PCA Forums

what is the difference between a regular AT ot ATX PS and a 12V PS.
the motherboard I'm using http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=273
states that I can only use a 12V PS.
will i frie the MB if I try a regular PS?

12 volt means it's an ATX PSU that has the seperate 12volt cable that some P4 mobos require.

Yes, if your mobo requires one of those you need to make sure the PSU has one. Any good quality PSU will be P4 compliant though.

I would recommend spending the money on an Antec True Power PSU. Don't cut corners - a cheap PSU will cause you all kinds of headaches from inexplicable crashes to random reboots and you'll never know for sure if it's the PSU or something else unless you swap it out.

At a minimum for a gaming system (because the video cards on serious gaming systems are power hogs) I'd recommend an Antec TruePower 430:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 908&depa=1

well the one that came with the case seems to work. This is a budget system I build for a friend, so buying a 110$ Can. PSU is out of the question. The MB has onboard video so I think it will be ok with this PS. The only add on card i install will be a modem, rest is onboard. So far she (my friend) worked with a Pentium 266, so the Celeron 2.7 will be an improvement any way you look at it.

But I need a new PS for my own case sooner or later so I keep your reccomandation in mind.

Thanks again for your help FP.

Oh I am really having fun with this system. Try to install XP, get one message after the other; " cant copy file so and so, please press enter to try again or press esc to skip the file"
This is once more driving me crazy.
I suspect it is the RAM stick for right now. Brand new ULTRA 2700 512 MB from Tiger direct.
I just pulled a crucial stick out of my system put it in and everything seems to work so far.
I cant even think of all the fun I will have getting that stick returned to Tiger.

advice to anybody: stay away from tiger direct.

advice to anybody: stay away from tiger direct.

I could have told you that. I'd never deal with those clowns.

ive gotten tons of stuff from tiger direct. only had problems with a flaky mobo and they exchanged it pretty quick. it wasnt even their fault. UPS beat the shit outta it.

well I got an RA# pretty quick for the RAM, because it wasnt Tigers problem but Ultras. Only took 2 calls each about 3-5 minutes, one to Ultra and then one to Tiger. Will see how long it will take to actually get the replacement.
However it was a different story with the CD/R/RW that I ordered. According to the sticker on the box it was the right drive but the drive inside the box was a regular CD-Rom drive. The customer service guy needed about 45 minutes before he finnaly agreed to give me a RA# and that i didnt had to pay 15% restocking fee.
He tried to tell me that it doesnt need to say anything about CD/R/RW on the drive. He insisted that I should just take the drive out of its sealed original package put it in the PC and try if it will work.