Which power supply?

[AltatemTC]

What do I look for when I buy a new power supply? Case size? Wattage? I am ignorant about the criteria.

[Szech]

Well the first thing you should check is the specification of your motherboard. If it is an AT motherboard, you need an AT power supply. If it's a fairly new computer (new meaning no more than three years old), or if you are building a new system, it is probably ATX, and you need an ATX power supply. It's probably ATX, because AT is a dinosaur. If your tower is micro ATX or some other *****-backward form factor (i.e. it's a gateway or dell pizza box), you need a smaller power supply. Otherwise, the power supply will fit in any tower, since it is built within specification.

The wattage depends on what motherboard/processor you have. If you are running an AMD system, you should get at least 300 watts. If you are running a Pentium 4, I believe those require 400 watts, and you need an ATX 2.03 power supply, not 2.01. If you are running any other Intel based system, 250 is around the minimum. You can check the power supplies that Intel and AMD recommend for their systems here: www.intel.com (http://www.intel.com) www.amd.com (http://www.amd.com) .

Please provide more information on your system, and someone can help you some more.

[Kuasimodem]

(i.e. it's a gateway or dell pizza box)

pizza box...TOO FUNNY!!


Curt

[AltatemTC]

Thanks for the info thus far Szech. The motherboard is an M Technology R-533. Their website and specs on this are at http://www.mtiusa.com/r533.htm.

The system currently has a Sky Hawk SH-230W. I am assuming the 230W is 230 watts. My fear is that if I get the wrong power supply I will toast the mobo. Do I have to buy the same wattage power supply or can I get a bigger one, smaller one? I'm not sure how to determine what to do.

Thanks in advance.

[AltatemTC]

Thanks caddmannq. I am repairing an older system which is using a Cyrix 6x86. I really just want to get the machine going. I don't do much with. I have better machines for gaming, development and such.

[Szech]

Is this for a Cyrix 6x86? That might be an AT power supply after all. Check the connection to the motherboard. If it's one piece, it's ATX, if it's two pieces, it's AT. As for the wattage, you can always use a more powerful power supply, but you are risking it if you get a weaker power supply.