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How much power do I need for this system?

Janus

Janus

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2005
Messages
1,354
Location
Adelaide, Australia
As mentioned in a couple of other threads, I'm currently designing a system for a friend of mine. I am looking at the following components:

AMD 64 3500+
Asus A8N-E
256MB Leadtek 6800 256 Bit
2x W.D. 8M SATA 200GB
2x 1G Corsair DDR400
A couple of DVD drives/burners, not really sure yet.

Basically I am trying to decide on the case needed. I am looking at either a Antec "Super LAN Boy" with a 350W PSU or a Antec "Sonata II" Midi Tower Case with a 450W PSU.

My first question is what do people think of these parts? I am not sure about the graphics card as I don't know that much about Nvidia models and as it is not my money, and have been asked to try and keep the spending down, would like to get the best bang for the buck available.

My second question is what wattage PSU would be required to run these parts? Would the 350W be enough, or should I go for the 450W?

Any help or advice people could give me would be greatly appreciated.
 
350watt are more than enough 8)
 
The problem with a lot of common power supplies is that they tend to be grossly overrated in the wattage department. When you can buy a "550w" power supply for $25, you should be suspicious of the rating. Or, for instance, a case that's $55, but comes with a 450w PSU. Just things to watch out for.

Power supplies made by Sparkle and Fortron (FSP group) are pretty good. I personally like most Antec cases, but don't like their power supplies at all. For the price, I've had too many fail on me. Everything from 350w consumer supplies to a 550w truepower that I had running in a server.

The Sonata II looks a bit pricey at nearly $100...
 
Hmm...that is strange. Because I've had people tell me in other forums that 350W is far to small and I should look at 430W minimum. :?

I have also been told that Antec power supplies, especially the True Power 2.0, are very good and reliable.

My friend would like to keep the price relatively low, but still doesn't want her new parts to fry because she saved $20 on a case.

What would people recommend? Although I need to be able to get it in Adelaide, and the supply is somewhat limited here. :thumbsdown:
 
Janus said:
Hmm...that is strange. Because I've had people tell me in other forums that 350W is far to small and I should look at 430W minimum. :?
Click to expand...

i've got
AMD Athlon64 3200+
ASUS A8N-Sli premium
1GB Ram
2x40GB HDD Raid 0
Geforce 7800GT
TV-Card
DVD
several usb devices e.g. Bluetoothstick, PDA dockingstation
Tagan 380watt PSU

my system is using 115watt idling
130 watt idling + SETI
~175watt while running 3Dmark05
~200watt for a short moment during startup while spinning up the hdd's
 
Tagan's are good PSU's...

As for the Antec comments, I'm just going by my own experience. I've had two Antec SL300S PSUs die, and one TruePower 550w. Luckily the 550 was covered by warranty, but the other two were not. All three died of bad capacitors.

The price you pay for the Antec supplies is just not worth it. There are better supplies for less money. If it comes with a case, I'd go ahead and use it, but just hope it doesn't bring the rest of the system down when it dies.
 
Sometimes even high watt power supplies suck due to poor output levels, especially on the +12V
 
With PSU's being the price they are today, a decent 450W should be good for your system, if you decide to upgrade later, maybe an extra HD, better VGA card, your system will have the headroom for it :)

Also stick with the good name brands, as many already mentioned here.
 
But don't oversize the PSU as well (just to add some confusion, but actually it is true...) since I read in a German computer mag (in their problems section), that some Dude built a hardcore system with all up to date components, but since he wasn't a gamer, he only got a radeon 9200...

The system was completly unstable, because the 620 W PSU had too much power...
 
Too much power? :lol: No problems with my 550W Antec TruePower...
 
Viper007Bond said:
Too much power? :lol: No problems with my 550W Antec TruePower...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I put an Antec 550W TruePower 2.0 in my machine last week. Great so far. But it has only been a week. :D
 
Im running the super lanboy case with my computer using the stock psu of 350W.
The system in it is:

P4 - 3Ghz prescott core
6600Gt 128mb
1Gb Ram
1 x 250gb sata hdd
1 x 200gb ide hdd
1 x dvd burner

In all it seems to be running fine to me, nothing wrong at all.
 
Buba said:
But don't oversize the PSU as well (just to add some confusion, but actually it is true...) since I read in a German computer mag (in their problems section), that some Dude built a hardcore system with all up to date components, but since he wasn't a gamer, he only got a radeon 9200...

The system was completly unstable, because the 620 W PSU had too much power...
Click to expand...
technically impossible.
 
Sorry to bump this thread but I have a bit of a question, seeing as I now imminently need a new PSU it seems (current one not powerful enough).

What are the disadvantages (if any) of having a PSU that's too powerful? Does the PSU still draw the same amount of electricity from the mains regardless of how much it's using?
Basically, I need a system with 339W at least (according to JS Custom PCs calculator) and currently my PSU has 300W. The one I've wanted to get for a while comes in 400W and 460W flavours (Akasa Ultra Quiet PSUs). Which would you guys recommend? Would the fan run less if I got the 460W version as I'm not working it as hard? And would they both draw the same amount of Watts from the mains seeing as I'm not even exceeding 400W?

Thanks.
 
Disadvantage of having a psu too powerful: none
Disadvantage of having one that's underpowered: everything. BSOD, no boot, flakey graphics, etc

My general rule is that if you use 2 hdds, i suggest atleast a 300. If you have a gfx along with the 2hdd that needs power, then 350w. If you have more than 2hdd, gfx, and burners, then 400W will be good. if you run 5hdd or so, along with all those other components, you should have >450W
 
Janus said:
Hmm...that is strange. Because I've had people tell me in other forums that 350W is far to small and I should look at 430W minimum. :?

I have also been told that Antec power supplies, especially the True Power 2.0, are very good and reliable.

My friend would like to keep the price relatively low, but still doesn't want her new parts to fry because she saved $20 on a case.

What would people recommend? Although I need to be able to get it in Adelaide, and the supply is somewhat limited here. :thumbsdown:
Click to expand...

I say go with the Antec Sonata II... I've fixed 3 systems for my friends, all AMD 64 with High end graphics card and SATA HD... no probs so far... I'm thinking about getting one myself :D
 
Think about it this way: If you buy shitty ram, then maybe your system will be slow, or unstable, or what have you. Then you buy good ram and everything is fine.

If you buy a shitty power supply, then, if and when it goes, it will likely take most of the system with it.

In conclusion: $1000+ computer? Spend $100 on the Power Supply for some piece of mind (and reliability).

Back when I was looking into building a computer, I was looking at Enermax, Antec, PC Power & Cooling. Option 3 is superior by far, but also the most expensive by far.

One more thing: look at how exactly the power is split up. You will recieve electricity at 12V, 5V and 3.3V. The 3.3V line should have 30+ amps or so for stability (powers ram and some motherboard components) and the 12V powers most new processors, as well as heavy duty video cards, moving parts etc. 5V I believe powers some older processors and most expansion cards (pci, etc).

Of course, my data is from the year 2004. Things were simpler then. 8)

EDIT: If you can still find them, Chieftec Matrix cases are very good ATX spec cases.
 
Power Supplys are just like anything else, you get what you paid for. PC Power and Cooling is by far you best bet for a top of the line power supply, problem is that it also costs. When power supply say they can get 500 (or what ever) watts, they mean they can stay there for only a few seconds normaly. They don't mean they can run at that level for ever. With PCP&C they can stay at the watt base line, and go up if they need to, but they will allways put out there ammout of wattage no matter what (providing there are no brownouts / blackouts). Take a look at the myths page, its quite good.
 
Antec cases come with good PSU's, so you will be fine with either of the case you've pinned down to. They are quiet too, especilally the Sonata.
 
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