Power Supplies; How Many Watts Do I Need? (Article @ Tom's)

http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/02q4/021021/index.html

This question gets asked so many times on this forum - this article goes some way to explaining the basics. CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[Enigma666]

In my experience, I have never seen a PERSONAL system that REQUIRES more than 300 watts.

 

[Enigma666]

Of course, there is a certain pleasure of having a PS that dims all of the lights on one's neighborhood block upon the start-up; my next one is going to be a 650 watt, simply for this purpose.

 

[ceh4702]

One of the things the article explains is a power supply that has a rating of 300 watts, may not even be capable of supplying 300 watts. Normally you have to have a high-end gaming machine or lots of drives or lots of fans to use over 300 watts.

When people add a high end sound card and a high end Video card, and use the fastest processor, it is usually a question of the consistency and quality of the the power supply that is most important. In a power supply you have to have consistent votage and ampage for 12V, 5V and 3V all at the same time without any fluctuation. Therefore the consistency of the voltage and the Variance from the requirement is an issue. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[Grenage]

Aye, if you've got an intel system with 1 or 2 Hard Drives and a CDROM or 2 then a 250W will usually do you, an AMD and more than a few Drives you want 300W.

You can get more, in fact I used ot have 2 PSU's, 1 ust for Fans and switches but that was more for show than real use.