Pentium 4
Power Supply Requirements
PC
P&C Support Addresses P4 Power Requirements
Posted: 05nov2001
Page 1 of 1
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.
Thanks for your inquiry. I hope this helps.
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