How much power do we need?

[TheBobGoat]

I was just wondering if there is a good place to see how much power is required for different setups?

500, 650, 750 watts??

I think someone here had a place where you could input each component and get a total power requirement.

Thanks!

[Yellowhello]

BAM! I'd add ~100W on top of that though for future upgrades, etc.

[polobunny]

Unless under SLI, watercooling or TEC cooling, most computer will necessitate 500W of power and under. So a 650-700W quality power supply is more than enough.

[azianai]

i run my rig with a 520W

[Quakindude]

I've run my rig on a quality 550W. But went with the nice 700W for when I get the occasional wild hair and set my 4-disk RAID array up along with some other goodies. Trying to work a deal for a couple of 9600GT's right now too.

[TheBobGoat]

Thanks everyone - I think I will look around 600-650 watts. That calculator had me at around 400.

Crazy how much power those video cards take!

[screwballl]

I have a 620W although my whole system pulls around 100W from the outlet according to the Kill-a-watt. My other systems pull 125-250W

[MontanaFX]

Opps! I think I went a little over-board with my new Antec Quattro 1000w.

Just to add, most modern GPU manufacturers recommend having a 600w PSU (non SLI)

[gvblake22]

Even the highest-end systems with two or three GPUs and quad core processors don't pull more than 400 watts from the wall. I've measured my system and it never even broke 200 watts under full load. A PSU in the 500W range is usually more than enough for the average user, most people could probably get away with a good 400W or 450W unit of reliable quality. It's just tricky because the major power draw in the system is all from the 12V rail, so you need to find a PSU with beefy enough 12V rails to sustain it. That's why you usually have to go higher than your actual power draw because a lot of it is just from the 12V rail and it needs to be powerful enough to handle it.

My Corsair VX550 has a single 12V rail rated at 41Amps and is capable of delivering a maximum of 492 watts; that's just the 12V rail alone! So as you can see, power supplies are really getting out of hand, all that power is usually not needed at all.

Here is an interesting experiment worth reading about...

[MontanaFX]

Nice link :Thumbsup:

In light of this new evidence brought before me *In a judges voice* I am going to cancel my order for the 1000w PSU and downgrade to a 850w version, which will save me £20-30 which will go towards my DD Water Box.

Thats 1 advantage of getting free 5 working day delivery. You can cancel your order if you change your mind, with out wasting money.


Damn, I love this site.