Power Crazy?

[mattburklund]

Ok, Quick question. I see all the recommendations for 400watt+ power supplies, and all I can do is ask myself why?
I see the specs of many other posters, and I say to myself: "I have a system that some what resembles that, and I have a cheap, came with the case, 250 watt psu and I have never had a problem, so why would I need 150+ watt's more than what I have now?"
Are you guys all power happy, because its cool?
I have:
asus cusl2 800@904
512ram
1 maxtor 7200 80gig
1 maxtor 7200 40gig
sound blaster audigy
16xdvd
plextor cdrw
2 lan cards
1 56k modem
1 usb2 5port pci card
1 4port usb1 card
gforce2 agp
1 floppy
1 golden orb cpu fan
+ all the other stuff like scanner, printer etc and another usb hub
I play jedi knight 2 for hours and never a glitch,
and I have my video card oc.

Can someone tell me why if I upgraded to a p4 and just added a nicer vc, why would I nead another 150 watts+, by a "high quality builder"? In light of my current situation does not a 430+ seem like a little overkill?
I am sure there is a logical explanation to this that's why I am asking. Thanks (and I know a gf4ti4600 will not use another 150 watts)

Keep in mind when we get to .13 micron the power need goes down: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=4773

I am slowly building a p4 and I am about to buy a power supply, can you give me some feedback as to why a p4 would use that much more power than my p3?


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mattburklund on 08/03/02 05:12 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Scotty35]

I had a 250watt generic PSU work quite well with an AMD Tbird slightly overclocked, 6 case fans, one optical drive, three hard drives and a GF2. It worked fine until I started doing heavy apps etc then it showed, bigger can be an overkill and if you wanted too you could calculate the exact requirements for your system. With the prices of PSU's it is not a big financial outlay just to grab a quality large one and be done with it, well who knows you might just want to raid 4 x WD1200JB's one day, a larger PSU is just one less component to worry about!

Yes we are power hungry, aren’t we all? This why most of us are here!


<A HREF="http://www.commonwealthgames.com" target="_new"> Its all Gold for Australia</A>. Manchester games.

 

[upec]

That is for people who actually want to keep using their PSU in the future. CPUs and GPUs using more power even the size of transister decreses because CPUs and GPUs are containing more transisters and running at higher speed.

 

[mattburklund]

Yes we are Power Hungry! but more power cost more money and if its power that is and never will be used, it's a waste of money. I will do atleast a antec truepower 330w =$39bucks, but I need to know if that will be more than enough in a p4 with all the goodies. Those 430's are nice but there also 80, and I am buying two psu, so the impact is greater(they are not for me).

Good response

Thanks,

 

[mattburklund]

Show me the facts, all that I have read say's "smaller die, less power", can you prove this other wise? and if you can, can you justify a 450watter? I know it's wise to have a little extra power for cushion, but close to 2x?

You said:
"That is for people who actually want to keep using their PSU in the future"
How much in the future are you planning on using that thing? the p5's, somehow I think that by the time that happens you will nead a new power supply anyway because the form factor or the adapter to mother board will be different. But the main thing is this: If you are going to keep swapping your psu to your next comp then you have to get another one for your old comp or just trash it, that arguement does not seem to make logical sense, besides that this tech too will change and if your building a new comp get a new psu.
I could understand getting a 450 if you had a large raid, but even then your not going to be running everything in your comp at the same time.
My question still stands. Can you or anyone show me the facts on why you need a 450+ or even a 400, if your not doing a raid?
Thanks

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mattburklund on 08/04/02 05:18 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Scotty35]

Ok, fair enough. 330w would just about see you right until you started upgrading a card here, adding drive there and squeezing more out of an over-clocked component, all this saps power. Next thing you know you have instabilities, BSOD, and random lockups. So keep that in mind when you think you are saving money now, which will be lost later when you are forced to buy a bigger PSU and the current one is good only to run a fish tank. Not to mention the hair pulling and headaches from wondering what the..... is going on with my system!
Ultimately it is your decision, I would recommend a little bigger than 330W and that is my opinion. Look at a 350W Enermax minimum.

But if you can afford a P4 you can afford a decent power supply, thats my 2 cents worth.

Crashman knows the power requirements for a Pentium system better than me, with some luck he might make a mention.


Good luck!


<A HREF="http://www.furrysound.net/phpBB/index.php" target="_new">http://www.furrysound.net/phpBB/index.php</A>.

 

[upec]

The main reason for CPU and GPU company to improve their manufacturing ability is to produce more powerful chip then to reduce energy. Every 6 to 9 month nVidia and ATI come out with new GPU and even the transister gets smaller but GPU use more energy because GPU use more transisters. Small die and less power will only have a very short term effect.

From your system spec I can tell that you do not upgrade your system often. To you future is the next generation of CPU from Intel but to me future is all the components that is coming out. I upgrade my system fairly often so I prefer to just get a good high wattage PSU than worry about it everytime I add or upgrade my computer component.

Do you have anything against RAID? Why people should not buy a high Wattage PSU for RAID setup?

 

[camieabz]

Usually 20-40W less than an AMD system, depending on the CPUs in question.

<b><font color=blue>~ BIOS SETTINGS: Fast, Hot, Unstable...That ought to work. ~</font color=blue></b>

 

[Scotty35]

Thankyou,
I was not completely sure.

<A HREF="http://www.furrysound.net/phpBB/index.php" target="_new">http://www.furrysound.net/phpBB/index.php</A>. The inner circle!

 

[mattburklund]

Ok, I see and No, I don't have anything against raid at all, I can understand why you would need a big power supply if you had a large raid setup.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mattburklund on 08/04/02 05:14 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[cakecake]

I'd say 235W is enough for most systems... the real reason for high output PSU's is stability.

1° of separation between my monopoly and yours. That's business with .NET

 

[mattburklund]

Now that makes sense, Thanks.