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The following table is based on numbers that we’ve collected in our test lab. The power supply power requirements refer to the heat dissipation, which all power supply units struggle with. The better the PSU efficiency, the less power it will convert into heat. The motherboard requirement summarizes the requirements for all motherboard components such as Northbridge, Southbridge, additional controllers and voltage regulators, as well. Processor and memory power requirements depend directly on the motherboard, as the efficiency of voltage regulators has an impact as well. The table does not include dual graphics setups ; these would increase the requirements even more.
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Component
Best Case
Worst Case
Power Supply
5-15 W
40-60 W
Motherboard
10-15 W
30-50 W
Processor
12-30 W
60-120 W
RAM
5-15 W
30-50 W
Hard Drive
3-5 W (2.5")
10-15 W (3.5")
Graphics Card (single)
3-10 W (integrated)
25-180 W (PCI Express)
Total
38-90 W
195-475 W
Test Setup
We used a rather conventional Intel Core 2 system with a P965 motherboard from Gigabyte :
Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.
