[Nottingham] Dual Athlon MP : Any Experience on Power Supplies?

[Robert Davies]

OK so a simple seeming Mobo, CPU and RAM upgrade didn't 'just work' and I have 
had to go into trouble shooting mode.  At first it appeared the Motherboard 
was faulty, having elimated CPU as possibility, but after testing with a new 
450W P/S that just arrived today the board fired up fine to my surprise.  So 
the 'newish' (March 2003) Thermaltake 'Silent' 420W P4/AMD P/S (which had 
never had the ATX +12V 'P4' CPU/AGP connector tested), must have been the 
cause.  Then I try the 420W P/S again with a minimal system after checking 
specs and it fires up fine!

So I wonder what P/S ratings folk need to use in practice in dual Athlon 
servers, preferably running a couple of disks plus CD/DVD-ROM off it?  The 
440BX dualie system ran fine off a 300W Sparkle P/S (common OEM cheapo make), 
with more devices enabled, so I thought 60 or 75 W extra per CPU was a plenty  
generous power budget.

Apart from that possibility, I'm flummoxed as I'd not touched the board or 
case, since the weekend, it's irksome to be unsure what the issue was.

Rob