System Power Requirements

[Aegis]

How much power do I really need? I was reading an FX-60 review and the total system power usage for even a Pentium XE was barely above 300 under load!

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/f...e/index.x?pg=15

[atomizer]

i don't know. i guess you'd have to add up the power requirements of all your components to really get a good idea. newer video cards often require a separate power supply directly from the PSU. the MB, RAM, CPU, sound card, fans, drives and whatever other extras would all have to factored in.

[nmX.Memnoch]

Make sure you look at amperage as well as wattage.

[DL.]

Check out this site for a "power supply wattage calculator".

[atomizer]

@DL

WOW! THANKS for that link man!!! i figured there'd be a website like that, just didn't bother looking around yet. very good find!

392 W

EDIT

DL, you ever buy anything from them? it seems like they may be a good, reputable vendor. i like their ethics on their 'about us' page. i see they even have a forum too.

Edited January 12, 2006 by atomizer

[DL.]

Never bought anything from them, haven't even looked at the rest of the site.

I came across that link a few months back on some forum and bookmarked it, because I figured it might be useful... (I have like 1500+ bookmarks, and that's after a very thorough cleanup)

I don't know if the calculations are accurate, but they seem quite reasonable. They are of course approximations, but should at least give a slight hint of how much power the system needs.

[atomizer]

i read in their forum that the calculation figures represent the extreme upper end of what the hardware will use. they say that in the real-world, you'll never actually draw as much juice as the figures say.

[DL.]

i read in their forum that the calculation figures represent the extreme upper end of what the hardware will use. they say that in the real-world, you'll never actually draw as much juice as the figures say.

That's probably true, but those are the numbers you should take into consideration (and maybe add a little just to be sure) when getting a power supply.

[atomizer]

oh yeah. i agree.

[Vitalix]

My decision are generally based on the 12V amperage.

If you look at the top end PSUs, you'll see like 30A on the 12V rail on the OCZ 420W Powerstream. Compare that to a Powmax or another cheapie which boasts 580Watts, but has 20A on the 12V.

You really get what you pay for. It's not the wattage, and in most cases not even the amperage, but the stability of the rails under load.

Higher end PSUs don't fluctuate under heavy loads.

[atomizer]

good point. i was kinda wondering about amperage myself.