Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!ucivax!megatek!fridge!hollen From: hollen@megatek.UUCP (Dion Hollenbeck) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Subject: Re: Which motherboard? & Power supply? Message-ID: Date: 1 Feb 91 16:17:50 GMT References: <1173@culhua.prg.ox.ac.uk> Sender: hollen@megatek.UUCP Organization: Megatek Corporation, San Diego, California Lines: 37 In-reply-to: mason@robots.ox.ac.uk's message of 30 Jan 91 22:37:38 GMT In article <1173@culhua.prg.ox.ac.uk> mason@robots.ox.ac.uk (Ian Mason) writes: > > I am posting this for someone, however he does read the > comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware newsgroup. > > ----------------forwarded message----------------- > > I am thinking of upgrading a XT motherboard to either a 20MHz-286 or > 16MHz-386sx. The questions are: > > 2) Power consumption: how much can a 150 or 200W power supply handle? > The question that you did not ask, but should have is: 3) Are there are any requirements on a power supply dictated by a 286 motherboard? The answer is YES. It must be an AT power supply, not an XT. The wattage is irrelevant, that is merely dictated by the amount of power sucked up by the chips on the board and the add-on cards. An AT motherboard generally takes less that an XT since it is mostly CMOS stuff, but AT users tend to put in more cards and therefore you GENERALLY need more power. The CRICTICAL factor in a power supply for an AT is filtering. An XT power supply does not have enough and most likely will send out very dirty, spiky power on power-up, enough to destroy the contents of the CMOS RAM more than occasionally. Sometimes, however, youe get an XT power supply that does not do this. Do yourself a favor and make sure any power supply you get, regardless ow wattage, is certified for an AT -- ----- Dion Hollenbeck (619) 455-5590 x2814 Megatek Corporation, 9645 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA 92121 uunet!megatek!hollen or hollen@megatek.uucp