Power Supplies: How Much is Enough?

[crystalklear64]

I would greatly appreciate knowing how to calculate how much power I'll need for certain setups. Also, I constantly hear people telling others to get a "reliable" brand psu. What are the brands you're generally safe with?

 

[sketch226]

I'm sure someone will be able to come up with something better, but Asus has a somewhat accurate calculator tool buried somewhere on their website if you have an Asus motherboard. I think AMD has some sort of spreadsheet or chart you can download as well.

I usually go with Antec power supplies. For my system, the 430W Earthwatts model is more than enough power. But I'm running on one of the newer 65W Athlon 64x2 CPUs and a single video card...

 

[Noodle Pirate!]

I only know 2 things about power supplies.

1. You can never have "too much power", since it will only put out as much as you require, so you can get a 900 watt or whatever ps to run a rinky dink home theater pc.

2. Higher efficiency rating is more earth friendly and cost effective, but more expensive initially.

I know that probably didnt help you any, but its all I could contribute.

 

[Liquid 2]

550 W should be good for anything you want to due, barring SLI.

 

[Vinny]

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

That'll give you a really good estimate of how much you need... after that, get something with at least an extra 100 watts or so. That'll leave you with plenty of juice even if you upgrade a few components.

550 watts does seem like the magical number though.

 

[level1online]

From what I've heard (i could be wrong)
1st. find out how much you need
2nd. then go a 100 watts more.

For example, I bought a 7900gs that required at minimum 400 watts, and then two friends suggested going a 100 watts more. I went with a brand called FSP Group (Fortron Source) - 500 watt. TomsHardware.com used that brand in one of their budget build lab tests and referred to it as a reliable brand.

 

[Thongsy]

[quote name='level1online']From what I've heard (i could be wrong)
1st. find out how much you need
2nd. then go a 100 watts more.

For example, I bought a 7900gs that required at minimum 400 watts, and then two friends suggested going a 100 watts more. I went with a brand called FSP Group (Fortron Source) - 500 watt. TomsHardware.com used that brand in one of their budget build lab tests and referred to it as a reliable brand.[/quote]

FSP and Seasonic are my two psu choices with Seasonic being first for effciency and being quiet, though antec isn't bad either. FSP is also the oem maker of many other branded psu such as the 700w OCZ gamerxtreme.

 

[hankmecrankme]

Damn, it tells me I need 487w under full load. Good thing I got a 550w psu.

AMD FX 62, MSI K9N Platinum, 2 Gigs Corsair RAM, Radeon X1800XT, SB X-FI Platinum, 4 HDDs, DVD burner, wireless card, floppy, and 5 fans add up to one energy guzzling PC.

 

[level1online]

[quote name='Noodle Pirate!']

1. You can never have "too much power", since it will only put out as much as you require, so you can get a 900 watt or whatever ps to run a rinky dink home theater pc.

[/quote]

That's very good to know, thanx!