Is 380watts enough for this build?

veezee

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I was wondering if a ANTEC EARTHWATTS 380WATTS would be sufficient for this setup?

cpu - intel allendale E2160 1.8ghz ( will be overclocking this to 3ghz )
mobo - GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
memory - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
vid card - MSI NX8600GT-T2D256E OC GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supportedl
hdd - 320gb Western digital
 

FrozenGpu

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Yes 210 watts is ~ what your system needs, add a few more if u add fans, extra DVD+RW's etc etc, but yeah the antec 380 earthwatts is a good place to start.
 

jbj190

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Unless you're planning to upgrade the CPU or GPU anytime soon, stick with the 380w. Starchbrother doesn't know what he's talking about.
 

psymanproductions

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380w is plenty... ive got a hd3850 wd320 AAAKS hard drive and 2.8ghz dual core athlon so pretty similar specs and power requirements. the psu fan never spins up above 600 ~ 700rpm and is rated for 1600rpm so im not really pushing it (yes i have rpm monitoring on my psu) its a seasonic s12-380 incase u were wondering
 

psymanproductions

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Starchbrother has no clue... your system will be fine with 250w.... maybe a bit less!

380w is a nice amount for your system, it will keep the psu running in its most efficient range a lot of the time and there is a nice bit of headroom for upgrades or just for that extra peice of mind.

if you buy a 500w psu like Starchbrother said then your system will probably be less efficient, more noisy and more expensive.

unless you know you will be upgrading to sli/crossfire and a quad core cpu very soon there is no need for a 500w psu...

like is said 250w should run your current set up with out problems and 380w is plenty
 
Well since i can run a e6600 + X1900XT(this sucker takes as much power as a 8800GTS 640, so that covers you overclocking) + 2gigs of ram on a 380 with room to spare, yeah, you are good

My system, see specs takes about 330-350 at full load folding with games. i can get it higher with burning and ati tool + defrag to drives at once.

Since your psu(antec's current line is made by seasonic) is made by Seasonic its power characteristics will be similar to those of the s12 mentioned above. And also as said keeping a psu at about 50-60 percent load does lead to maximum power efficiency and less wasted power...
 

happy_fanboy

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A 250 will not run that. sorry. Even if you could still buy a 250 it would not likely have a +12v 4 pin plug which that system will require.
Also, a larger power supply will not cause your system to use more power, the system will only draw what it needs.
Getting a larger power supply than you need is a good idea, because you will not stress the unit by loading it to its limits. Having wattage overhead will also let the PSU run at a lower temperature.
Fans, HDD's, and Optical drives really take virtually no power. A modern HDD uses about 8 watts, optical drices and fans use even less.
Your 380 should run the system ok without an overclock, but a good 500 would by no means be overkill.

 
Read up a little before posting stuff please happy_fanboy

Every power supply wastes a certain amount of power. This amount is based on the power supply efficiency. Power supply efficiency changes with load ALL transformers reach there highest efficiency(least power wasted) at about 100-110% load. Computer power supplies run transformers much higher(up to 200 percent of that they could without the fan) than this with the aid of a fan(so passive psus reach max efficiency in the 90-100% load). so a 1000 watt psu thats 60% efficient at 260-300 watts will take more power then a psu thats 80% efficient at 260-300. the point is a bigger psu CAN use more power due to waste...

260 + 40%(yes thats 40 percent of the power wasted in heat, or more the point 40 percent more power then the pc it self uses...) = 364 watts at the wall
260 + 20%(20% waste typical of the earthwatts units) = 312 watts at the wall.

52 watts does not sound like allot. but thats 50 watts of heat that the psu has to pump into your room and 1.2 KW/H you add to your power bill every 24 hours the system is on....

Since the Pentium dual cores use less power due to less cache i do not see 3.0 being a massive power drain.

- CPU @ 3.0 on stock volts 108 watts(Extreme psu calc) this is WAY over since a E2160 does NOT use 64(after all a e6600 is supposed to) watts at stock(but the PSU calc uses that as the base). The over clock should add about 40 watts to what ever it already takes. my estimate 80-90 watts max
- Hard drive 12-15 watts(more accurate of modern drives)
- Video card 30 watts
- Fans about 4 watts for a fairly powerful 120mm unit
- Board 20-45 watts in most cases

So
108 - CPU
24 - 2 hard drives
12 - DVD(wild ass guess)
30 - video
12 - 3 fans
45 - Board with all the goodies
----
231 add 20(wild ass guess) or so for ram

Note that would be a max power situation. most machines do not reach that even when gaming(unless you defrag burn and so on) and what not....

Links

Tomshardware.com - $89 Pentium Dual Core that Runs at 3.2 GHz - Shows even lower power even with a 8800GTS 320(like i say the cpu is over estimated by a fair bit) - See the bottom of the page
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/09/12/pentium_dual_core/page10.html#power_requirements

Seagate hard drive specs- for average power
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_10.pdf

Adda high speed fan for fan power
http://www.techaddicts.net/reviews/trio650w/trio6516.jpg

The Truth About Graphics Power Requirements V2 - for video card power use
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354

SPCR - AC power draw on older less efficient psu and newer 80+(earthwatts) psu - this is just an example....you will also see that the efficiency is at its best about 50-60 percent of full load....
220 watts from the wall to make 150 watts on at 68 percent efficient
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article61-page2.html

186 watts from the wall to make 150 watts on at 81 percent efficient. despite being a 430 it has similar properties to a EA380
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article684-page4.html

Corsair - an image with typical curve of efficiency(a little over done showing such high efficiency, but it does show the right curve...)
clipboard08zi7.gif
 

psymanproductions

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no doubt its a good psu but not for your system... go for something around 250 ~400w... it will give you higher efficiency, lower cost and still enough headroom for safety and upgrades.

550w is OVERKILL unless you plan to get dual graphics card and an overclocked quadcore in the nar future... trust me

nuke master knows what hes talking about.. and hes clearly backed up what i said earlier that you could have this system running off 250w or maybe less, if you want to waste money and energy its up to you... i just hate to see people buying in to the hype that psu manufacturers use to make ppl such as you buy a more expensive model than they need
 

homerdog

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I would highly recommend spending a little more and getting an HD3850. It'll be a helluva lot faster than any 8600.

You could also drop down to the VX450 to save a few $. The VX550 is great, but it's a little more than you need.
Best of luck on your build :hello:
 

psymanproductions

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well 250w will run it. countless reviews at spcr will back that up as will nukemaster's very informed post

generally a larger psu will waste more power at the kind of loads a system like that will draw... look at nukemasters graph. it clearly shows what i am trying to say, psus have a band of high eficiency near mid load so if you run a system tht consumes 70w idle on a 500w psu you will generally waste more energy as heat at psu than with a model designed to put out 250w.

there is no way he will stress his 380w psu to its limits with his current system, no amount of overclocking will achieve that unless hes going for something ridiculous like 4.5ghz

so happy fanboy, please dont post unless you know what your talking about lol..



 

psymanproductions

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ye i agree, the card uve chosen wont run many new games well... never mind in a years time... at the very least go for a hd3850 but if money allows go for hd3870 or 8800gt, the new 9600gt s look nice too but i havnt done much research into them
 

jamesl

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the 9600gt is available for about $70 more than the 8600gt.
now if you don't have $70, well, you don't have have $70, but if you can get the 70, then yeah, definitely go for it
the 9600gt beats the 8800gt and and the radeon hd 3850 with AA enabled

with Obilvion, you'd go from about 20 frames per second with the 8600gt to about 75 fps with the 9600gt

since the 3850 is out preformed by the 9600, its supposedly going to drop $20-$25 in price to make it more attractive, making it an extremely good buy at $155
so if you can wait 3-4 weeks just to see how things work out, you may end up getting a huge preformance increase for just $50-$70 more

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/21/nvidia_geforce_9600_gt/page15.html
 

happy_fanboy

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Im not going to get into a flame war with you guys, but the claim that its possible to run the OP's system with a 250 is asinine. Theres no possible way it would work.

If you can find a 250W power supply, it will generally be of very old design and likely have less than 10A on its single 12V rail, but probably more like 8A or so. OP's system might post if it had onboard video but I doubt even that. Modern newer small form factor PSU's may be an exception to this since they may have more 12V available, but this would not likely be what you would have in your closet from your last build.

The power supply calculator tools are worthess because they do not factor in how many amps your components need on the separate rails nor do they indicate how many amps to look for on the PSU.

Efficiency of a sytems evergy use is a lot more complicated than a chart with one line on it.

Look in your motherboard manual if you want it to tell you that 250 is not enough, I'll bet it says so right in there.
 

cjp3

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Aye, 250W would be exaggerated low. 350W would be possible (if the A are distributed in an OK way), and 380W should be worth at least a try.

Plenty of success stories for 350W PSUs in similar rigs around.
 

zenmaster

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Just admit you are wrong!!!!
You Told the OP that the 380 Antec EarthWatts was not enough.
That is a Good PSU.
You told the OP to get a more Powerful PSU to run that system.
You told the OP if he OC'd he would need alot more Power.
Wrong. The E2160 does not use huge amounts of power even at 3.2 to 3.4 Ghz.

Nobody here is talking about a 4-year old 250w PSU.
They are talking about the power the Antec 380w would be required to provide.
In addition, the EarthWatts are very good quality PSUs.

Stop Spreading disinformation to the harm of posters to try and backup your incorrect statements.
 

250w would work, he's talking about using an 8600GT.
Here's a 250w with an 8800GT
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=534311

And for those that think the 380 is light
http://www.overclockers.com/articles1452/


 

jamesl

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nobody was suggesting that he buy a 250 watt power supply
they were saying that his current system doesn't use more than 250 watts so the 380 watt power supply would be sufficient

 

happy_fanboy

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I never said the 380 wouldnt be enough, it has a good 12V output.

I posted what I posted because somebody said he could use a 250W PSU and that is a very bad idea.
 

FrozenGpu

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lol the Op was referencing a very good PSU the famous 380watt Antec earthwatts PSU, which I said is more than enough, then I said by using a couple PSU calculators his system uses 210 watts then SOMEBODY else said use a 250 which is just plain dumb as there are very few consumer PSU's that are 250 and have greater than 80% effeciency, but the 380 watt he mentioned first was perfect...