PSU upgrade? Help and suggestions wanted!

[skinfreak]

Hello!
Give me some advice fine hardware fiddlers...

I am about to dabble in a little Linux and recently added a 4gb hard disk to my system to find out if I wanted to have go. When I added it and booted into windows, I had MSI Fuzzy Logic beeping at me saying the CPU fan wasn't connected. Now I am pretty sure that this is because there is less juice for the system after adding the extra disk, and as I have a fairly stacked system, I wanted your advice.

Currently, I have a 350W Enermax PSU (very nice so far) and my system consists of:
MSI KT3 Ultra2 mobo
AMD Athlon XP2000+
512MB RAM
Leadtek GF4-4400TI 128MB VIVO.
2 * 80GB Western Digital 7200rpm hard disks
Tosh DVD-ROM
Lite-ON 48x CDRW
250MB Zip Drive
Audigy PLatinum (with Live Drive)
I am also running a number or USB devices including a Canon Scanner which draws power from the USB completely.

Common sense tells me that this lot is sucking on that PSU like a newborn baby to its mother's boobs, but what size do I need. Bearing in mind, I am strapped for cash right now, my alternatives seem to be:

QTEC 550W
Hiper 420W
Do I need to go the whole hog and get a 550W PSU...or is it a case of "It wouldn't do any harm...".

I would love a 550W Enermax but I just can't go that far....
Ideas....?

[blakerwry]

it's possible you need more juice.... if you have a slow fan (that barely meets MSI's req. speed) then it may just be spinning up too slowly (I assume you have visually inspected that it is still spinning)


I'd try to speed it up if it's on a fan control... if not I'd just disable the Fan Off Control...

I think a 350watt enermax should be enough... and the next "smart" upgrade would probably be a ~400watt Antec or maybe a 450 watt Enermax...

But I don't think you should need to spend the money...

[pranav81]

Dear skinfreak,
I think the PSU is okay for the setup given by you.So I will recommend that you buy a new fan meeting the requirements of the Fuzzy Logic program.Also if you dont want to buy a HSF this time you could see if the temperature is in control for the existing HSF.If it is then you could just ignore Fuzzy Logic'c warning,but you ought to keep an eye on the temperature,becasue excessive temperature will definitely fry the CPU.
See ya later,


::Pranav::

[Dartman]

I have 5 hard drives 4 cd/dvd type devices and a ti 4200 video card. I'm running a Antec 300 watt smart power atx supply and amazingly it seems to be OK. I also have a MSI kt3 but mine is a first version with the raid and all the extras.
I think between that board and a quality supply your probably fine. You have less stuff cramed in there then me and I have basicly the same thing. It boils down to wether that is a high quality supply and also how good does the board regulate and use the juice to a extent. If you want a bigger supply you should be fine but it doesn't sound like you need one unless your getting BSOD's all the time and like that. I also know that they have released a firmware update that fixes the problem of some CPU fans being reported as off or too slow. They hadn't thought about the newer fans that are huge and start out slow when the cpu is cool.
I'll probably get a bigger PSU myself soon just for the extra security and all that but so far all my stuff is OK.