need help w a new power supply

[stilly]

Standard procedure for buying a new PSU.

What connections are needed? how many sata + PCI-E + 4 pin intel + 4 pin molex + motherboard plug (20 or 24?).

Next, DOES your current supply have a white wire near the end of the plug that goes into the MOBO? THAT might dictate a lot. They have started phasing them out some time ago but I found that some MOBOS will not run with a new PSU unless they got a white wire. The white wire is the -5v for usb and other items (floppy).

Take count of all connectors and make sure you know 6 or 8 pin for the PCI-E cards (graphic cards). Then go looking for a PSU for it. With three nvidia cards you will prolly want a PSU with a quad rail or at least dual rails so that you can plug a car into each without killing it too much. Worst case just get an exact replacement of what you got. I will say though, DAMN 3 graphix cards? 2 QUADROS?????? Are you also an architect/ cad guy? I thought quadros were needed for precision drawing. I figured that any nvidia card could output the stock/ticker/candlestick pages... Oh well. BEFORE you do anything hardware though you might want to make a backup image of your C: just in case... Also, maybe try another cable before you order a new PSU. AND if you have windows XP or 7 you may or may not have issues when you upgrade mobos so be careful going down that road specifically if your OS is an OEM.

[sugi942]

Go and comb Anandtech. They run PS reviews all the time and their tests involve all sorts of stress analysis. They also are big on the quality of the power and durability. Good luck!

[Dark Paladin]

how would i know if there was a power problem?
i have been having a problem with startup......sometimes the pw fan spins a high rpm and the system doesn't boot....after a few tries, and disconnecting the power chord it eventually will boot.........i dont know if that menas it is going to fail or does not have enuf power or something w/ the MOBO.....

I've had that happen to two of my machines. Replaced PS on both of them and everything was good to go again.

I have a third machine that doesn't start up immediately when pressing the power button. . . it takes about 10-15 minutes before it magically powers on. There is a replacement PS sitting in a box waiting for me to work on it.

If your machine is several years old, is not sitting on a voltage regulating UPS, and/or have suffered brownouts/blackouts, PS failure would be my first guess at root cause of problem.

[MattG.]

You might want to look at a modular PSU. I have 3 GTX 460s, 4 HDDs, and a CD/DVD burner - meaning I don't have a whole lot of free space in my tower. The modular design allows you to only have the power connectors you need in your case (i.e. I have no old Molex power connectors in my tower). Just something to consider if you're tight on space or have unique power requirements like myself.

[Fizz]

That lenovo should be a generic ATX power supply. Where you usually run into issues is the back of the chassis aligning with the holes on the PSU or any protrusions that interfere with the chassis.

Just keep in mind with power supply ratings that what the power supply is rated for (500w, 600w, etc.) is -NOT- what it CONSUMES from the outlet. It's just its MAXIMUM rated output.

Ex. I have a thermaltake 550 watt PSU (I got it free from a vendor rep) in my current home computer. I draw 80-200 watts from the outlet, verified by an ammeter (E8400 and GTX 560 Ti... yeap, I work for a computer company and my processor is ANCIENT because it works just fine!) . The purpose of larger power supplies isn't because the expectation is your devices will consume that amount, the expectation is to to have a large 'buffer' zone of available capacity. The closer you get to the maximum the hotter it runs, the harder time it has maintaining clean power delivery and its efficiency is reduced (generally).

Your system does warrant the indicated wattage given the components, but do you have to go with Lenovo's part? Nope. If you look up the pictures of the PSU it has standard form factor written all over it

https://www.google.com/search?q=Delta+DPS+650PB&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=nLIQUN3jBIqy8QTslYGgAg&biw=1680&bih=884&sei=prIQUMTDOoTm9ATxzoCYBQ

[dem0critus]

That lenovo should be a generic ATX power supply. Where you usually run into issues is the back of the chassis aligning with the holes on the PSU or any protrusions that interfere with the chassis.

Just keep in mind with power supply ratings that what the power supply is rated for (500w, 600w, etc.) is -NOT- what it CONSUMES from the outlet. It's just its MAXIMUM rated output.

Ex. I have a thermaltake 550 watt PSU (I got it free from a vendor rep) in my current home computer. I draw 80-200 watts from the outlet, verified by an ammeter (E8400 and GTX 560 Ti... yeap, I work for a computer company and my processor is ANCIENT because it works just fine!) . The purpose of larger power supplies isn't because the expectation is your devices will consume that amount, the expectation is to to have a large 'buffer' zone of available capacity. The closer you get to the maximum the hotter it runs, the harder time it has maintaining clean power delivery and its efficiency is reduced (generally).

Your system does warrant the indicated wattage given the components, but do you have to go with Lenovo's part? Nope. If you look up the pictures of the PSU it has standard form factor written all over it

https://www.google.com/search?q=Delt...OoTm9ATxzoCYBQ

Ah i didn't even consider the chassis. Good call. Ya, like almost any "rating", indicated wattage means a lot less than the quality of the build. It definitely doesn't mean nothing tho. And from what I understand it's only going to pull as much as it needs.. You definitely wouldn't want an 850w pulling max power all of the time it would cost a fortune. The rating mostly gives you an idea of how much room you have, not how much power it'll eat up when its running under a regular load.