kenrouholo wrote:

110 watts for those rails is low especially when you're doing something like V2SLI. […]
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110 watts for those rails is low especially when you're doing something like V2SLI.

I'd say you should get something where that rating is more like 150 watts or higher.

You can easily find that rating being a bit higher on some supplies, like 130 watts on some models, but 20 more watts there is not much of an upgrade and may or may not solve your problem, so I don't recommend that. Double that difference with a 150w rating and you should be good to go.

And yes as someone else mentioned you can check out 2000s era supplies that still had -5v if you'd like to get a supply that has it just in case you do need it... try an Enermax Whisper series, perhaps an EG365P-VE which is fairly common on Ebay. Last model with the -5v rail as far as I know. For FSP you could go with a "60PLN" series like FSP350-60PLN. Not sure offhand of other model numbers of other manufacturers for supplies that still had -5v rails.

Awesome I'll grab a new PSU rated for 150w on said rails and see what happens!

Yeah given -5v is a isa card thing then that's not the problem looks like i misdiagnosed the problem but thanks for the suggestions anyway ^^

I just had a look at the ratings for th PSU I was using the 3.3v and 5v combined watage is 220 that's total over kill right?

Jumo213 wrote:

I just had a look at the ratings for th PSU I was using the 3.3v and 5v combined watage is 220 that's total over kill right?

Tsumori?

Only remember having seen that brand once before, but I can't verify it's a quality unit.

The rails definitely look good on paper, especially with the 20A on the 12v line. This PSU could even power Athlon XP 😁 (on paper 😜).

Jumo213 wrote:

I just had a look at the ratings for th PSU I was using the 3.3v and 5v combined watage is 220 that's total over kill right?

usually yes that's overkill though that's not a brand I would trust... I feel even more negatively about it than Tetrium.

kenrouholo wrote:

usually yes that's overkill though that's not a brand I would trust... I feel even more negatively about it than Tetrium.

Lol yeah.... One of the reasons Im looking for a way to get this PC to run on a modern PSU

Mmmh I'm having no luck finding a new psu that isn't like 1000w+ with the ratings I need, what would you guys use to power a PC like mine?

Jumo213 wrote:

Mmmh I'm having no luck finding a new psu that isn't like 1000w+ with the ratings I need, what would you guys use to power a PC like mine?

It's difficult these days.

-Much of the Seasonic "S12 II" and "M12 II" lines (520 watt might be cheapest) generally have 130w, which MIGHT be enough of an increase over 110w to work, but 20w increase is not a lot and may not be worth it... around $50
-EVGA 600B has 130w also, same comments on that, around $50 also. I'd prefer Seasonic.
-EVGA 750BQ has 150w, which will work, but the supply costs a bit much for the purpose, around $75

some other relatively expensive supplies have 150w, maybe even a bit more, but I see no point in looking those up

I think the options for you are:
-Choose something with 3.3v+5v power rating 130w which is still easy to find, and hope that increasing it by just 20 watts will fix the problem (it might, or it might not)
-Pay more and get something with 150w+
-Buy a used power supply that's old enough to get you proper ratings, but not excessively old. If you go for the right part you should still be fine but there's always extra risk involved with used power supplies.

If you go used, if you don't want -5v then a good choice is the Enermax EG375P-VE (which is slightly newer than the 365 I mentioned before; the 365 has -5v rail and 375 does not). It's still gonna be around 10 years old, and ideally should still be taken apart and inspected. I'd rather recommend something newer and if you didn't have V2SLI I would probably say go for the Seasonic S12II stuff but I'm just not confident with your system. Maybe you could buy one from a retailer with a good return policy to try it, and return it if it doesn't do the trick. Make sure you test the system thoroughly during the return period if you do that.

All of this talk makes me interested in the idea of modding a motherboard's voltage regulation circuit from an old linear style circuit to a newer switching implementation based on the 12v rail to modernize it and move some of the load from the 5v rail to the 12v.

Eh, too much effort. Easier to just buy a big power supply.

Here is a NEW Logisys 480w one that should work for a grand total of $22.95 shipped.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Logisys-480W-Watt-Bla … dIAAOSwEzxYSfjl

Power Specifications:
•+3.3V, 28A
•+5V, 36A
•+12V, 16A
•-12V, .8A
•-5V, 0.5A
•+5Vsb, 2A

wouldn't run a Logisys personally but up to you

kenrouholo wrote:

wouldn't run a Logisys personally but up to you

Ehh... I couldn't remember how good they were. It has been quite a while since I needed a PSU with the older 5v and 3.3v power requirements.

Can't be any worse than what most of the power supplies were back in the day.

Here is an Antec 300w that would work. Not sure they were much batter back then though as I used to use Antec pretty much exclusively and they all had capacitor issues after a couple years max.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300-watt-power-supply … ~gAAOSw~AVYuxC0

Here is a Thermaltake 500w that would work provided -5v is not really needed.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/THERMALTAKE-TR2-500W- … vYAAOSwfVpYwKXI

AFAIR back in the day, Fortron/FSP was the brand to look for.

Also, it would be a good idea to get a PSU out of a Dell/Compaq/HP. They couldn't afford to use crappy PSUs for their business PCs.

Ooh nice find that 750w evga PSU is the best so far way cheaper that anything I've found, and just to be sure the amps should be enough right ? (Sorry I really know nothing about PSUs 🤣)

http://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=110-BQ-0750-V1

When I looked at it the first time I thought I saw the 24A as being on the 5v. Hm. Well fair chance it'll work but not as likely as the 5v having been 24A :( I mean 5v 20A is 100w on its own so with 110w 3.3+5v power that'd only leave about 3 amps for 3.3v while this will leave about 15A for 3.3v with 5v at 20A.

maybe try it from a place with a good return policy just in case. 5v is important. Sorry if it doesn't work out, did not mean to waste anyone's time with such a simple oversight on my part.

cyclone3d wrote:

Can't be any worse than what most of the power supplies were back in the day.

It's certainly true that many AT power supplies weren't exactly great, either, that's true. However low quality power supplies also lie on their ratings, though it is also common for them to provide more 3.3v and 5v rail current than 12v as compared to higher quality PSUs of the same age.

Is this a good one for this purpose?
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Replaceme … /qid=1489334433

You do realize that machine from this time period typically had 250w-300w power supplies..... right?

kenrouholo wrote:

When I looked at it the first time I thought I saw the 24A as being on the 5v. Hm. Well fair chance it'll work but not as likely as the 5v having been 24A 🙁 I mean 5v 20A is 100w on its own so with 110w 3.3+5v power that'd only leave about 3 amps for 3.3v while this will leave about 15A for 3.3v with 5v at 20A.

maybe try it from a place with a good return policy just in case. 5v is important. Sorry if it doesn't work out, did not mean to waste anyone's time with such a simple oversight on my part.

Ah no worries man ^^ it would be on me if I the PSU I choose to buy doesn't work, thanks for finding this PSU it could well be whats needed to get the PC working ^^

That being said I have ordered the evga PSU should get here in about a week and then hopefully I can get back to v2 sli goodness

NJRoadfan wrote:

You do realize that machine from this time period typically had 250w-300w power supplies..... right?

Yee, however we need dat shiz on the 5v and 3.3v rails not the 12v

Jumo213 wrote:

Yee, however we need dat shiz on the 5v and 3.3v rails not the 12v

For a Pentium 600 with V2SLI you really don't need that much power... I seem to remember someone here testing the power consumption of a P3 with a much more power hungry VGA and it used less than 90W from the wall while loaded (and if you take into account a non-100% efficiency, it's even less than that).

How much power do the Voodoo cards use? 10W at most? They don't even have heatsinks.

I agree with what NJRoadfan said, back in the day we were running these kind of PCs with 250W power supplies. Also consider that half of that power comes from the 12V line (around 10A), and most people used no-name units that likely couldn't provide nowhere near the ratings on the label.

The 5V + 3.3V thing only starts becoming an issue with Athlons, for the stuff you have a modern PSU with 20A on 5V and 3.3V (with a combined wattage of 110W) should be more than enough. It's just my opinion, but a 750W PSU is absolute overkill for a P3.

Yeah getting a 750w PSU for a 90s era PC is extreme, but looks like the most promising suggestion to me.

Although... Pasing Post isn't much prove that your PSU isn't faulty

Get an OEM 250W PSU manufactured by Delta. Most models featured a standard ATX pinout. Not the most power efficient, but built very robustly. Should be reliable, stable, and safe. Also very common and cheap.