Is this a good PSU?

theReaper0908 · 12-23-2008, 01:43 AM

The name of the PSU is chiefmax. It's a 650w with these rail amperages (under each rail, there was a number), +3.3v (under that, 36A). +5V, under 36A. +121, 34A. +12V2, N/A. -12V, 1A. +5VSB, 2A.

**grimx133** · 12-23-2008, 03:31 AM

Not really. Seems to be a 650 watt power supply mostly in name.
let's see +12 volt - 408 watts
+ 5 volt - 180 watts
+3.3 volt - 118.8 watts
total = 706.8 watts
So that makes it more than a 650 in total wattage, but not equal to a quality supply in the most important +12 volts. Look at something like the Corsair 650TX, it has 52 amps on that rail. That's a huge difference. When the ATX standard went to ver. 2.0 and up, the balance of output was weighted towards the +12 volt rail(s) as that is what modern computers require. Earlier standards were weighted towards the +3.3 and +5 since that is what was needed then.
You would not be well served by using that psu.

Tumbleweed36 · 12-23-2008, 04:43 AM

My team mate grimx133 has given you good advice. I suggest you consider his suggestion.

theReaper0908 · 12-23-2008, 12:12 PM

Can my PSU handle a visionTek Radeon HD 2400 Pro 512mb 8x AGP?
I'm afraid I can't upgrade my PSU because I' am tight with money right now. What are some of the bad things that can happen? I have 2gb ram, and AMD Athlon XP @2400 2.0GHz. With ^^that video card.

*Sigh* I guess I can slip out a few bucks from my bank if this turns out to be an emergency. I took your advice and looked at this PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&Tpk=Corsair%20650TX and it seems like a very good PSU.

Tumbleweed36 · 12-23-2008, 03:01 PM

Your power supply while a very weak one should actually pull what you have without difficulty if you are using an AGP card. That statement is made with the understanding that the power supply is working fine and since we don't know what is going on with this rig, we have not determined whether it is or is not working properly.

Before you go too far with this issue, I suggest you tell us what problems you are having with this rig and then maybe we can give you better advice on whether you need to purchase another one or not. Neither of us wants you to purchase something you don't need, so let's approach this so grimx133 or I can take a look at the issues you are having. When time permits, I would be happy to look at your issue and I also have complete confidence (and you should too) in grimx133's evaluation of your issues.

When you tell us the problems, please list the computer specs (motherboard, drives, etc) so we know what we are looking at in the way of demands.

Addendum: The PSU you are looking at on NewEgg is top-gun.

**grimx133** · 12-23-2008, 03:11 PM

It'll handle it, assuming you already have the psu. It would not be a good plan to buy a psu like that, but you do have to work with what you have. The good news is that agp's power requirements are a lot less than pci-e. Don't know what you are needing the card for, but the HD 2400 isn't a card for gaming, hope that's not what you're looking for.
If you have been running the psu for quite some time without problems, then it should be good for a while yet. It really is luck of the draw when you don't have a known quality brand psu. Could get one that provides a smoke and light show as soon as it's turned on, or one that seems to last forever and you'd swear it was the best psu ever manufactured, most fall somewhere inbetween.
Catastrophic failure, spectacular as it can be, can also take out other components with voltage "spikes" as it is dying, a not uncommon event when they die in that fashion. Mostly they display clues prior to checking out. Things like crashes when there is a greater demand for power than usual, seemingly random errors which is also a sign of bad ram, so that can be confusing. A high pitched whining sound, capacitors eh, kind of like one of the big old clunky camera flashes charging between shots.
Just be sure not to carry it over to a new system, should you build a new one. I don't think it would last long trying to power much of a pci-e card.

edit - I'm slow again, that'll teach me to do too many things at once.

Tumbleweed36 · 12-23-2008, 03:17 PM

Gotcha on that one didn't I grimx????

Hey, one of us might get this one going if we find out what is the issue. Have a great evening and talk to you later.

theReaper0908 · 12-23-2008, 03:54 PM

First of all, thank you both for trying to help me. As for my system, I used Belarc Advisor to have it display my PC information.

System Model
Compaq Presario 061 DF260A-ABA S4030NX NA210 0n41411RE101SALSA10
System Serial Number: MXM3270GC1
Enclosure Type: Desktop

Main Circuit Board
Board: KM266-8235
Serial Number: 137928-32509760
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD AM37320 08/01/2003

Memory Modules
2048 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 1024 MB
Slot 'A1' has 1024 MB
Slot 'A2' is Empty

Drives
560.11 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
314.94 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

ATAPI DVDROM 16X [CD-ROM drive]
HB2816N YSH224W [CD-ROM drive]
HB2816N YSH224W SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]
LITE-ON LTR-48246S [CD-ROM drive]
SONY DVD RW DRU-820A USB Device [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

WD 5000AAJS Externa USB Device [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 1
WDC WD600BB-00CAA1 [Hard drive] (60.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WMA8E7731940, rev 17.07W17, SMART Status: Healthy

PC specs: AMD Athlon XP @2400 2.0GHz
2gb ram
ATI Radeon VisionTek HD 2400 pro 512mb agp.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention. When I installed the drivers for my video card (I' am currently using visionTek CAT 8.11 drivers, the 8.12 drivers gave me the same issue) it marks it down as a HD 2600 instead of 2400.

The main problem I'am having with my computer is whenever I play the game fallout 3, within 5-10 minutes, the game restarts my computer with no warning or anything. My other games work fine which are tomb raider underworld, COD4, NWN 2, and a couple others. This is the only game that does this. However, when I install the 7.12 omega drivers, fallout 3 works but it makes the game run extremely choppy for like 2 minutes everytime I enter a new area, then it goes normal. I would just leave this driver installed but it makes all of my games run choppy.

**grimx133** · 12-23-2008, 04:40 PM

Have you tried the system requirement labs "can you run it?"
Seems odd that the problems would occur on only the one game, sounds game specific, so first thing that comes to mind is system requirements. http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

edit - Have you patched the game? http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/downloads/patches.html

theReaper0908 · 12-23-2008, 06:29 PM

I ran a systemrequirementslab test and it said I passed the minimum but failed the recommended on the CPU and video card. It said I needed at least an ATI 3800 and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I looked at the release notes for the patch and it only fixes 3 things which are only crashes.

**linderman** · 12-23-2008, 07:17 PM

but failed the recommended on the CPU and video card.......... forget that game

theReaper0908 · 12-24-2008, 01:17 AM

but yet I can run the game with most of the settings on high while the game runs smooth? The only choppyness I get is when entering new areas which last for about 1-2 minutes then it goes away. This is when I use the 7.12 omega drivers. When I use the official ATI 8.12 and the visionTek 8.11, the game runs perfectly smooth on high, but the game restarts my computer. I had an older video card, an ATI x1600, while it did the same thing, all I needed to do was install the 7.2 omega drivers and the game ran smooth with no restarts. When I tried the 7.2 drivers with my current video card, after I restart, my computer would say I don't have a driver as if the 7.2 drivers doesn't work with the card

theReaper0908 · 01-09-2009, 02:07 AM

I've just tried the latest patch, and it still doesn't work. I know for a fact that I can run this game because while I play before the game restarts my computer, the game runs smooth, I get a 30-80 fps.

**linderman** · 01-09-2009, 07:59 AM

what make and model power supply ?

theReaper0908 · 01-09-2009, 10:09 AM

The PSU brand name is chiefmax. It's a 650w with these rail amperages (under each rail, there was a number), +3.3v (under that, 36A). +5V, under 36A. +121, 34A. +12V2, N/A. -12V, 1A. +5VSB, 2A.

**linderman** · 01-09-2009, 02:36 PM

ewwwwww try another PSU chiefmax is a known poor quality culprit ..... can you swap psu's with another machine

theReaper0908 · 01-11-2009, 09:25 PM

unfortunately no.... The latest official ATI drivers makes fallout 3 restart my pc. But when I install the Omega ATI driver (7.12 is their latest one) the game works but runs a little choppy. Does this sound like it can be a PSU issue?

**grimx133** · 01-11-2009, 10:38 PM

If you want to try another type of modded ATI driers, I know a guy on another forum who swears by tweakforce, though he uses the nVidia ones. Haven't tried them myself.

http://tweakforce.com/modules.php?na...viewforum&f=16

**linderman** · 01-12-2009, 06:09 AM

you must take into consideration that newer drivers generally produce more powerful graphics performance............therefore if you have a struggling PSU ......... the chances are new gpu drivers will increase your troubles !

In the power supply world: chiefmax is better suited as a wheelchock for the neighborhood garabe truck !

theReaper0908 · 01-17-2009, 08:52 PM

that makes sense linderman. I would try out those tweakforce drivers if I wouldn't get a 403 forbidden error. They're probably working on some maintenance on the web site or something cause I've been there before.

12-23-2008, 01:43 AM	#1 (permalink)
theReaper0908 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 352 OS: Win XP SP3, Vista SP1	Is this a good PSU? The name of the PSU is chiefmax. It's a 650w with these rail amperages (under each rail, there was a number), +3.3v (under that, 36A). +5V, under 36A. +121, 34A. +12V2, N/A. -12V, 1A. +5VSB, 2A. __________________ There are 10 types of people in this world, people who knows binary and people who don't.

12-23-2008, 03:31 AM	#2 (permalink)
grimx133 Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Canada eh Posts: 3,133 OS: xp mce sp2, xp pro sp2, windows 7 beta My System	Re: Is this a good PSU? Not really. Seems to be a 650 watt power supply mostly in name. let's see +12 volt - 408 watts + 5 volt - 180 watts +3.3 volt - 118.8 watts total = 706.8 watts So that makes it more than a 650 in total wattage, but not equal to a quality supply in the most important +12 volts. Look at something like the Corsair 650TX, it has 52 amps on that rail. That's a huge difference. When the ATX standard went to ver. 2.0 and up, the balance of output was weighted towards the +12 volt rail(s) as that is what modern computers require. Earlier standards were weighted towards the +3.3 and +5 since that is what was needed then. You would not be well served by using that psu. __________________

12-23-2008, 04:43 AM	#3 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,633 OS: XP Professional	Re: Is this a good PSU? My team mate grimx133 has given you good advice. I suggest you consider his suggestion. __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread.

12-23-2008, 12:12 PM	#4 (permalink)
theReaper0908 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 352 OS: Win XP SP3, Vista SP1	Re: Is this a good PSU? Can my PSU handle a visionTek Radeon HD 2400 Pro 512mb 8x AGP? I'm afraid I can't upgrade my PSU because I' am tight with money right now. What are some of the bad things that can happen? I have 2gb ram, and AMD Athlon XP @2400 2.0GHz. With ^^that video card. Sigh I guess I can slip out a few bucks from my bank if this turns out to be an emergency. I took your advice and looked at this PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&Tpk=Corsair%20650TX and it seems like a very good PSU. __________________ There are 10 types of people in this world, people who knows binary and people who don't. Last edited by theReaper0908; 12-23-2008 at 12:27 PM.

12-23-2008, 03:01 PM	#5 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,633 OS: XP Professional	Re: Is this a good PSU? Your power supply while a very weak one should actually pull what you have without difficulty if you are using an AGP card. That statement is made with the understanding that the power supply is working fine and since we don't know what is going on with this rig, we have not determined whether it is or is not working properly. Before you go too far with this issue, I suggest you tell us what problems you are having with this rig and then maybe we can give you better advice on whether you need to purchase another one or not. Neither of us wants you to purchase something you don't need, so let's approach this so grimx133 or I can take a look at the issues you are having. When time permits, I would be happy to look at your issue and I also have complete confidence (and you should too) in grimx133's evaluation of your issues. When you tell us the problems, please list the computer specs (motherboard, drives, etc) so we know what we are looking at in the way of demands. Addendum: The PSU you are looking at on NewEgg is top-gun. __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread. Last edited by Tumbleweed36; 12-23-2008 at 03:03 PM.

12-23-2008, 03:11 PM	#6 (permalink)
grimx133 Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Canada eh Posts: 3,133 OS: xp mce sp2, xp pro sp2, windows 7 beta My System	Re: Is this a good PSU? It'll handle it, assuming you already have the psu. It would not be a good plan to buy a psu like that, but you do have to work with what you have. The good news is that agp's power requirements are a lot less than pci-e. Don't know what you are needing the card for, but the HD 2400 isn't a card for gaming, hope that's not what you're looking for. If you have been running the psu for quite some time without problems, then it should be good for a while yet. It really is luck of the draw when you don't have a known quality brand psu. Could get one that provides a smoke and light show as soon as it's turned on, or one that seems to last forever and you'd swear it was the best psu ever manufactured, most fall somewhere inbetween. Catastrophic failure, spectacular as it can be, can also take out other components with voltage "spikes" as it is dying, a not uncommon event when they die in that fashion. Mostly they display clues prior to checking out. Things like crashes when there is a greater demand for power than usual, seemingly random errors which is also a sign of bad ram, so that can be confusing. A high pitched whining sound, capacitors eh, kind of like one of the big old clunky camera flashes charging between shots. Just be sure not to carry it over to a new system, should you build a new one. I don't think it would last long trying to power much of a pci-e card. edit - I'm slow again, that'll teach me to do too many things at once. __________________ Last edited by grimx133; 12-23-2008 at 03:13 PM.

12-23-2008, 03:17 PM	#7 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,633 OS: XP Professional	Re: Is this a good PSU? Gotcha on that one didn't I grimx???? Hey, one of us might get this one going if we find out what is the issue. Have a great evening and talk to you later. __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread.

12-23-2008, 03:54 PM	#8 (permalink)
theReaper0908 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 352 OS: Win XP SP3, Vista SP1	Re: Is this a good PSU? First of all, thank you both for trying to help me. As for my system, I used Belarc Advisor to have it display my PC information. System Model Compaq Presario 061 DF260A-ABA S4030NX NA210 0n41411RE101SALSA10 System Serial Number: MXM3270GC1 Enclosure Type: Desktop Main Circuit Board Board: KM266-8235 Serial Number: 137928-32509760 Bus Clock: 133 megahertz BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD AM37320 08/01/2003 Memory Modules 2048 Megabytes Installed Memory Slot 'A0' has 1024 MB Slot 'A1' has 1024 MB Slot 'A2' is Empty Drives 560.11 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity 314.94 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space ATAPI DVDROM 16X [CD-ROM drive] HB2816N YSH224W [CD-ROM drive] HB2816N YSH224W SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive] LITE-ON LTR-48246S [CD-ROM drive] SONY DVD RW DRU-820A USB Device [CD-ROM drive] 3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive] WD 5000AAJS Externa USB Device [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 1 WDC WD600BB-00CAA1 [Hard drive] (60.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WMA8E7731940, rev 17.07W17, SMART Status: Healthy PC specs: AMD Athlon XP @2400 2.0GHz 2gb ram ATI Radeon VisionTek HD 2400 pro 512mb agp. Oh yea, I forgot to mention. When I installed the drivers for my video card (I' am currently using visionTek CAT 8.11 drivers, the 8.12 drivers gave me the same issue) it marks it down as a HD 2600 instead of 2400. The main problem I'am having with my computer is whenever I play the game fallout 3, within 5-10 minutes, the game restarts my computer with no warning or anything. My other games work fine which are tomb raider underworld, COD4, NWN 2, and a couple others. This is the only game that does this. However, when I install the 7.12 omega drivers, fallout 3 works but it makes the game run extremely choppy for like 2 minutes everytime I enter a new area, then it goes normal. I would just leave this driver installed but it makes all of my games run choppy. __________________ There are 10 types of people in this world, people who knows binary and people who don't. Last edited by theReaper0908; 12-23-2008 at 03:57 PM.

12-23-2008, 04:40 PM	#9 (permalink)
grimx133 Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Canada eh Posts: 3,133 OS: xp mce sp2, xp pro sp2, windows 7 beta My System	Re: Is this a good PSU? Have you tried the system requirement labs "can you run it?" Seems odd that the problems would occur on only the one game, sounds game specific, so first thing that comes to mind is system requirements. http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest edit - Have you patched the game? http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/downloads/patches.html __________________ Last edited by grimx133; 12-23-2008 at 04:46 PM.

12-23-2008, 06:29 PM	#10 (permalink)
theReaper0908 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 352 OS: Win XP SP3, Vista SP1	Re: Is this a good PSU? I ran a systemrequirementslab test and it said I passed the minimum but failed the recommended on the CPU and video card. It said I needed at least an ATI 3800 and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I looked at the release notes for the patch and it only fixes 3 things which are only crashes. __________________ There are 10 types of people in this world, people who knows binary and people who don't.

12-23-2008, 07:17 PM	#11 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,432 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Re: Is this a good PSU? but failed the recommended on the CPU and video card.......... forget that game __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

12-24-2008, 01:17 AM	#12 (permalink)
theReaper0908 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 352 OS: Win XP SP3, Vista SP1	Re: Is this a good PSU? but yet I can run the game with most of the settings on high while the game runs smooth? The only choppyness I get is when entering new areas which last for about 1-2 minutes then it goes away. This is when I use the 7.12 omega drivers. When I use the official ATI 8.12 and the visionTek 8.11, the game runs perfectly smooth on high, but the game restarts my computer. I had an older video card, an ATI x1600, while it did the same thing, all I needed to do was install the 7.2 omega drivers and the game ran smooth with no restarts. When I tried the 7.2 drivers with my current video card, after I restart, my computer would say I don't have a driver as if the 7.2 drivers doesn't work with the card __________________ There are 10 types of people in this world, people who knows binary and people who don't.

01-09-2009, 02:07 AM	#13 (permalink)
theReaper0908 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 352 OS: Win XP SP3, Vista SP1	Re: Is this a good PSU? I've just tried the latest patch, and it still doesn't work. I know for a fact that I can run this game because while I play before the game restarts my computer, the game runs smooth, I get a 30-80 fps. __________________ There are 10 types of people in this world, people who knows binary and people who don't.

01-09-2009, 07:59 AM	#14 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,432 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Re: Is this a good PSU? what make and model power supply ? __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

01-09-2009, 10:09 AM	#15 (permalink)
theReaper0908 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 352 OS: Win XP SP3, Vista SP1	Re: Is this a good PSU? The PSU brand name is chiefmax. It's a 650w with these rail amperages (under each rail, there was a number), +3.3v (under that, 36A). +5V, under 36A. +121, 34A. +12V2, N/A. -12V, 1A. +5VSB, 2A. __________________ There are 10 types of people in this world, people who knows binary and people who don't.

01-09-2009, 02:36 PM	#16 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,432 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Re: Is this a good PSU? ewwwwww try another PSU chiefmax is a known poor quality culprit ..... can you swap psu's with another machine __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

01-11-2009, 09:25 PM	#17 (permalink)
theReaper0908 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 352 OS: Win XP SP3, Vista SP1	Re: Is this a good PSU? unfortunately no.... The latest official ATI drivers makes fallout 3 restart my pc. But when I install the Omega ATI driver (7.12 is their latest one) the game works but runs a little choppy. Does this sound like it can be a PSU issue? __________________ There are 10 types of people in this world, people who knows binary and people who don't.

01-11-2009, 10:38 PM	#18 (permalink)
grimx133 Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Canada eh Posts: 3,133 OS: xp mce sp2, xp pro sp2, windows 7 beta My System	Re: Is this a good PSU? If you want to try another type of modded ATI driers, I know a guy on another forum who swears by tweakforce, though he uses the nVidia ones. Haven't tried them myself. http://tweakforce.com/modules.php?na...viewforum&f=16 __________________

01-12-2009, 06:09 AM	#19 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,432 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Re: Is this a good PSU? you must take into consideration that newer drivers generally produce more powerful graphics performance............therefore if you have a struggling PSU ......... the chances are new gpu drivers will increase your troubles ! In the power supply world: chiefmax is better suited as a wheelchock for the neighborhood garabe truck ! __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial Last edited by linderman; 01-12-2009 at 06:10 AM.

01-17-2009, 08:52 PM	#20 (permalink)
theReaper0908 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 352 OS: Win XP SP3, Vista SP1	Re: Is this a good PSU? that makes sense linderman. I would try out those tweakforce drivers if I wouldn't get a 403 forbidden error. They're probably working on some maintenance on the web site or something cause I've been there before. __________________ There are 10 types of people in this world, people who knows binary and people who don't.