Power Supply Woes

[renny]

Hello guys, New to the forums and just have a question about if my power supply is going to be enough to power my system.

MB - Gigabyte EX-DS5
RAM - AData Extreme Edition 2x2GB 1066 DDR2
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz
HDDs - 2x Samsung 320Gb Sata2
Drives - 1x DVD Dual Layer Writer
Fans - 1x250mm LED Case Fan, 2x 120mm LED Case Fan, 2x 120mm Case Fan.
GFX - Gigabyte 8800GT /w Zalman Fan
PSU - Enermax Liberty 500w Dual Rail 22A (32A Combined)

Just wondering if this power supply is enough for the system, It will only be used for gaming, and i might want to add another hard drive and will likely overclock the CPU to 3.6 GHz and possibly overclock the 8800GT a little, Second PCI-E slot will not be used, and if its enough will it still be enough for years to come with capacitor aging.

Using the eXtreme Power Calculator it seems like the system would only use around 400-450 with 15% capacitor aging but they only rate the GT8800 as using 89Watts when a few reviews i read said it was using up to 170Watts.

My tech friend suggested this power supply but dont want to get it built and find out the power supply is too small and have to wait on a replacement.

Thanks in advance

Renny.

 

[akhilles]

If there's one thing true about computers, that's overestimated power needs. Starting from the cpu which idles and waits for the user's commands most of the time. This calculator is quite accurate:

http://web.aanet.com.au/SnooP/psucalc.php

You need to read the whole article to determine the load wattage of a gpu. Many of them includes the whole system.

The psu you picked out will be more than plenty for this build. Your friend either has experience or is an electrician/technician.

 

[evongugg]

Take the acutual power consumption in Watts on the box for the motherboard, CPU, Hard disks, optical drive and Graphics card. Add it up and divide it by 12 volts. That will give you the amps. To that you need to add a safety margin of 15%. Then compare the figure you come up with with the rating of the power supply on the 12v rails.