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Whats the minimum power supply requirements to run a Pentium 4 PC?

I have a P4 PC, thats not working fine, it gets restart on its own and i come to know there is problem with Power supply, i.e Voltage is not enough to run my PC smooth or may be something...If there is any need to increase the load of my house power supply....... Please help me regarding this.

13 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    300 - 400 Wattsbased on ur PC config....

    http://radified.com/CPU/p4_psu.htm

    http://support.intel.com/support/processors/pentiu...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_4

    We need ur hard disk n other drive details to calculate exact requirements

    check these for a few

    http://www.cheap-computers-guide.com/pc-power-supp...

    http://www.schrockinnovations.com/powercalc.php

    PC can restart due to overheating or if dust had accumulated in the powers supply or over the processor fan/heatsink...

    do rate if these helped...

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    PSU's for P4 motherboards require a special cable called the ATX12V,

    a 2x2 array that connects directly to the voltage regulator module

    (VRM) on the motherboard.

    If your power supply's wiring harness is lacking this cable, you can always

    purchase our P4 ATX12V Adapter for $8. It just plugs into an unused hard

    drive power connector. See here.

    Make sure you use a PSU that has enough power for your P4 board. I would

    not recommend anything less than 275 watts, like this Silencer model. But

    this would only allow you to minimal P4 system, with these limitations:

    No more than 2 hard disks.

    No more than 3 cards (audio, video, NIC).

    No more than 2 CD-ROM devices (CD-R/W, CD-ROM).

    Only one P4 CPU.

    CPU cooler required.

    Case fans required, both intake (lower front) and exhaust (top rear).

    If you can live within these limitations, you'll be okay with 275W. If you need

    room for extra drives, a powerful video card, or just extra "headroom", then

    consider a larger PSU.

    The Turbo-Cool 300 ATX offers an extra 2A on the +12V, but is a bit louder.

    In the long run, you'd probably be better with a Turbo-Cool 350 ATX or even

    a Silencer 400 ATX. It has the same power of a Turbo-Cool 425 ATX, without

    the noise.

    Once you enter the 400W zone, the PSUs are built even more ruggedly, and

    include a 5-year warranty. This makes the Silencer 400 ATX the best value

    in our entire line, in my opinion.

  • ?
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    Minimum Power Supply

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    Check the specifications on the power supply label. You should be able to find the maximum current it can supply on the 12V line. That's the specification that really matters. A 300W power supply could be able to supply 25A or it could only be able to supply 16A. That's a huge difference. The "requires a 400W or greater power supply" is a ******'s specification, like a game that requires a "2GHz CPU or better". What the graphics card really requires is a certain number of amps on the 12V line. The important thing is that the power supply can supply enough amps on the 12V line to run the graphics card and all the other things connected to the 12V line (the CPU, hard drive, CD/DVD drive, and so on). My guess would be that typical Dell 300W power supply would not have enough current on the 12V line to run your system with an 8800GTS card in it because the 300W supply can really only supply about 160W on the 12V line at best.

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  • 1 decade ago

    Hi!

    There is no such concept as "minimum..." as you put it. In order to have a fine, nice working PC you need to adjust the power supply. For instance, an ordinary PC has about 400-450W power supply unit (PSU). Now, if you have some fancy video graphics adapter (128MB or more), you might need to consider 450W. Also, if you have more that 1 HDD and 1 optical drive (CD, DVD) you might also want to consider 500 or 520W units. The idea is this: the more components need power, the greater the need. So, if you are unsure, simply get the highest PSU you can afford or that you can get. I don't think you need the 750 or 800W PSUs.

    Good luck!

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    You need at least 450 W power supply, but make sure you buy a good quality power supply, even if it's more expensive, preferably those that have 3 or more fans. There's also some power supplies that have different kind of cables for better air circulation (they are round cables). Choose those.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    You need power supply the same as for a Television or a Refrigerator .And you need a very good Voltage Stabilizer or Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) .

  • ?
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago

    It depends on load connected to PC,& not load of House PS,The PC May have M/B,HDDs,FDDs,CDs,DVDs,graphics adapter,Modem.as U cnnect more devices power need goes upmso there is nothing like minimum,for a start Uadd up power needed of conected components & add half times to it,Buiy a PSU keeping that in mind.

  • Karz
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    It should be fine with 350W power supply especially if you only have onboard video. You need a bigger power supply once you start putting more fans, extra drives and a powerful graphics card.

  • 1 decade ago

    Don't worry..in general power supply to house is normal in all over world.u r not going to run very big turbo machine in ur home.required power will be always available.Voltage fluctuation is there.One thing be careful about earthing problem.better u get with ups and votage stabilizer..it can sort out ur timebeing problem.Even if u feel computer is slow..change ur RAM speed.

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