Do I need OEM Power Supply to Upgrade?

I would like to upgrade my 3+ year old 300W PSU.

Some good units on Sale, which ends TODAY at newegg.com.

• Enermax Tomahawk 405W

I would prefer to get an 80Plus model:

• PC Power and Cooling 370W 80Plus
  
• Corsair 400W 80Plus

The PSU in my machine Does NOT Have A Power Switch.

Do I need a similar type OEM with no switch or will any good PSU work the same way??

I have added a 2nd optical drive, 1 RAM chip and an external Floppy drive since I bought the machine. I want enough power to Safely add a graphics card similar to nVidia GeForce 8400 GS - my machine currently uses onboard video.

Specs for the installed PSU connectors are:

• 1 - 20 pin ATX
• 1 - ATX 12V
• 4 - molex peripheral
• 1 - floppy drive

PSU specs

Any suggestions appreciated.

emachines T3418, 2x512MB RAM, 2 DVD optical, Windows XP Home SP3

 

Typically, eMachines never did come out with PSU's that were reliable.
Almost any standard replacement PSU in the 500w range will work just fine and give you some reserve power.

I replace PSU's in eMachines (and Dells) all the time and I've pretty well fallen in love with the Antec Earthwatts PSU's. I can buy them locally, whenever I need one, at the local Staples office supply stores.
Most will have the power switch on the back of the supply, although that's really not necessary, it comes in handy sometimes.

Good Luck,
Shadow :cool

 

A few things you need to make sure of when buying a PSU:
1: that you have all the connections you need (PCI-E, SATA, IDE, CPU 1+2 if you need a second one, your mobo power connector, usually a 24 pin ATX)
2: that its powerful enough for what you are running-you dont need as much as you think Ive always found, 350-400W will do with that I would say, but try
PSUCALCULATOR to see what your draw is. then jsut make sure you have about 50W or so above it for the initial surge at startup
3:Brand brand brand brand brand, and make sure it comes with a warranty. ive bought cheap No-name PSU's before and when they short, to be blunt,you're ******. No warranty, nothing, you have to buy a new one. You can usually be guaranteed something like OCZ or Corsair would be okay.
4. Make sure it fits. yes, it happened to me :/

but about puittng it into an OEM machine, I dont know about it, you'll need another opinion. I can't see why not tbh as long as it fits and theres sufficient ventilation, but wait for another response first.

 

@ The Shadow

Thanks for your reply!!!

Does that mean that you have gotten good service from them - ie. no returns or DOA?

Thanks

 

That's exactly what I mean. I run the Antec Earthwatts 650 in both my main and standby PC's.
It was well worth the expense, to have all the power I may ever need, in both PC's. (Both, were built by me)

What most novices (people NOT in the PC service business) don't understand is that the wattage posted on the PSU label is the Maximum Surge wattage, (the wattage it takes to start the fans and drives and charge all the motherboard capacitors) it's NOT the all day running wattage. DE-Rate the posted wattage by as much as 25 to 30 % for the all day running wattage. (depending on the brand of PSU)

You won't find a better PSU anywhere than the Antec Earthwatts PSU. For a second choice I'd take a "Thermaltake".

You can't have too much power, but you sure as heck can have too little.

Shadow :cool

 

@ The Shadow
Check this out - it really gets hilarious:
How do you pronounce Thermaltake :-D

The Shadow wrote:

I know those are good brands, but I have also read very good things about
PC Power and Cooling, BFG, Seasonic and Corsair.

I used the PSUCalculator recommended by Groinsh0t, including an added 8400 GS and came up with 208W. So I'm thinking 350W to 400W on a decent brand would be sufficient.

I'm trying to find something for not more than about $50 including shipping, and the Antec Earthwatts 420W - 500W, right now at least, run about $60 to $80.

I do appreciate your comments; especially in view of your experience with PC repair and building!
Thanks for taking the Time!!

 

I think your assessment is valid, mjnc. I've been using an FSG (brand) PSU for about 2 yearsl, so I'll suggest this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104953. It has solid reviews on newegg.com.

 

Yup, I'll second that. Heck, I'm running an Antec 500W Earthwatts with a pair of OC'd 9800GT's on a quad with 4GB RAM with no issues after a year. I'm also running a Corsair in my other rig and had Thermaltakes too. These are all good IMO.

 

For a while, the FSP Group 350's and 400's were at the top of my list.
A site ( Power-On ) that sells replacement PSU's for emachines offers FSP brand units as a quality upgrade.

That is quite interesting. I would have guessed that those components would have needed at least 650W - but that's just based on 'appearance'.

I ended up buying a Corsair 400CX 400W onsale at newegg.com

One thing that concerns me, though, is the placement of the PSU cooling fan. :confused
The PSU fan is on the bottom of the unit, it's 120mm in diameter and will be directly over the Case cooling fan.
I'm worried that the two will compete with each other in such a way as to actually Reduce the air flow somewhat.
My case is a miniATX, but that placement is fairly common in the cases that I have looked at.

If you have any thoughts on that, please let me know.