owenhome
keeper of the magic blue smoke
Premium
join:2002-07-13
Bentonville, AR
| Re: Found this power supply calculator You don't need a power supply nearly as big as you think you do. Most of the power supplies on the market are total total junk. They claim 500, 600, 650 watts. But in reality, they are closer to 300 or even 200-250 regardless of what they claim or what's on the sticker. So to get enough juice for your machine, you have to buy these PSU's rated at 600 watts. What most people miss is that they are usually "peek" or "max" rated. Meaning they can put out that much power for about as long as a house fly takes to drop a steamer. Think about a car audio amplifier. A Legacy might say it has 1000 watts on it, but in reality, it's actually closer to 30. It might make 1000 watts for 1 tenhundredgagillionth of a second with a gun to its head, but that's about it.
Some of the PSU's on the market, like OCZ for example, rate their PSU's by what they can sustain. Like the 520 watt powerstream has a max of like 620 watts. There are a lot of really good power supplies on the market. But there's a reason why a good 500 watt power supply is over $100, and a POS 500 watt is $20.
Sure, a computer's current draw peaks at power up, but the actual constant load is far far far less than most people think, or would lead you to believe. Believe me, a 350 watt PSU that can actually deliver 350 watts, is waaaaaaaay more than adequate to power 99.99% of the computers out there regardless of their configuration. Sure something like an SLI/Crossfire configuration, or a machine with 72 hard drives might find this inadequate, but for any conventional PC, no matter what CPU is in it, will be more than satisfied with 350 watts. To be honest, it's not unusual to see a new machine actually use less than 100 watts of current wide open. 150-200 is closer to the norm. In fact, some of the Dell mini's had high-end P3's and ran more than fine on their 90 watt power supply!
Most of us will spend the money for a good power supply. One that makes what it claims. But I will guarantee you, a $12 500 watt power supply is going to make waaaaaaaay less power pegged to the friggin wall than a quality 300 watt power supply kicking along comfortably, regardless of what's on the sticker.
I will make no attempt to say Dell uses good power supplies. Frankly, they use crap. But, they are rated properly. That 375 watt power supply in the Dell probably puts out more juice than any $20 600 watt on the face of the earth. And thusly, would be far more than adequate. A true 375 watt power supply would run most any computer around, including most of yours. Unless, like I said, your a nut with 32 video cards in SLLLLLLLLLLI or 84 hard drives. Sure, there are lots of configurations when 375 wouldn't be enough. But for any basic machine, with just about any CPU, a "sane" video card, 1-3 hard drives, 2 opticals, and anything else a normal human being (not us) would run, it would be way more than needed.
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Never argue with a fool, people might not know the difference. |
