PS for E6600 Conroe, 2gb DDR2 ram and 7900GT ??

[Adon]

do not know much about power supplies except that I currently have an iCute 400watt power supply and I am upgrading to the Intel Conroe E6600, and a 7900GT with 2 gigs of OCZ DDR2 667mhz RAM... and 2 harddrives, 1 sata 1 not....
now like I said I do not know much about power supplies, but common sense tells me that higher the watts the better the Power Supply will is, but everywhere i look I keep readin all this noise about 12v rails and how important this 12v plug is.... so I know that the 12v is a 4 pin that plugs on the top of your motherboard somewhere by the CPU....
I just wanna know what specs should I look for in the 12v department ??
this is the Power Supply I have my eye on right now, ______ Cooler Master 600watt _________ its exactly what I want a 600watt PS for under $100....... can anyone tell me if the 12v on this is good enough, and also whatta hell the whole 12v thing really is? I read the FAQ stickied above, but i didnt find any useful info..
thanks in advance

 

[waylander]

Actually if you look at a psu label you will find listings for +12v, +5v and +3.3v as well as -12v which isn't as important.

The reason the +12v is so important is that it powers the cpu, mb, video cards, pci slots, hard drives and optical drives. The 24pin mb connector, 4 pin cpu connector, all the 4 pin molex and the 6 pin pci-e connecter run off the 12v line (the 24pin mb connector also has the 3.3v and 5v lines) Therefore the 12v line needs the most power. Power is the relationship between voltage and current for instance, if you have 18amps running on the 12v line you get 18amps x 12v = 216w. You want at least 24amps combined on the 12v rail, this will provide 288w which is enough to power everything you need (see note below). Based on specifications alone that psu you listed is ok but....

I don't personally have any experience with coolermaster psu's but they aren't really recognized as a top maker. If you want to spend around the $100 mark then get an Antec TPII for $90 or the modular version neohe for $120. It is only 550w not 600w but quality is better than quantity, 550w is more than sufficient unless you go sli.

 

[pengwin]

as waylander said. Smartpower 500w is budget friendly and will run most systems.


550w Truepower is a good choice for you. i believe it would beat the CM PSU