Welcome to Vogons!

Does your ECS board have the 4-pin 12V cpu header? If not, the +5V rail will be challenged even more.

The question is which voltage rail the vcore circuitry will get its power from. If 12V, CPU mosfets draw almost 4A when typical (not maximum) TDP of 46.3W.
When 5V rail, CPU vcore circuit draws 9.3A. Then 15A don't seem much because we haven't calculated all other devices.

Hello,

Thanks for your reply! Unfortunatly there is no CPU 4 pin on my ECS motherboard. I finally ordered a MSI MS-6734 ver 1.0 which have one and what a « decent » price comparing to buy a modern PSU with enought power on 5v.

I’m so sad because my ECS board have the CPU fan control integrated. But in the manuel of the MSI i can see that motherboard can handle CPU fan with thermal regulation. I don t know if is will be an option in BIOS or if I have to look for a specific fan (I made some research in Google but didn’t find anything about fan with thermal sensor. For me the thermal sensor is not on the fan but on the motherboard right?). My current board have theorical CPU thermal fan but no option in BIOS (maybe due to OEM packard Bell BIOS) and I never succeed to manage the fan RPM via Speed fan. I use a small resistance for undervolting the CPU fan because it is to noisy

When I will receive the new motherboard I will do some test and let you know.

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-02, 20:12:

The original PSU was a FSU 145W. I replaced with a TEXTORM 350W (https://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00223890.html) because I would like to securise my build.
...
For safety reason I prefer to use a modern PSU.

Modern PSU does not always mean safer or better PSU.

That TEXTORM PSU is not really a brand I have heard of before... though I don't see a voltage selector switch on it, so *hopefully* that means it comes with APFC... which means the PSU at least might not be an ancient copied half-bridge design with half-assed Chinesium parts (which a lot of cheap PSUs are.) BUT! No-name PSUs like this still regularly use no-name electrolytic caps. Depending on how low/cheap they've gone with these, the PSU might not last too long. If the output caps fail first, you get an unstable system at the very least. If the main input filter cap on the primary is not a durable brand, the APFC will kill it in a few years (at most), and the end result of that is usually the PSU dying with a nice bang and fireworks.

So consider what the old PSU is like before buying something new to replace it.
For the most part, Dell, HP, Compaq, Packard Bell, Fujitsu, and many other PC OEMs usually have really good quality PSUs in them that don't always need replacement. In the worst case, the old PSU might need a recap. But not always. Some OEM PSUs, while using less-than-great cap brands, can still last for many years. In the case of your PC, it's from the late P3 / early Athlon / P4 era, so there's a good chance the original PSU might actually be a real decent brand and build. A picture of its label can usually tell us who made it and whether you should put it back in instead of your modern "safer" PSU.

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-05, 05:18:

Hello, […]
Show full quote

Hello,

Thanks for your reply! Unfortunatly there is no CPU 4 pin on my ECS motherboard. I finally ordered a MSI MS-6734 ver 1.0 which have one and what a « decent » price comparing to buy a modern PSU with enought power on 5v.

I’m so sad because my ECS board have the CPU fan control integrated. But in the manuel of the MSI i can see that motherboard can handle CPU fan with thermal regulation. I don t know if is will be an option in BIOS or if I have to look for a specific fan (I made some research in Google but didn’t find anything about fan with thermal sensor. For me the thermal sensor is not on the fan but on the motherboard right?). My current board have theorical CPU thermal fan but no option in BIOS (maybe due to OEM packard Bell BIOS) and I never succeed to manage the fan RPM via Speed fan. I use a small resistance for undervolting the CPU fan because it is to noisy

When I will receive the new motherboard I will do some test and let you know.

the fan issue could be to do with the bios, usually OEM boards have bios options removed or hidden, i'd get rid of the packard bell bios and flash a stock MSI bios,
ive got 2 MSI boards that came from medion pc's and both had medions own bios, both were missing options from the bios, most importantly PCI/IRQ menus, and on one board the floppy header was disabled, after flashing a stock MSI bios both the boards are actually usable, usually i avoid any OEM boards if i can help it, i also had a 478 socket board that was sabotaged by HP's own bios.

momaka wrote on 2025-05-05, 10:54:

Modern PSU does not always mean safer or better PSU. […]
Show full quote

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-02, 20:12:

The original PSU was a FSU 145W. I replaced with a TEXTORM 350W (https://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00223890.html) because I would like to securise my build.
...
For safety reason I prefer to use a modern PSU.

Modern PSU does not always mean safer or better PSU.

That TEXTORM PSU is not really a brand I have heard of before... though I don't see a voltage selector switch on it, so *hopefully* that means it comes with APFC... which means the PSU at least might not be an ancient copied half-bridge design with half-assed Chinesium parts (which a lot of cheap PSUs are.) BUT! No-name PSUs like this still regularly use no-name electrolytic caps. Depending on how low/cheap they've gone with these, the PSU might not last too long. If the output caps fail first, you get an unstable system at the very least. If the main input filter cap on the primary is not a durable brand, the APFC will kill it in a few years (at most), and the end result of that is usually the PSU dying with a nice bang and fireworks.

So consider what the old PSU is like before buying something new to replace it.
For the most part, Dell, HP, Compaq, Packard Bell, Fujitsu, and many other PC OEMs usually have really good quality PSUs in them that don't always need replacement. In the worst case, the old PSU might need a recap. But not always. Some OEM PSUs, while using less-than-great cap brands, can still last for many years. In the case of your PC, it's from the late P3 / early Athlon / P4 era, so there's a good chance the original PSU might actually be a real decent brand and build. A picture of its label can usually tell us who made it and whether you should put it back in instead of your modern "safer" PSU.

The original PSU is a FSU145-60PNA with a power of 145W. These PSU has a voltage selector on the back in order to configure 220V-50Hz like we have in France or 60Hz 110V like it is in England I think. Btw a friend which has a retro computer lost everything because these switch broke suddenly. He strongly recommended me to put a modern PSU without the voltage selector.

Furthermore the initial configuration was a Duron 800Mhz, with only 64mo Ram, no GPU, no second HDD, no extension USB 2.0 card and no sound card. I upgraded many things and I plan to replace motherboard to have a Athlon XP 1800+ coupled to my GeForce 3 Ti 200 because I want to use the maximum possibilities of my gpu. I fear that 145W is not enough and I fear to buy a PSU from 20 years old on the internet without knowing the past of it.

TEXTORM is a rebadging of HEC Compucase PSU for the firm LDLC that is a reputated seller in France. It s not the top of the top but it s reputated safer and do the job.

DudeFace wrote on 2025-05-05, 11:47:

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-05, 05:18:

Hello, […]
Show full quote

Hello,

Thanks for your reply! Unfortunatly there is no CPU 4 pin on my ECS motherboard. I finally ordered a MSI MS-6734 ver 1.0 which have one and what a « decent » price comparing to buy a modern PSU with enought power on 5v.

I’m so sad because my ECS board have the CPU fan control integrated. But in the manuel of the MSI i can see that motherboard can handle CPU fan with thermal regulation. I don t know if is will be an option in BIOS or if I have to look for a specific fan (I made some research in Google but didn’t find anything about fan with thermal sensor. For me the thermal sensor is not on the fan but on the motherboard right?). My current board have theorical CPU thermal fan but no option in BIOS (maybe due to OEM packard Bell BIOS) and I never succeed to manage the fan RPM via Speed fan. I use a small resistance for undervolting the CPU fan because it is to noisy

When I will receive the new motherboard I will do some test and let you know.

the fan issue could be to do with the bios, usually OEM boards have bios options removed or hidden, i'd get rid of the packard bell bios and flash a stock MSI bios,
ive got 2 MSI boards that came from medion pc's and both had medions own bios, both were missing options from the bios, most importantly PCI/IRQ menus, and on one board the floppy header was disabled, after flashing a stock MSI bios both the boards are actually usable, usually i avoid any OEM boards if i can help it, i also had a 478 socket board that was sabotaged by HP's own bios.

I have already tried a MSI Bios, but after updade, When i wanted to start the pc When pushing the power switch, randomly nothing appened. Somes tomes computer started normally and sometimes nothing… these strange behaviour disappeared When I restored the OEM Bios. Maybe a front panel incompatibility? Maybe the mapping with the board was not exactly the same…
Btw i ordered on Amazon a set for recable manualy the front panel because i plan to change motherboard and the front panel connector is OEM

Hi,

I received the new motherboard yesterday and I perform some test with m’y modern PSU, my Athlon XP 1800+ and GeForce Ti 200 . For the moment everything works fine. Computer start normally and the stress test 3D marks is OK. I will continue to do some test.

I just have an annoying issue but not linked to PSU : when I reboot the computer with a USB key connected, after reboot my USB key appears duplicate in explorer. As a hard disk and as a mass storage device. And the letter of HDD is replaced by the letter of a secondary partition of my hard disk. Very strange. This behaviour don t appears if i plug my usb key on my PCI USB 2.0 extension card. Btw I will search on vogons if someone already had this problem, otherwise I will open a new post

Furthermore, do you know if there is a reliable software on Win 98/ME to monitor in real Time how many Ampere computer is using on the different PSU rails?

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-05, 14:49:

The original PSU is a FSU145-60PNA with a power of 145W.

Ah, OK, maybe not too bad that you replaced it.
The "60PNA" at the end of the model number suggests this is an FSP power supply - generally a good OEM brand, but some of their older designs had somewhat unsafe 5VSB circuit... well, unsafe mostly with the original caps. Once fully recapped, these make decent power supplies. I can understand that not everyone wants to invest time with doing that, though.

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-05, 14:49:

He strongly recommended me to put a modern PSU without the voltage selector.

Yeah, that's a relatively safe(r) bet that you will get a better-made PSU... not always, but most of the time.
No voltage selector switch means there will be APFC circuit present.
On the minus side, APFC circuits themselves tend to put more stress on the primary cap(s) inside the PSU. So after 5-10 years of use and depending on the brand of primary capacitor used as well as the APFC design parameters, some of these PSUs may become due for a recap as well... and those big primary caps are expensive ($5-10 a piece.) All of that provided the output caps don't go bad first. I recapped a Seasonic 500W PSU about 3 months ago that failed due to bad output caps only a little after 2 years of light use. Still was covered by (the 5 year) warranty too. But given even the worst of capacitor brands I know of typically last longer than that, I thought the unit didn't have a warranty, so I opened it before realizing that it did. On the plus side, at least now I know it's been recapped properly. Had I sent it for warranty repair, I bet I would have gotten a new unit with the same crappy caps again. So this worked out better in the end.

Anyways, what I intend to say here is, keep an eye on the new PSU every few years as well. Open it up to clean the dust and check for bad caps too.

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-05, 14:49:

TEXTORM is a rebadging of HEC Compucase PSU for the firm LDLC that is a reputated seller in France. It s not the top of the top but it s reputated safer and do the job.

Ah, OK.
I know HEC Compucase. I haven't followed up with their latest offerings for many years now. But back in the day, they could make a pretty decent PSU if they wanted. I have a Thermaltake TR2-430 NP (XP550-NP) that was made by HEC. Still have it and use it today for testing PCs. It did *need* a recap eventually, which I did 2 years ago. A great PSU otherwise and highly recommended for old systems due to very strong 5V rail (can do 25 Amps easily.)

Hello,

Which material do I need for recap a PSU? I only have a small soldering iron of 30W bought in a DIY store. Is it enough or should I buy something else.? When I change a capacitor on a motherboard, I never succeed in unsoldering the cap. So I tear the cap and I solder on existing legs of the ex capacitor on the motherboard. It's not beautiful but it made the job. But for a PSU, I don't want to do "crap" things, especially with high voltage.

Otherwise in Speedfan, I have this for my voltage. Can we assume that the PSU is not suffering? For the moment Gaming session with Max Payne 2 or Need For Speed Undergound 2 with settings mid at 1024 768 don't crash the computer. I just noticed that for -5V, I have 3.55V... I don't know if it's normal because modern PSU don't supply -5V anymore and from what I have read it's not an issue because -5V was used by old extension ISA card right? I don't hava any ISA port on my motherboard.
speedfan.png

For the temps I think I'm good for a micro ATX case which was not designaded for gaming (packard bell monaco case). CPU is 40°C idle and 50/55°C when Gaming, GPU is 40°C idle and 55°C , motherboard is between 20/30°C in idle, 35°C when gaming (the weather is sunny actualy in northern France and the room temperature is 25°C, so the temp are a little higher than usual).

"A great PSU otherwise and highly recommended for old systems due to very strong 5V rail (can do 25 Amps easily.)" Event with a motherboard with a 12V connector for the CPU?

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-11, 19:18:

Which material do I need for recap a PSU? I only have a small soldering iron of 30W bought in a DIY store. Is it enough or should I buy something else.? When I change a capacitor on a motherboard, I never succeed in unsoldering the cap. So I tear the cap and I solder on existing legs of the ex capacitor on the motherboard. It's not beautiful but it made the job. But for a PSU, I don't want to do "crap" things, especially with high voltage.

Well, I myself started with a 30W iron (which I still have and use BTW) and I can understand how/why you struggled with recapping motherboards. 30W is only really good enough for soldering single-sided PCBs and with not very big solder joints - i.e. cheap "gutless" ATX PSUs, CRT monitor boards, (older) LCD monitor power supply boards, and similar.

But for more serious ATX PSUs and motherboards, a 30 Watt iron won't do. For those, I recommend at least 40 Watts, though probably not more than 60W if it's without temperature regulation (due to higher power irons having their tips oxidize too fast and thus make really poor heat transfer once they overheat.) If it has temperature regulation (i.e. a soldering station), you can go higher. For soldering stations, probably most cost-effective to go with a T12 -based one (that is, one that uses "T12" style of tips.) *Avoid* stations that use 900M -style tips, unless it's a genuine Hakko... though those are usually expensive and still not worth it compared to T12 -based stations.

Apart from that, not much else you need to recapping an ATX PSU - just a good enough soldering iron, flux (liquid or gel), stainless steel needle (for clearing capacitor holes), and good brands of capacitors for replacements.

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-11, 19:18:

Otherwise in Speedfan, I have this for my voltage. Can we assume that the PSU is not suffering?

Don't trust the motherboard voltage sensors. I have rarely seen a motherboard to report PSU voltages correctly, especially older motherboards (sensors seem to be highly inaccurate on those.) Probably only the CPU V_core voltage can be trusted... and that is, to be relatively close to what it should read. Newer (2010's and onward) motherboards tend to be more accurate with the PSU voltages, but still somewhat common to see them mis-reporting.

So with that said, I can't really tell if your new PSU is doing bad on the 5V rail or not. And voltage sag alone doesn't necessarily dictate poor performance of that voltage rail (in terms or ripple and noise specs.) The only thing voltage sagging might suggest is how close you are to making a voltage rail go out of spec on the voltage requirement and/or how close it is to its limits.

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-11, 19:18:

For the temps I think I'm good for a micro ATX case which was not designaded for gaming (packard bell monaco case). CPU is 40°C idle and 50/55°C when Gaming, GPU is 40°C idle and 55°C , motherboard is between 20/30°C in idle, 35°C when gaming (the weather is sunny actualy in northern France and the room temperature is 25°C, so the temp are a little higher than usual).

Yeah, I can tell your ambient temps are a little higher just by the "motherboard" sensor temps (usually that would be close to the air temperature inside the case) and also the slightly higher HDD temperature. But all in all, your CPU and GPU temperatures seems pretty reasonable for that ambient temperature and limited case cooling. I'm guessing the PSU fan is probably what does most of the air exhausting.

Francois5942 wrote on 2025-05-11, 19:18:

"A great PSU otherwise and highly recommended for old systems due to very strong 5V rail (can do 25 Amps easily.)" Event with a motherboard with a 12V connector for the CPU?

Yup.
It's actually why I like that (TR2-430W) PSU: it has both a strong 5V rail and a decent 12V rail for newer systems (for its time). Currently, I'm using it in my GPU test rig, which is socket 939 Athlon 64 -based. The biggest video card I have powered with it without any issues is Radeon HD4870, which is quite a power-hog (150 Watts TDP). I was really close to tripping it's current limit on the 12V rail, though (my CPU is 76W TDP).