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Old November 25th 03, 02:58 AM
V W Wall
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Jeremy wrote:

Hello. A few days ago the fan in my power supply started making weird
noises. The "whirring" sound of the fan would fluctuate like the fan was
slowing down. I talked to a man at CompUSA and he said the power supply is
going out. It's not even a year old!


Power supplies are notorious for using cheap fan motors. Most use a 80mm
sleve bearing fan. You can easily replace it with a dual ball bearing
fan which will last much longer. Don't belive those who say lethal
voltages lurk in power supplies for days. Just leave it unplugged for
ten minutes before you open it. You may have to splice the wires
(usually black and red), but just a well twisted joint insulated with
electrical tape will work OK.

It is dangerous. You can easily cut your fingers on the sharp edges
of most PS covers!

The power supply is 300 watts and I would just buy a new one but I have to
think about the futu Right now I have an AMD Athelon for XP processor
with a cooling fan, 1 80 GB hard drive, an internal graphics card with a
cooling fan, an internal sound card, a CD-RW and an old CD-ROM I never use.
In the future, though I'm going to get a DVD burner (which will replace the
CD-ROM), an external Sound Blaster Extigy card, a new case with fans I'll
add, myself, a second 40 GB hard drive and an internal video capture card.
With all this, do I need to get a new power supply with a higher wattage? If
so, what wattage?


You've already got the main power consuming devices: The CPU and the graphics
card. If your PS was OK and you don't plan to add more than a second HD and
fans, 300W should be OK.

As many have said, you can't count on the advertized rating of a PS for its
actual performance, but yours has lasted so far. I'd spend 5 bucks for a new
fan right now. Just don't let it run with impaired cooling.

Here are my two BIG questions:

**How do I go about selecting the right wattage of power supply for my
needs?**

** Are there other points I need to consider?**

Thank you for any information you can give.


kony has hit on the main considerations.


Virg Wall
--
A foolish consistency is the
hobgoblin of little minds,........
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Microsoft programmer's manual.)