How much power would I need for this?

Beagle

Beagle

Beagle

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Joined
5 Jun 2003
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74
I'm in the process of upgrading my machine. It'll consist of the following:

Abit IP35 mobo;
Intel Q6600 OC/d @ 3.3Ghz;
2Gb RAM;
Tuniq Tower fan;
Antec case with 2 fans;
DVD R/W
2 x HDD.

I currently have a Zalman 400W PSU - will this be powerful enough, or do you think I'll need to upgrade to 500+W?
 
personally i'de probably go for the 520w corsair, will allow you to upgrade you graphics further down the line.
 
Thanks for the advice. I'm not really concerned about graphics as it's not used for games (it's mainly an audio workstation), so I might see how stable my current PSU is before I spend another £50.

If it isn't powerful enough, what's the worst that can happen? Will it just refuse to power-up?
 
The Zalman is a decent supply so if it isn't powerful enough it shouldn't damage anything, the chances are it just won't power up or if it does then it will be unstable but you'll quickly realise if that is the case.
 
Beagle said:
You think? If that's the case then those 'power supply calculators' ARE a load of tosh.
Click to expand...

Biggest problem is that no-one actually quotes the power needed for many of the components in PC's, and the motherboard makers are the worst culprits.

I have a dual Xeon system (two dual core xeon's at that) with 2 GByte of memory and a low end workstation gfx card. Even with 5 hard drives and 2 Opticals it only draws about 210 watts from the mains at full load. Since PSU's are not 100% efficient, probably no better than 80%, that means the PSU is not putting out much more than 160 watts.

A more important consideration is the current available on the 12 volt rails. Most PSUs have high output 5 volts rails designed for a time when the CPU and memory drew power from that rail. Now they don't hence all the multiple 15 to 18 amp 12 volts rails on the hi output monsters now available. According to Ati Tool my ancient X1800 (different machine) draws 13.5 amps, all from one of the 12 volt rails. I've no idea how accurate that number is mind you.
 
Nothing wrong with that PSU with a sensible graphics card like you are suggesting. If you want to upgrade your GPU in the future then you will need to look at the situation again, but as is it really isn't too demanding.
 
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