Hi,

My son has a presario 5365AE which we have had for around 5 years. It's a 1.5GHZ P4 Willamette CPU. The PC has been upgraded way beyond either original spec or , probably, what makes good financial sense, but it's been fun and an interative process. I have learned a good deal about PC's along the way.
It now has
1.5Gb memory
80 & 120 Gb maxton drives
nVidia FX5200 128Mb graphics card
24bit live sound card.

I also fitted a case fan as this unit only had a CPU fan.

My question is :

The last upgrade available is to go to a 2.0 Ghz P4 Willamette. There are excelllent threads in this forum explaining the specific chip to use.

I can see these on ebay for around $50 and I'm tempted but my concern is that this will place additional burden on the PSU. The compaq has a 235W PSU which is NOT standard ATX. Even replacing it for an identical model would be hard, let alone finding one in the 400 Watt region.

Does anyone think that the 235W is up to the job, or is it best to stick at 1.5GHZ and not go an upgrade too far?

many thanks

hi if you use these neat program jeff showed me you will be able to find it out my freind http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp right back your details and we will go fom there

Originally Posted by marc

hi if you use these neat program jeff showed me you will be able to find it out my freind http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp right back your details and we will go fom there

many thanks - what a great site !

OK well based on my current config the numbers fall out like this :

System Type: Single Processor
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1500 MHz Willamette
CPU Utilization (TDP): 100% TDP
RAM: 3 Sticks PC133 SDRAM
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Video Type: Single Card
IDE HDD 5400 rpm: 1 HDD
IDE HDD 7200 rpm: 1 HDD
DVD/CDRW Combo Drive: 1 Drive
Floppy Drive: 1 Drive
Sound Blaster - All Models: Yes
Additional PCI Card (avg): 1 Card
USB: 1 Device
IEEE-1394 FireWire: 1 Device
Fans
Regular: 1 Fan 80mm;
High Performance: 1 Fan 80mm;
Motherboard, keyboard and mouse: Yes
PSU Utilization: 100% (peak utilization)
Total: 261 Watts

If I plumb in the numbers for the 2.0 GHZ Proc it comes out like this :
System Type: Single Processor
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2000 MHz Willamette
CPU Utilization (TDP): 100% TDP
RAM: 3 Sticks PC133 SDRAM
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Video Type: Single Card
IDE HDD 5400 rpm: 1 HDD
IDE HDD 7200 rpm: 1 HDD
DVD/CDRW Combo Drive: 1 Drive
Floppy Drive: 1 Drive
Sound Blaster - All Models: Yes
Additional PCI Card (avg): 1 Card
USB: 1 Device
IEEE-1394 FireWire: 1 Device
Fans
Regular: 1 Fan 80mm;
High Performance: 1 Fan 80mm;
Motherboard, keyboard and mouse: Yes
PSU Utilization: 100% (peak utilization)
Total: 278 Watts


Looks like I'm already living on borrowed time with my 235Watt Compaq PSU.

I used 100% cpu utiliozation as this is peak at times so worst case.

So maybe I should be looking to get a higher wattage PSU for the compaq regardless of CPU ?

Anyone found a source of Compaq supplies with higher spec ?

nope sorry i havent but you have an atx motherboard? i think you should consider gettin a 450 watt psu from antec thanks for your reply

ahh you see that is the problem. The Compaq PSU is not standard ATX. If it were I agree - simply walk 200 yards to my local case mod shop, buy a 400 watt ATX and then uprate the CPU, but Compaq have seeminlgy blocked this option off.

Is this the original computer?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/p...&product=93252

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/p...=93252&dlc=en&

I am confused by the CPU usage. This should not be directly tied to PSU issues.

Sorry I now recall the test. That being a benchmark.

Thanks jephree,

yes that is the one , the full spec is at

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...dlc=en&lang=en

though mine has quite a few different aspects.

I noticed a few sites selling what are claimed to be Compaq replacement power supplies such as

http://affordablesurplus.com/compaq-...wer-supply.asp

But I'm not convinced they are'nt just assuming the compaq is ATX compatible.

It was your replies to earlier threads regarding the Presario 5000 P4 2.0 GHZ Willamette that started me down this interesting route

So this is a Micro ATX board?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...u+&btnG=Search

Is that the only limitation?

Good point. I had read that Compaq PSU's don't use standard pinouts. I guess if the board is standard the PSU requirements must be standard also ?

I took the side off, the PSU part number is 243890-001, and I noticed one on ebay at:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Compaq-250...ayphotohosting

I don't know if you can tell by sight is it's microATX. Most of the others have a top(bottom?) fan). Mine does not it just has the exhaust fan

The mainboard PSU slot will be either 20 or 24 pins. I have never seen another. But I haven't seen everything.

The 20 & 24 pins are usually interchangeable. My thought was the physical size of the PSU. Most Micro boards are in flat desktop units (aka: pizza boxes). So I was concerned not with the connection but with the physical size and mounting.

When I first rebuilt my first HP Vectra I just left the case open and had all the parts scattered on the desk. That was my first learning experience.