only problem is I am just building my new comp and I don't know much about volts/watts/amps and how much every thing takes.
My computer will be made of these parts
Coolermaster Stacker 8400 case
Wolfdale E8400 Intell CPU
Gigabyte P35 DS3L board
4 gigs of ram
512 MB EVGA 8800 GT card
22" 2 ms samsung monitor,
probably 2 HDD and 2 burner drives.
plus the 2 case fans and cpu cooler.
this sounds like a pretty regular build except for the cpu cooler, should i just upgrade to a 610 or 620 W or will the 540 do fine? thanks a lot for the help.
Main thing to look at on a PSU is how many 12+ rails your PSU, and how many amps each one puts out. The more the merrier. That said, alot of guys on here seem to like those Corsair PSU's so I think you would be good there.
In all actuality, that PSU you showed might even be overkill.
Message edited by ohiou_grad_06 on 02-08-2008 at 07:06:14 AM
On the original question of "how much power" - the most important thing is not the total wattage of the PSU (i.e., 600W, 500W, 400W), but the power on the 12V rails. There are (good) 400W PSUs which have as much max A on the 12V as a (bad) 500W PSU.
So, stay away from "no-name" PSUs, no matter the watts, and get a review of whichever PSU you buy.
For a non-SLI/Crossfire PC, 500W (in a normal quality PSU) should be more than enough, maybe even 450W or 400W is the 12Vs are excellent. Heck, some people report success with 350W PSUs even in a modern quadcore + 8800GT setup.
Another important thing (for me) is to check that the PSU has >= 80% efficiency at every load, and the noise. My current favourite for a machine similar to yours is the Silverstone ST50EF, because it seems to be very quiet and rock solid in the energy department. If there was a 450W version of that PSU, I'd take that. There is a 400W one, which may or may not work as well, but I want to keep it a long time (non-SLI), so why not go for a bit of reserve (it is >= 80% in all loads).
