does brand/type make any difference or just the wattage

FixupSellon · 11 Mar 2015 at 20:37

i picked up a Antec A R I A cube last night and although i didnt know anything about it other it didnt seem like a off the shelf job(that was more clear when i saw it in person' i was pleased. but also disappointing when i found out the power supply was like my dell as in 'custom and not replaceable with just any unit', but what i want it for its supply will do.

now this leads me on to a question thats probably a bit obvious, but thought id check like..

because im limited to this psu which is a 300w does that mean im limited(but not low profile) to cards like i am with my sff optiplex(which has a 275w unit) or being a better make it can stretch that bit further? or 300w is 300 doesnt matter of make, theres still no special ordeals??

in my dell i got a ati hd2400 which works well with 7 64bit pro, but for the cube im going to load windows 8 64bit(8.1 maybe)if it works with the am2 board and sempron that came in it(board says pci e 16 @x8?? whatever that means) and obviously i will want a more upto date card that works with the board and a more modern board when i source one and ofcourse windows 8 and i have more options not needing low profile.

RJC · 11 Mar 2015 at 20:45

The unit will only provide a max of 300w across the various rails which the PSU outputs.

On the unit there should be a label showing the amperage of each rail can provide.

The PCI-E slot is a 16x size but is electrically limited to 8x, performance difference is hard to judge.

Review of the case:

www.silentpcreview.com/article146-page1.html

FixupSellon · 11 Mar 2015 at 22:11

thanks for reply..

i thought i was obvious lol, just i know dells dont always have the best power supplies..

hmm interesting first page read however there must be more than one version as mine doesnt have the card reader ports, just 2xusb and audio and only space for 1 hdd unless i take optical out, so either mine is lacking(probably why it looks so spacious lol) bits or a lesser model(although pci e not agp as in the link), but i suppose the key is the power supply..

edit:

actually shouldve looked more before i commented, mine doesnt have the card reader stuff or a particular fan(if you looked through it to know what i mean) but i can fit more than 1 hdd, didnt realize it had a clever design to keep it simple ha, ideal... am2 board in it probably wasnt original hence fan lacking.

pastymuncher · 12 Mar 2015 at 10:16

Going by that review the psu only has a 18A 12v rail which only gives you 216w so you are pretty much limited to a low end card. A lack of cooling, as the psu fan is the only one in the case, is going to restrict what you can actually put in there anyway.

FixupSellon · 12 Mar 2015 at 23:23

hmm interesting that, im trying to work out how accurate these online calculators are with using options best i can..

currently the cube has 3 sata hard drives(80gb, 160gb, 500gb) and a usb pci adapter(but not via pci port) and although i dont know what the adapter is on the list, though doesnt seem to work and has 3 sticks of ram. it says my computer is using 204w, assuming the cpu is actually an am2 and not a 754 and if i add a hd4350 or 210 as a minimum its over 240w..

now going by what you say 18 amps is, thats overkill, but again i dont know how accurate the calculator is..

mean i put my dell optiplex sff to the test and the supply in that is 275w, but when put in 775 socket pentium D940, 4 sticks of ram, 1 sata hdd and hd2400 it comes up as either 276w or 279w depends if my card is a 256mb pro or xt(cpu z shows it as 2400) and any issues i notice are either drivers issue for my gpu or programs like Itunes and anti virus making things slow at times when they active ??

so surely theres something wrong with the calculator as that means my dell is better than the antec when it should be the other way round.

RJC · 13 Mar 2015 at 06:23

If those figure are from online calculators then they suggest recommended wattage PSU and not actual power absorbed.

FixupSellon · 14 Mar 2015 at 01:36

it says total usage watts and in smaller writing suggests a minimum psu, for my example I think it was something like 190 odd minimum for 204w usage for the antec.

It was xextreme something or other.