Is 480W enough?

Well, I finally got all the parts together, and I was wondering if I should invest in a new PSU as well. Here's what I have:

Thermaltake Armor series case
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
AMD FX-53
Radeon X1900 XTX
(3) SATA HD
(2) IDE HD
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS with front bay
1GB Kingston HyperX RAM
DVD-ROM
DVD +RW/-RW

My current PSU is a TAGAN TG-480. If I needed to upgrade, I was looking at the Thermaltake W0101RU 550W PSU. I wouldn't have the $$ for a couple of weeks, so I'd have to run it with the old one for a little bit tho. Thanks in advance for your replies. Please also let me know if you think my current PSU is adequate.

oh you already bought all those components! For how much.

You could argue that 480 watts should be enough but I'd err on the safe side. With 5 HDs, 2 opticals, a sound card and a current-hungry video card, I'm guessing that your Tagan is living on borrowed time if it even is able to hack it now. What is the 12 volt current limit to your PS? If I remember right, Radeon recommends something like 28 or 30 amps of 12V for the X1900XT. With all of your components, I'd go with something like the FSP 700 watt PS or maybe the Xclio 750. Those both have four +12V rails and you could parcel out the load across those rails. Pricey, yes, but you've already got some bucks in your rig and backing them up with a solid PS is a good strategy.

I got a 750 Xclio from Newegg, then noticed it's no longer listed there. (That's a bit scary in itself). Not sure about how to tell which rail is which on the FSP. You could call Newegg tech support or look on FSPs web site and see if they have avenues for getting such questions answered. For example, I've also got an Enermax Liberty, which has two 12V rails. I wanted to know what connectors were on each rail, so I emailed their tech support and got an answer the next day.

To find the 12V current capability of your current PS, try the mfgr's web site and see if the specs are listed.

Tough call. If you can afford to upgrade, I'd go for it.

Welll look at my computer: 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

Thermaltake Shark Full Tower Case (Black), I replaced the back fan with an Antec 120mm smartcool fan (cool case)

AMD Athlon X2 4800+ processor with some thermal grease and Thermaltake heat sink with fan keeps the cpu at 21-28 C in idle and 31-35 C running 3D applications

1 Gb Corsair TwinX XMS (ram) (nice headspreaders)

Maxtor 200 Gb 8mb cache ATA 7200 RPM (hard drive)( i got ripped off on it)

Abit KN8 SLI motherboard (awesome mobo)

HIS X850XT with IceQ 2 cooling solution ( fan and heat sink, keeps the gpu at 30 C in idle (internet and basic applications), and 40 C running 3D applications

Hyundai L90D+ 19" 8ms gaming LCD

600 watt power supply (forgot the brand but it gives me enough juice to power everything for now)

Lite-On DL DVD-/+RW burner (superfast)

I got all this for $2000.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

Hit the nail on the head! That Tagan 480W should be more than enough to power this guys rig. The power draw difference between an X800XT and an X1900XT is not very significant and that is the only change in his rig that would have had a significant impact in pwer draw.