1024 sessions) being reset under emule. Probabily too much power requested by the many open connections that my PSU couldn't deliver.
An advice, if you experience crashes during games, burning CDs, reading CDroms, overcloaking or especially sudden reboots, check your configuration. If you have something like a P4, a new power graphic card, plenty of HD, then look at your PSU. If it is some generic 300-350 Watt, before changing RAM, motherboard, graphic card to solve problems, spend soome 150$ in an Antec or Enermax 480-550 watt PSU, and most of your headaches will be solved.
Take a review of PSUs here
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1841&p=1
they don't include the TruePower 550, but the TrueControl 550. They are just same, but the TrueControl have a front panel to manually adjust voltages, only for hardcore overclockers.
If you wonder, why at the begining my problems were solved just by running the system with case opened, then you must know that all PSU have their output power decrease as temperature increases. All sold PSU in the public market have their max output tested at 25C. At 70C, they are all rated for 0 Watt output. You understand the importance of a well supplied, but also well cooled system. The best in the market is Antec/Enermax. Take care with Q-Tec low price PSU, many bad reports on MSI motherboards forums
Q-Tec warning!!!!