Question about Hardware and power

[ComputerBox34]

Hey guys,

I'm planning a few upgrades for my machine and I'm coming to believe that power is going to be an issue. Right now I have a 330 Watt power supply. For $40, I can upgrade to a 450 Watt power supply. Can a 330 watt power supply hold the following?

• Motherboard
• 2 Harddrives
• 2 CDRW/DVD Drives
• ATI Radeon X800
• Fans and a heatsink for my processor

My buddies are telling me that a 330 Watt power supply will be just fine but I'm thinking no. WHat do you guys think? About how much power does a hard drive and the video card take up? Thanks.

 

[Frosty_axe]

The wattage output listed can vary wildly between manufacturers. What brand is the current 330W supply, and the proposed new supply? I'd honeslty trust a 330W supply from a good mfg more than a no-name 450W supply.

 

[BlindedByScience]

...maybe a little OT, but I think for $37.00 shipped, this 420 watt supply from Thermaltake (rebaged Enlight) is a damn good one. I've used half a dozen of them over the last year, and they are solid as can be. Recommended......

Regards - B.B.S.

 

[ComputerBox34]

Brand on my power supply is "Powerup" This supply came from my case. Both of my hard drives will be Western Digitals and both of my CD/DVD drives are LITE-ON's. I might go with what BBS said. The brand at the new power supply that I was looking at was a 450 watt Antec for $45 shipped.

So you guys think I should upgrade? I'm about to find out tomorrow or Saturday if this power supply can support these two hard drives plus everything else.

My main concern is that once I get the new video card, will it work right with everything else installed?

 

[computerpro3]

jus get the fortron 530 for $75 shipped and be done with it for good


you're lucky your current powerup didnt blow up your machine, and the antec, being a smartpower series in this case, isnt too confidence inspiring either, although it would likely work for that config. If you go antec, you wanna stay trupower series, which will run a good deal more. The fortron 530 is more powerful than either, and cheaper than most.

It's considered the best bang for buck psu out there.

 

[ComputerBox34]

I'm not going to pay $75 for a power supply and I'm never going to need 550 Watts of power enless I'm building a server with 20 200 GB drives. I rather use that money on a new case.

 

[Frosty_axe]

I'm not going to pay $75 for a power supply and I'm never going to need 550 Watts of power enless I'm building a server. I rather use that money on a new case.

Yes, 550w is WAY overkill

 

[Ice Czar]

I'm not going to pay $75 for a power supply and I'm never going to need 550 Watts of power enless I'm building a server with 20 200 GB drives. I rather use that money on a new case.

well lets see, I know of several 400 watt PSU that cant reliably run that config
hell I know several 500 watt generics that couldnt
why?
simple they are putting power out on the wrong rails
thus its unused wattage
or simply because they where rated at 25C, but your case isnt going to be 25C,
40C isnt all that uncommon in the PSU on a hot day with it exhausting the heatsink
and that can be a real world decrease of one third the capacity

Watts dont mean Jack
what is important is the proper distribution of amps to the rails that need it


Power supplies become increasingly expensive

When I initially asked about this on a mailing list, Solaris x86 advocate Al Hopper told me I was drowning in my tea, and that it was "all very simple". I love the simplicity of Unix people.

He explained that the later P4 CPUs take their power from a 12 Volt feed and, using the onboard voltage regulators, generate the high current, low-voltages they need to operate (anywhere from ~ 1.6V to around 2.7V). So the first requirement is a PSU that has plenty of power available from the 12V supply. Since the older ATX compatible PSUs didn't supply much current from the 12V section you have to ensure that your new PS delivers enough current (or power in Watts) from the 12V section. That's why using your old P3 ATX PS is a big "no-no".

He then described the history of the post-P3 power supply mess:

The earlier Athlon motherboard manufacturers decided to solve the 12v problem by using an additional 4-pin square connector to get the extra 12V those CPUs required. However many older PSUs didn't provide the 12V 4-pin square connector.

The motherboard makers then wised up and decided that there was nothing magical about a square 4-pin connector, so they put a normal hard disk type socket on the motherboard and provided the 12v power via a standard hard disk (4-pin inline) connector. Problem solved - you may now use your older PSUs provided they supply sufficient 12V current (many did not).

Further confusion came from PSU manufacturers not specifying the capabilities of the PSU in a way that allowed the end user to verify it's 12V power output rating.

In the meantime the ATX spec was saying "use the new 6-pin" inline connector - and very few motherboard makers implemented it.

Just to be sure, some motherboard makers, implemented *both* the hard disk style 4-pin inline connector and the square 4-pin connector. They said "use either or both in any combination you like".

The spec then evolved to the 24-pin main connector. Again, most motherboard manufacturers did not wish to make their customers mad by mandating that they replace their power supplies. This might cause their customers to avoid motherboard upgrades. Some used a "special" 24-pin connector with the extra 4-pin connection blocked off, or colored so that the user could plugin a 20-pin plug into the correct end of the 24-pin socket on the motherboard. Many others simply ignored the 24-pin requirement in the specs. Again - problem solved - use your older PSU.

run the numbers
post the amps you need for each rail (+3.3V, +5V, +12V) and then we can make real recommendations

your better of running your computer out of a cardboard box than short changing it on the power

excerpt from link above

X800XT (one of the most power hungry GPUs and cards)

525/1150
............................IDLE...........................LOAD
+3.3V.......1.05Amps 3.48Watts................2.71Amps 8.74Watts
+5V..........1.42Amps 4.05Watts...............3.33Amps 16.75watts
+12V........0.85Amps 10.09Watts..............3.25Amps 37.73Watts
Total W.....17.62Watts Idle.......................63.23Watts load
which jumps even more with an overclock
550/1250...18.43Watts Idle.......................65.88Watts load
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