Question about my power supply and other component

[Selbio]

I have a 250W PSU on an
AMD XP 3000+
512mb PC2700
160GB Hard Drive
DVD-RW
CD-Rom
Modem
Sapphire ATI 9600PRO 256mb of ram
and
I was looking at Asusprobe and I noticed that the 12v rails is at 12.484v at the lowest and 12.58v highest. the 5V and 3.3 are very stable, as a matter of fact the are always at 5.026v and 3.344v.
This pc runs real hot specially when playing games because the fans never run at full speed to kill noise then when temps are over 64C they run at full speed.
Would be safe to get two 3-to-4 pin adapters with r.p.m. sensors to run the two fans straight from the PSU at full speed to improve cooling? Wouldn't this make the voltage rails specially the 12v one be even lower?
How long does it take for a PSU that is being stressed to malfunction?

Any help with this will be highly appreciated.

[Paz]

 It seems to me that a 250W power supply is awful small by todays standards, especially running a high end system such as yours, personally I would upgrade to at least a 350W before the current power supply fries, but that's just me.

[Selbio]

I've been thinking about getting a better one too in the next few months. But I realised that HP uses the 250w units no mattter how powerful the system really is. I have seen sombody with an HP pc similar to mine except it had a Sapphire ATI 9800PRO.
How long do they usually last when they are being stressed too much?

By the way. No matter what PSU I buy they fans still run at 40% speed to kill noise because of the BIOS. I'll still have to use a 3pin-to-4pin adapter to be able to run them from the PSU at full speed all the time. I got one today for the case fan and I need another one for the CPU with an R.P.M. sensor that way the pc won't shut down.
I was just asking if running the other fan from the PSU would cause more strain from the unit and maybe fry it?

[Hawkeye313]

I don't know that you'll kill your power supply, but your system performance may be suffering (is it stable?)  A good size power supply today is 480W.  If you upgrade resist the temptation to buy one that is a real good deal.  A good 480W supply will be much better than the knockoff 520W.  Try to stay with Enermax or Antec, both are very good.  If you can see them up close a good power supply will be heavier than the cheap stuff.  

[Selbio]

I already have the case fan running straight from the power supply to help move some of that hot air in there and it seems to be stable along with all the other rails. When I'm playing fs9 the temps go up real high and all fans are working the voltages get as low as 11.4844 and even then the pc seems to be stable. Don't mean I want to keep a cheap Hipro PSU but I plan on keeping it until the warranty on the pc expires.
I'm going to try an adapter and see what happens.

BTW When I use Speedfan and manually run the CPU fan at full speed the temps go as low as 36C idle and 56 Load. Is that too bad?

thanks for the input.

[Iroquois]

My system runs fine on 300w but it's limit. I found your limit to be 250w exactly. See for yourself.
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

[Delta_]

I use an Antec Smartpower 350W.  It is very quiet and is incredibly stable.  Well worth the

[Selbio]

I've used that to measure it as well. I remember I once had a 400W PSU(Codegen) and an ANtec 300W and both got as hot as this one gets and the voltages were about the same. What I was worried about hooking up a fan to it and then it blowing up but I guess I'll find out once I received the 3-to-4 pin adapters.

One more question. Some of the PSU wires have  little cut that do not show any lead. Is it safe to use as long as it doesn't show the lead or they are not touching metal inside the case which they aren't?

[congo]

Maybe you can turn off the fan throttling in bios, or set the trigger point lower, at any rate, you aren't getting any crashes or probs, so I wouldn't worry about it, at least until the warranty expires. You make a modification now and you may VOID the warranty.

If it ain't broke..... don't fix it.

After the warranty expires, just get a new case/psu as we discussed in a previous thread.

As long as the insulation on the wiring is still on, and no bare wires are showing, it should be ok, as long as no further chafing or damage is occurring. If you wrap tape around the cuts, it will implicate you as a non- certified repairer if warranty issues arise.

[Selbio]

Yeah there is no bare wire showing. And it's just black ground cable so I'm not worried about it now.

Want to know something screwed up? Not Long ago a so called technician came by my house to replace the motherboard and his only tool was a screwdriver. Well he kept dropping the screwdriver in there and ended up scracthing the southbridge chipset and that was HP's so called certified technician. He also wanted to put the CPU heatsink back on there without even applying any thermal compound on there. I had to scrap some of the one that was already there and reapply it.

[congo]

That's rough Selbio. Was he drunk?

[Selbio]

That's rough Selbio. Was he drunk?

I will just say this I'm never buying another Compaq pc EVER!!!!!
Next PC I'm buying is going to be an ALienware PC.

[Anti-Societys Snake]

build your own or have some one put it together for you, I'm researching one that is better all around than the Aurora(Except fro video card, and I'm only short just a litle bit, barely noticable) and it's for 400 dollers less!!! I'm vary excited aout it.


and if you want to upgrade your power supply I recomend this:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... =P456-4002


With the fan control on it, it may be the solution for your dillema, and it's pretty damned cheap!

RAWK! \m/
~Hanzaki

[Selbio]

Hanzaki,

I used to build computers in the past. Why I ended up with an HP pc? I don't know what I was thinking at that time.
I have bought other power supplies in the past and I have had to return them simply because the the case has some edges in the back that would not allow a standard PSU to be installed.

I tried both 3-to-4 pin adapters with R.P.M. sensors and the fans were too loud and on top of thatthe voltages went even lower than normal.

So I decided that when the warranty expires I'm going to buy a case, Brand name PSu, motherboard, another stick of 512mb of ram, and a quiter and much better CPU cooling fan and then I'll have a normal PC

[Anti-Societys Snake]

muaahaha, when you said you had a budle computer, I automatically assumed you were new to computers  ::)


sorry.  :(

rawk..... \m/
~Hanzaki