New Rig (Kinda)

Post by **Shmee** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:21 pm

Hello all - long time no post, but I know that when it comes to gamer rig advice this is the place to come.

So, I have a simple(?) question. Here's what I'm putting together. Please no criticism of the spec as most of it is old, with 2 peices of new gear for a cheap upgrade. My question is: will a 400W PSU be sufficient for the following:

ASUS M2N4-SLI AM2 nForce4 ATX mobo
Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz AM2 proc
2x512 DDR2 533 (PC2 4300) RAM
Standard FDD
Samsung IDE DVD Burner
2x 80GB 7200RPM SATA150 HDDs
GeForce 6600GT 128MB PCIE x16 gfx card

If you know the answer - can you please tell me how you know so I can avoid looking this dumb in the future? :icon30:

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 1:40 am

A true 400watt will do. If you're going to buy an elcheapo PSU you might want to go with a 500 watt.

Post by **Captain** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 2:22 am

YourGrandpa wrote:A true 400watt will do. If you're going to buy an elcheapo PSU you might want to go with a 500 watt.

Uh, a cheap 500W PSU won't be nearly as good as a quality 350W :/

The PSU is one area you can't skimp on. If you're buying quality, 400W is enough. Don't trust those Antec powerseries though, I'm not the only who had its fans shit themselves in 3 months of use.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:37 am

Captain Mazda wrote:
YourGrandpa wrote:A true 400watt will do. If you're going to buy an elcheapo PSU you might want to go with a 500 watt.
Uh, a cheap 500W PSU won't be nearly as good as a quality 350W :/

The PSU is one area you can't skimp on. If you're buying quality, 400W is enough. Don't trust those Antec powerseries though, I'm not the only who had its fans shit themselves in 3 months of use.

Stop crying about that, it happends....

And antec are by far one of the best PSU's on the market.

As for the Cheat 500watt = 350watt's.... No, it would need to be a $10 500watt PSU to do that.

out of all of the cheap Psu's tha ti have delt with could take up to ~50watts under there rating before they pop/blew/etc

So keeping a cheap 500watt in the 400 range is PERFECTLY fine.

The upper Manufacturer's ( Antec!!! ) All rate there PSU's quite low, I.e. a 350watt PSU could Give out ~400watts before it would blow.

as for Shmee: do you allready have the PSU? or are you going to buy one?

Post by **Shmee** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:10 am

Well, see - the 400W I already have. It currently powers the same rig w/ a P4 Prescott (and a P5AD2E-Premium board), that's the only diff really. The PSU is over a year tested and true. Thanks for the suggestions. So, how do you know what total wattage you need anyway?

The reason I'm moving to AMD again is because I've always had better luck with them. My current setup (the P4) runs SUPER hot, and the performance is lacking. I've ALWAYS built AMD in the past, but at the time, the P4 was the only player out there with a 800MHz FSB, and I couldn't pass that up. But, of course, to keep it cool I have a fan that sounds like a leaf-blower, and in 80+ degree temps I have to have the side off with a floor model blowing into it to keep it reasonably cool.

So, I hear that with even stock cooling the proc I'm thinking of buying is 10-20 degrees cooler and much more quiet (not to mention stable). That and a dual core is much more sexy that HT any day of the week

So - have I come up with at least a stable system? Again, I'm curious how you know what wattage is sufficient to power the damned thing. I long for tbe old days when 200W would do any job

Post by **Captain** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:27 am

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:12 pm

Some posted a web site that you could calculate the PSU wattage you needed.

Otherwise you'll have to get the current requirements for each piece of hardward that you are using and add them up.

Post by **Captain** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:38 pm

YourGrandpa wrote:Some posted a web site that you could calculate the PSU wattage you needed.

Otherwise you'll have to get the current requirements for each piece of hardward that you are using and add them up.

Just Google wattage calculator and you'll find it.

Ok, I don't like being lazy. You talking about this?

http://www.journeysystems.com/power_sup ... ulator.php

[EDIT] This one is much better:

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

It has all the newest CPUs, from single to quad :icon14:

Post by **Captain** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:43 pm

Heh, calculator says I need at least 411W of juice

Glad I've got a quality 465.

Post by **DiscoDave** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:09 pm

I think my cheap 650W psu was lucky to pull out a good 400W. Essentially as said, a 400W will power your system fine, providing its not a cheap one. I know Antec are good.

Post by **Grudge** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:24 pm

I've had 2 Antec PSU's die on me, my collegue had one die on him and our dev server on my old job died because of the Antec PSU in it fried.

I bought a Seasonic S12 500W and it's been working great. Almost completely silent and rock solid power.

Post by **Shmee** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:19 am

Thanks to you all!