Wattage

[Swordfish45]

Is their any bassis on which to rate how much wattage you will need for a system?
What wattage does each componet consume on average?
Does it help to have more wattage than you will need? or will it cause exess heat?

thanks

 

[Flak Monkey]

Wattage should generally be ignored. Instead you should look at which rail each device draws it's power from and how many amps of power it draws. Then you add up the numbers for each rail and compare them against the ratings of a given PSU.

 

[MetalX]

Some good info here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=756864

 

[Ice Czar]

A x V = W

amps times voltage equals watts

and since your various components require three different voltages, the total watts a supply produces is less important than what ratio of amp per rail or watts available per voltage there are

follow the instructions here
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=844691

a supply converts AC Voltage to DC Voltage as needed
thus a 200 watt load placed on a 300, 400 or 1000 Watt supply is still a 200 watt load
supplies have a sweet spot for efficiency so at a given load they will waste the least amount of energy (as heat) however that is offset against a larger capacity supply generally having a better thermal solution to dump whatever heat and can often be cooler even though its technically less efficient for that given load
an lower temperature directly translates into a longer lifespan all else being equal

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1028571888