voltage question

sabbie

I was wondering which is responsible for the different voltages for your devices, cpu etc.; the power supply or the mobo?

fryguy

sabbie wrote:

I was wondering which is responsible for the different voltages for your devices, cpu etc.; the power supply or the mobo?

Thats simple, on the most part the regulation is done by the power supply.
(120volts AC converted to DC first then on to a switched regulator to get +12, -12, +5, -5, +3.3)

The mothorboard will do the lower strict regulation the CPU needs.
(generaly between 1.8 and 1.2 volts on most CPU's)

The reason for this is that the CPU uses lower voltage. Also the shorter the leads/traces and the closer the capacitors and inductors for filtering are to the CPU the less noise and the more stable your computer will be.

: I'm not sure why you wanted to know this, unless your a hard core moder or electronics tech i guess.

sabbie

No I want a new cpu(the prescott 3GHz), mobo, video card and memory. Is it necessary to buy a new power supply also?

fryguy

You got to learn more about electricity. The voltage has little to do with what your needing. Your talking about current demand from the power supply to power all your components. power (Watts) is voltage (in volts) by current (in amps).

Voltage is just the potential force (Pressure comparing to water)
Current would be the flow (flow "speed" of the water)
Power would be the total amount used per min (CFM "Cubic Feet a Minuite" of water)

Ricka182

If you want a power supply that kicks ass, and is certified to work with the Pentium chips, check these guys out.....Pc Power Cooling

fryguy

Thats a bit over kill but depends on what your going to power if your going to have many drives (2-3 hard drives, cd/dvd burner, dvd rom,floppy) and the latest power hungery video card, many fans, lights, peltier coolers, etc then you will need a 500+ watt beast to power it all.
(I got two 250 watt power supplies in my home made NAS box because of all the hard drives)

Despit what you may think a faster processor dont use much more power.
If that was so the the evoloution from the P2 to now the processors would use > 3000 watts and the 1 cm die area would be as hot a a rockets thrust! the fastest chip may use 30-35 watts more then the old P2 chip.

sabbie

Okay, to summon it up. If I want a new cpu and/or video card this depends on the mobo, because the mobo regulates the (0,8 or whatever) voltage needed to run that type of hardware.

Thanks.

Ricka182

As long as you get a mobo that is made for the P4 chip you want, it can handle the voltage. When building, manufactuers do the majority of compatibility checks for us. But do take caution, now with the release of the new socket 775, P4's are available for both sockets(775 & 47