Power Supply Problems??

Hi there, I am having all my games crash me to desktop within 5 minutes of play, almost anything graphic intensive crashes me, and I get a lot of random reboots. I run about a 2.0ghz, GE Force FX 5500 256ddr 8/4, 768mb ddr ram, win XP. I have two fans, only one plugged in right now because if I plug in the second one then I get reboot after reboot continously. I have a 300watt powersupply currently. I've been told my power supply is probrolly the culprit. . .
Two questions...

1- Does this sound like a power supply problem?

2- Which of these would be the best to buy, 500watt duel fan ATX, Echo Star 580watt duel fan, Logisys Pitbull 500watt triple fan. Or is there another type that I should go with?


Thanks for all the help.

Blaine

 

Yeah the power supply is a little small for this type of computer. Any of the ones you mentioned would be fine. Although just so you know chances are pretty good a 350Watt would cover you. Going up to 500 won't hurt anything but if you wanted a 400W PS would be enough and save a couple bucks.

Also, just to check to make sure it's the power supply you can unplug stuff like cdroms and diskdrives (or even HD's if you have more then one, each HD takes about 20-25Watts). Then try running games and see if they work properly. If it's still doing it with a cdrom and disk drive removed then chances are it ins't the power supplies fault.

 

Graphics-intensive stuff tends to make your computer crash, huh?

You might want to check the video card and the system memory -- not necessarily in that order.

 

My vid card is brand new as of 2/6/05 so I doubt as that would be the problem (I just replaced it thinking that it was the problem hehe). System memory would be RAM, Hard drive, or something else? Not sure exactly (I'm no expert).

Thanks tons for the help guys!

Blaine

 

Yup. RAM stands for "Random Access Memory".

Best to think of your hard drive as storing data like a file cabinet does. Memory is something else.

 

Thanks very much 8 )

blaine

 

I just bought this PS last week...

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=17-153-006&depa=0

Very good power supply for the money, and extremely quiet to boot.