As some may have recently noticed here I've been trying to put a new budget cpu + mobo + ram bundle together and have come to the realization that my Sparkle PSU doesn't have an ESP12V connector for the new motherboard and may not have enough power to juice the new bundle, let alone light overclocking. So I've opened this thread to find out if I need to (or should) replace the lil guy?

HOpefully it's still good enough... :D

This low budget PSU is what I have now:
SPARKLE ATX-400PN-B204 400W ATX 12V 2.2 Power Supply - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103013) (It's a rebadged FSP so it's a good quality build from Fortron)

These low-budget parts (except for the RAM) are what I'm going to get:
ASUS M5A88-V EVO AM3+ AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-131-733&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=100&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo)
AMD FX-4100 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996&Tpk=amd%20fx4100)
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428)

If the Sparkle is good enough (and for light overclocking), is it OK to use a 8-to-4 pin connector (http://www.amazon.com/HDE-8-Pin-Power-4-Pin-Cable/dp/B002BFNZAO/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top) or a 4 Pin + LP4 to 8 Pin connector (http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-6in-Pin-Power-Adapter/dp/B002O21XHQ/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_b) , whether or not I need to use the whole 8-pin CPU power connector for stock or overclocked settings?

Does that make any sense?

If I need a new PSU then....(sigh) what's a good budget one?

more than enough.

more than enough.
yup it hink your right for stock system.

overclock i'm not sure...

Try it. Get the adapter later if needed.

Would it be enough for overclocked Phenom II X6 1035T?

Would it be enough for overclocked Phenom II X6 1035T?
Probably not.

is having more cores w/ the 1035T better or is having a faster clock w/ the 4100 better with my application?

does win7 use multiple cores? six cores?

I'm using windows 7 64bit, ssd, and will be multi-tasking and simultaneously using FF, GC, IE, Paint.Net and Excel...

is having more cores w/ the 1035T better or is having a faster clock w/ the 4100 better with my application?

does win7 use multiple cores? six cores?

I'm using windows 7 64bit, ssd, and will be multi-tasking and simultaneously using FF, GC, IE, Paint.Net and Excel...

more cores are better for doing more than 1 thing at once, but for playing games the higher clock will win.

is having more cores w/ the 1035T better or is having a faster clock w/ the 4100 better with my application?

does win7 use multiple cores? six cores?

I'm using windows 7 64bit, ssd, and will be multi-tasking and simultaneously using FF, GC, IE, Paint.Net and Excel...

Yes, Win7 will handle and use 6 (and even more) cores. I'm not sure which would win out in your scenario and how much processing you'll be doing in each.

I'd probably opt for the faster clock speed personally (gamer at heart), I think you might peg two cores max given the list of apps (unless you're doing something crazily CPU hungry in the browsers, and I'm assuming paint.net and excel are not going to multi-thread) so I'd want to give it some faster cores rather than more of them. Of course, you're results may vary, and if the cpu hogs do multi-thread properly you might get better mileage out of the 6 cores.

so there will be no advantage of buying a six core if none of my apps use six cores?

what about windows boot time?

so there will be no advantage of buying a six core if none of my apps use six cores?

what about windows boot time?

It's not necessarily that the apps need to be able to use 6 cores, most apps don't run properly across multiple cores in my experience. If you are merely running 6 applications you are using all of your cores. Of course, if none of your 6 apps are particularly resource hungry, they may all be quite happy sharing a core.

Let's say you're running 5 cpu hungry apps, lots of calculations and they constantly max out the cpu. But you want your browser to stay responsive and not get slowed down so much by those 5 apps; you'd want to go with more cores so you're essentially separating them on another cpu.

And I doubt you'd see much appreciable difference in windows boot time either way, that's going to depend more on your drive and you are already running an SSD.

But if you're running only 1 cpu hungry app, and that's the app you care about, and all your other apps are browsers and don't use much cpu time, you'd want to go with the higher clock speed so that the 1 intensive app has more to work with.

The problem is cores compared to clock speed is like apples to oranges; there's no direct comparison. 2+2 does not equal 4.

that makes sense man thanx

If I were try to be safe and get a new PSU that is abundantly enough for a unlocked and overclocked Phenom II X4 960T, then how many watts would I be looking for and what brand?

Is Antec good nowadays?

Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371031&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3928400&SID=skim2157X567668X7a3fe4e3d86ef6b0dd1096b254e23984)

Add would this be overkill or should I wait for a cheaper deal and buy one with less watts?

Buy that one.

If I do buy it, should I get an 80mm external fan (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999130) for the PSU as well? While I don't need it, during summer season I would like to exhaust hot air from the PSU that comes from the 120mm fan pushing air into it. I've already done that with my current PSU by cutting an 80mm hole from the rear grill. I wonder if I should do the same to the new one in order to produce even better airflow.

Any thoughts?