Caesum wrote on 2026-04-23, 09:00:
A 250W overall PSU should be sufficient for my specs as it's a cheap PC. It shouldn't be an Active PFC type.
Would that still apply for a Voodoo card if I wanted to buy one eventually? I assume Voodoo 1 wouldn't be too power hungry but newer Voodoos are probably way more demanding.
An old good quality 200-250 Watt PSU will be able to handle a pair of VooDoo IIs just fine... or a VooDoo 3 - 5 for that matter. They are not that power hungry. Well, the VooDoo 5's do get up there, IIRC. Still not as bad as a Radeon 9700 Pro / 9800 Pro, though - these are the worst for power draw on the 3.3V and 5V rail, as I mentioned previously.
AlexZ wrote on 2026-04-23, 20:48:
They are so cheap you can get 400W, no need to look at 250-300W at all. If you don't find good ones, look at 350W. We are dealing with 25 years old worn out PSUs.
The power is irrelevant when the PSU is shit.
An OEM quality 200-250 Watt PSU from a Dell or HP (provided it's not a proprietary pinout one) will run circles around any no-name "400" Watt garbage.
AlexZ wrote on 2026-04-23, 20:48:
Locally I see Maxpower 400W for 9 EUR and FSP Blue Storm II 400W (3.3V+5V=152W, but 30A on 5V) for 12 EUR without postage, there is also an Eurocase 400W for 8 EUR. People are basically giving them away almost for free.
Maxpower is garbage. Bad caps galore inside and undersized components everywhere.
The FPS Blue Storm II is ATX v2.x, IIRC, and not suitable for 5V-heavy systems. There was a thread here not too long ago about another FSP PSU from the same platform. The idea was to try and convert it to a 5V-heavy design... and TLDR, it was simply not possible as I suspected and suggested to the O/P. I'll dig out the thread if you really care.
Eurocase, IIRC, is also cheap garbage - typically Deer/L&C/Allied (which can be worked into a decent PSU for an old system... if you spend the time to install/replace all of the parts inside that the manufacturer saved on.)
8 Euro?! No way, I wouldn't even give them 3 Euro for these. FWIW, my local flea market is flooded with such crap PSUs and I can almost always get one for 1 to 2 Euro . I just don't anymore, because my basement is flooded with these already. Gonna take pictures and fix some of the better ones just for shits and giggles... but they are still pretty bad PSUs.
AlexZ wrote on 2026-04-23, 20:48:
250W PSU was used for PII ATX boards.
No, Dell and HP used 240-260 Watt PSUs in just about everything from the Pentium 4 to 6th gen core i5 systems.
When all you got is a <100W TDP CPU in a system and onboard GPU, you don't need that much power.
For what it's worth, the nVidiar Riva TNT2 from O/P's first post is about on par with the power consumption as an IGP.
So really only the CPU power is the most relevant to the O/P's system.
Caesum wrote on 2026-04-23, 20:34:
I found a Seasonic PSU that's been renewed (whatever that means) and it seems it would have been perfect for my build at a first glance and it's not too pricy (80PLN == 19 EUR). What do you guys think? One thing I have noticed about is the AC Input. Most PSUs I checked have 200-240VAC 3A 50/60Hz but this one has 4.5A, but I guess this shouldn't really be an issue?
That's a good PSU. Probably the best find for your system.
Before buying it, just ask if you can take a look at it and have a peek through the vents on the case. Bad caps aren't always easy to spot this way, but they can be if you've done it enough. 😉
Though if I am not mistaken, old Seasonic PSUs that were branded as Seasonic's own actually used pretty decent (if not solely Japanese) caps.
Mike_ wrote on 2026-04-23, 09:23:
However, is the PSU so dumb that it will throttle fan based on power use rather than temperature? It doesn't say whether that graph is just a measured graph based on how a modern computer uses power.
The problem with the modern PSUs that use DC-DC converters for the 3.3V and 5V rails is that regardless of whether the fan depends on the temperature or the power use (or both), it's still probably only for the 12V rail output, since that's what's used on a modern PC. The DC-DC converters are typically not monitored for temperature. And here's the thing: even a rather power-hungry old 5V-heavy PC won't typically draw over 120-140 Watts of power. Because of this, a modern PSU won't heat up much on the overall due to it's high efficiency. However, the DC-DC regulators will already be running close to the maximum of their capacity while the PSU is barely idling the fan. So that's what @shevalier meant that new PSUs are not quite ideal for heavy 3.3V and 5V heavy loads. Though I would say that really only applies for the very 5V-heavy "hitters". In the case of the O/P's system, that's setup won't be as power-hungry on the 5V rail as some other socket A systems are. So IME, a modern PSU with DC-DC converters would also be possible to use in this case.
And in any case, if one had to choose between modern PSUs, I would still recommend a modern PSU with DC-DC converters over a modern PSU with a group-regulated design - the latter will almost definitely not run well (or at all) in spec with an old 5V-heavy(er) PC.
CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2026-04-24, 05:20:
And even with quality caps these PSUs are a big unknown. They are 25 or so years old, you don’t know how many hours they have seen or how they have been stored along the years, all of which will affect the reliability of thes caps and thus PSUs.
Nah, if the caps are quality Japanese ones, you can bet your undies the PSU will be fine. All one has to do is blow out the dust and make sure the fan is OK. My experience decomissioning old industrial / service equipment is that quality-built PSUs tend to just keep going and going. 30 years 24/7 in harsh dusty conditions is nothing for a PSU if it was built well and maintained (dusted) at least somewhat regularly (i.e. not allowed to completely cake up... though I have seen a number of such PSUs too, and they too were just fine.)
In fact, I'll take any old quality-made PSU over the modern stuff, especially anything withOUT APFC. IME, APFC circuits just don't last all that long in consumer-grade stuff. That's because most APFC designs tend to put a lot of stress on the primary electrolytic cap(s) and anything over 10-15 years (depending on the design and quality of the caps) should be checked (the primary caps, that is.)
Meanwhile, the oldschool non-APFC (or just PPFC) designs are near bullet-proof on that front - even the worst garbage caps will easily last 20+ years in these.
shevalier wrote on 2026-04-24, 10:39:
To be honest, I don’t know where you can even find a ‘proper’ PSU in good working order these days.
One word: Astec.
Shhh... don't tell anyone else, I'd like to keep more for myself. 😉
Granted these are not as easy to run into as other OEMs. But they are usually very nicely built. The only thing I don't like that I persistently see with Astec PSUs is they tend to have loud fans and/or fan controllers set to run the fan too hard.
That said, my GO-TO PSUs for testing 5V-heavy PCs are the Dell/HiPro/Chicony HP-P2507F3P and HP-P2507FWP - these are so over-built that even with a failed cap or two, they still stay in spec most of the time. It was something that JohnnyGuru tested a-way-while back in a "basement" PSU roundup. The old HiPro had a failed cap on the output and still managed to deliver full output power completely in spec. You just don't see this kind of over-building of PSUs anymore, where everything is running right on the limit and well-calculated to last just past the warranty.
