The Mad Hatter

I have had an HP a510n for a little over two years, and am concerned about upgrading the power supply...specs are as follows, taken via Everest and the HP site for this product at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...name=c00090221 ...

Motherboard – ASUS A7V8X-LA Kelut-GL6E
CPU – AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 2.1Ghz
RAM – 1 Gig of PC2700 SDRAM (upgraded from the original 512 out of box)
Video Card(s) – ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, 128mb AGP (upgraded from onboard)
Hard Drive(s) – 120 Gig 7200 RPM ultra ATA/100 seagate
Power Supply – 250 watt, Zinfandel PS2, Regulated

All drivers have been updated (though the BIOS is two years old and untouched), and it runs just fine, but in looking at the original documentation, I realized that I may be a bit underpowered when it comes to supplying the juice to this video card. (The recommended is 300 minimum.) Though I have not experienced any performance issues, I don't want to be slowly cooking the computer to death if I'm short on the power.

Have perused the stickied thread on power supplies, but am wondering if my current motherboard/configuration can take anything higher than a 250 watt one. I was able to dig up a recommended power supply http://www.atxcases.com/item.asp?referid=162164&id=1338 that could work for this computer that was 300 watts, but is that the highest I could go with the current rig?

Am concerned that this being an out-of-the-box computer, I may not be able to plop any old purchased power supply in it...anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

linderman

Hello:


That PSU must be one hellva quality unit for you are the luckyest man on earth !!

You should have no problems with this PSU it's a great unit and the budget is decent too @ $51.50

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104954

you can go as big on the watts as you want; although there does come a point that buying alot more unit then you could ever use makes no sense either >>>> ideally you want a PSU that is capable of delievering at least 100 more watts than you could use at 100% load.

You will have no problems with the Fortron unit >>>> very high quality

enjoy and dotn hesitate to ask questions >>>> hopefully some other fellas will chime in here too with their suggestions

The Mad Hatter

LOL - I guess that's true - though I haven't seen any performance issues with it, it just seems to be chugging along in there...

Just got offline with the support chat at HP's website. The fellow there looked up the specs on the computer as shipped, and said that it requires a micro ATX sized power supply. He said according to his information, that I could go as high as 350 watts with a replacement and not begin to damage anything with that particular motherboard configured with it.

It's not the wattage that I am particularly concerned with...350 is fine by me. It was the dimensions of the actual power supply, as I have been surfing the past hour and seeing lots of people saying that HP doesn't use standard sized components in their computers, which reduces adaptability. Heck, the damn hard drive is mounted vertically at the front base of my tower - when I first opened the case, that told me I wasn't in Kansas anymore...

Anyone else wanna chime in? Anyone have experiences replacing PSUs with their HP computers?

Ralck

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104016

That is another very good quality supply. It is microATX so it should fit in your case, and has enough watts for you. It's also a fairly decent price range.

The Mad Hatter

Yes, that is one that I did find while poking around on the web. Here are some others which I think might also fit the bill...

http://www.atxpowersupplies.com/300-...atx-300-gu.php
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/produc...hp?show=S31ATX
http://www.icpcparts.com/catalog2/mi...FU9nGAodE07WjA
http://www.directron.com/mps3atx20.html
http://affordablesurplus.com/hp-5187...wer-supply.asp

Don't know as to the quality of service with any of these vendors, though...I think I'd trust NewEgg the most when it comes to this sort of thing.

The dimensions on the product you posted seem a bit large to me, compared to the others - but I think the best way to determine what will fit is to crack open the case tomorrow morning and see how much space I have to work with. I think the size/dimension specs on my current PSU are a little smaller.

The Mad Hatter

Seems my search-fu is off whenever I surf NewEgg. If I search for MicroATX or mATX, all I get is 300W and under, but when I search by the wattages, I get all sorts of goodies...

Thinking I might be going down one of these roads, seeing as how the people at HP said I could get a maximum of 350W...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817170013
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817181110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104086

Bartender

I've never heard anyone say that you could install too powerful a PSU...the mb and other parts will only consume the amount they need. It's not like a 1000W PSU will force that much power thru your board. They scale back if the demand isn't there.
Seems odd that HP would tell you not to exceed 350W. Maybe they're concerned about the case's ability to handle extra heat?

You may want to think about high efficiency if heat is a concern. Seasonic's are known for some of the highest efficiencies.

Ralck

@The Mad Hatter:
I looked at all those links you posted. In the first set, most of them were standard ATX size??? (Maybe the site has moved links around?)
As for the second set, the FSP I listed will perform MUCH better than all of those. Those are 'untrusted' brands and will probably not deliver the performance they say they can. Thus, a 350 from Athena might only produce 200. Since the FSP is not any more expensive, I suggest you stick with that one. Your system will easily run on that FSP.

blackduck30

if you have not read this it may be helpful

http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?t=107466

The Mad Hatter

Perhaps - wish I had the chat log, which they were supposed to email along with their chat support survey. Of course I got the survey, but no chat log, but in essence they said 350W maximum for that motherboard, and an mATX size power supply.

Ah curses! Wish this was posted earlier - I was wavering between the FSP you listed, and the one from Just PC which had 350W. Both had a fair number of good reviews at NewEgg, but I rolled the dice and got the 350W Just PC one instead. The bigger number just had me, I guess. It's currently en route for delivery today (since I live less than 20 miles from their shipping point).

Yeah, I wanted to steer clear of the Athena, after doing some extensive research online after I posted this. They seemed particularly shady based on external forums I have browsed.

You say that they might not be able to deliver to performance they claim...is there any way to monitor this? How exactly would I know if I am getting the correct amount once the psu was installed? Is there a way to measure via Everest?

Ralck

There are many ways to monitor the power from a PSU.

I have several listed in my sig. Check voltage rails, which you can also check in BIOS. They should stay within about a 5% margin of error, meaning the +12V line shouldn't be above about 12.3V. Of course, these software monitoring programs are actually fairly inaccurate, so the best way to test voltages is with a multimeter, if your up to that.

As far as measuring wattage output, you can't really measure this without an expensive test set up that specifically draws x watts and checks if the PSU fails or not. But if you make sure to have good ventilation/air movement in your case and keep the PSU as cool as possible, you should be safe.

If the PSU you ordered isn't within those specs, you may be able to RMA it to newegg for a restocking fee (like 15% I think?) or you can RMA it without even opening it for the restocking fee.

STORM199

Check the compatibility chart for the HP Pavillion a510 on www.icpcparts.com 's website , you will find a 250 watt and a 300 watt micro ATX power supply there. compare the connectors to your existing power supply they are OEM versions.

http://www.icpcparts.com/catalog2/mi...att-p-124.html

They have worked well for me.

good luck with that machine of yours :-)

Storm

The Mad Hatter

Hmmmm, I have been considering installing an exhaust fan for a while, so maybe I will pick one up and do the psu and fan installation all at once...

Well, I won't be doing the installation until Monday; I think I'll give this one a try and if it becomes problematic, I can always RMA it and switch to the one you recommended.

Many thanks for all your help, you guys are a great resource...