It doesn't hurt.

Many systems never come near to drawing on the PSU's total rating, as it's hard to use all of the parts at once (two optical drives, two HDDs, max CPU, max gfx). Benchmarks suites might push things a bit though. However it's important with the older systems to check the CPU rail. In this case P4 Northwoods used the 12v rail, while other older CPUs used the 5v rail.

A better read:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psurailhistory/rails.html

Suffice it to say, as long as the PSU you select has the correct ATX plug for the mobo, I'm pretty sure the rail won't be an issue nowadays. They tend to be rated massively in comparison to what they were in 2000-2004.

It's 20 pin connection for power to the mobo

Yup. You'll just need to check the spec of the one you want to make sure it's either 20 pin or (more likely) a 20+4 connector.

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connecto...

Doh

Guess it would likely have helped to have connected the 4pin 12V power to the mobo, as well as the fan connector

Hi, I got just a cheap generic 550w ATX PSU in my PC it has been working trouble free since 2005 and cost me £25. It supplies power to Intel Pentium Prescott 3.20 GHz processor.

Good choice at Eclipse Computers Coventry. http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/products.aspx?cat=0&...

I had a very bad experience with Eclipse when I originally bought the graphics card I have from them.

As ordered it was AGP and clearly stated so on their website, but when it arrived it was PCI Express. They claimed it said PCI-E on the website. I would not have ordered it if it had been, as the mobo does not support PCI-E at all

They then changed their minds and said I was correct and I had ordered a AGP card, but these were out of stock so thought they'd send me the PCI-E one instead. I got a refund on cost, but not delivery and they refused to reimburse me for the delivery cost to send the wrong card back, despite it being their error. It was also close to Xmas, so meant a very long queue in the Post Office to get it sent back

I will never order anything from them again

Since I've gone through about 6 PSU's in this PC and they were all cheap ones, I've taken the advice here onboard and am going for a Corsair which suits my needs and is only a little more than my budget allows

Thanks for the suggestion anyhow

In reply to a post by E7er:

Hi, I got just a cheap generic 550w ATX PSU in my PC it has been working trouble free since 2005 and cost me £25. It supplies power to Intel Pentium Prescott 3.20 GHz processor.

A youngster - my Win98 PC purchased in '98 was running until late 2009. It was then scrapped but the PSU given away to replace one that had failed. It is still going strong.

For nearly 12 years it ran 24 hours/day - over 104,000 hours and since then another 15,000+

Hi, thanks for the info of your experience with Eclipse Computers, I was about to purchase an HDMI AGP graphics card from them. Thanks again!

That's some going there, but then again I nkow it's perfectly possible

Those at work typically last 4 - 5 years (apart from the older beige Elonex's we have), but are generally switched off at the end of the day.

This current one had done quite well and had been going just over 3 years running 24/7 with very heavy use

2 of them went when the power was turned off in the house without shutting the PC down (despite instruction beforehand). Despite believing they were plugged into surge protectors, things had been moved around and they unfortunately weren't.

I blew 2 when I fitted a USB extension kit and got the polarity wrong. They were both very cheap Maplin own brand PSU's

The original one that came with the PC (which was given to me by my youngest sister as it had a problem and she'd bought a replacement - problem was a virus), was replaced when I upgraded the motherboard. Was almost 5 years then and was
running W98 for about 7 years

The main feed to the house for the electricity supply is dodgy and the area has suffered from low voltage supply issues - doesn't help matters

I have my preferred suppliers these days - Scan, Ebuyer, Novatech, Aria and Microdirect (in no particular order)
Have bought quite a bit via Scan in the last 2 years, as delivery is usuallly very reliable. Would be good if they were linked with Quidco!

Eclipse came highly recommended to me, but I was totally put off by my experience.

Also used to use Dabs until they were bought by BT - prices just aren't compettive enough

Have ordered the new PSU from Novatech and provided it tracks OK, I should get 3% cashback - a grand total of about £2! All adds up though