probabaly a completely ill informed question BUT:-

[Bolerus]

looking to build a budget machine for a member of family, and been looking at OCs barebones systems.

BUT (and here is the question)

they all seem to come with 250W power supplies,

how can a 250W psu be even good enough to start a modern motherbaord, never mind run a system. surely 400w is minimum requisite for a modern day pc.

OR is this a new type of psu that produces more power than the rating somehow?

 

[Bolerus]

it wasnt actually a shuttle i was looking at, although I have always wondered about shuttles.

It was one of these :-

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-040-AS&groupid=701&catid=110&subcat=


yeah its a small case, and has on board graphics, but still, 250w seems incredibly low, once you have put in a hard drive and a dvd device

also, it has a pci-e slot so at it could potentially have a bigger g.card in there.

 

[Bolerus]

mm

thanks for that guys, opens up many trains of thought, I have always looked for a minimum of 400W even for budget machines.

I take it you would be talking 1 hard drive 1 cdrom, and thats about all?