chosing a power supply

[Jedd de Lucia]

I am building my first system and I was wondering if
anyone had any recomendations as to which powersupply i
should get and how to tell them apart.

I'll be running a pretty basic system doing grafics, a
little video, CAD (mostly 2d) and minimal gaming.

It will have a CD RW, DVD Rom, modem, network card AGP 8x
128, on an abit is7 mb w/ a p4.2.4ghz 8oomhz fsb. Do I
need a 400wat ps?

[Jim Macklin]

Add up all the power required numbers to start up your
system. The hard drive requires more power to start than it
does to run, motors are like that. Don't ask me why or I'll
tell you.

You can spend a lot of time calculating every load you may
have on day one with your new computer, but after a year,
you may have added a second hard drive, a DVD+RW, more RAM,
a couple of PCI cards and a bigger AGP video card...get the
big PS, it will only use as much power as the system
actually needs and it will run cooler.

Good practice is to run on 80% of the maximum starting
(surge load), the difference in price between 150 W and 400
W is very little.


"Jedd de Lucia" > wrote in message
...
| I am building my first system and I was wondering if
| anyone had any recomendations as to which powersupply i
| should get and how to tell them apart.
|
| I'll be running a pretty basic system doing grafics, a
| little video, CAD (mostly 2d) and minimal gaming.
|
| It will have a CD RW, DVD Rom, modem, network card AGP 8x
| 128, on an abit is7 mb w/ a p4.2.4ghz 8oomhz fsb. Do I
| need a 400wat ps?

[Pete Baker]

Hi

Judging by what you're describing it's unlikely you'll need anything higher
than a 300-350W... but it's a very subjective judgement, dependent entirely
on what exact hardware you're running on your system.

More important for your described usage will be RAM - as much high quality
RAM as you can afford, the type of graphics card you choose to install and
the hard-drive you use (and what partitioning you set up). You may need to
do some more research on the best cards for 2D graphics work (as opposed to
gaming), as well as the other issues, to get the best result for that.

Hope that helps
Pete
-------------------

"Jedd de Lucia" > wrote in message
...
> I am building my first system and I was wondering if
> anyone had any recomendations as to which powersupply i
> should get and how to tell them apart.
>
> I'll be running a pretty basic system doing grafics, a
> little video, CAD (mostly 2d) and minimal gaming.
>
> It will have a CD RW, DVD Rom, modem, network card AGP 8x
> 128, on an abit is7 mb w/ a p4.2.4ghz 8oomhz fsb. Do I
> need a 400wat ps?

[Jim]

Antec TruePower line, anything 400W and up, beautiful units, long leads,
lots of 'em, wrapped cables, HEAVY (good rule-of-thumb, the heavier the
better quality), intake + outtake fans, quiet, love 'em. Enermax is of the
same quality and construction too, its really a toss-up. Whatever you do,
don't skimp on the PSU! It's the most common mistake I see, people buying
getting $35-50 case+psu deals, made possible by crap PSUs. Then when all
the weird stuff starts happening on their PC, they're stumped.

You could spend a lot of time researching it, but frankly, for my money, I
would recommend PSUs in the following order: 1) Antec TruePower Line (
http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_powerSupply.html ), 2) Enermax, or 3) PC Power
and Cooling. I say, get as much as you can afford, it will outlast several
upgrades. I have the Antec TruePower 430W (
http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details_powerSupply.php?ProdID=20430 ), it came
w/ my Antec PLUSVIEW1000AMG (
http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details_enclosure.php?ProdID=90510 ), plenty
for me, but had I decided to buy separately, would have gone w/ 480W or
better. The TP 430W is about $80-100, depending on whether you can dig out
a sale. In fact, I got my Antec PLUSVIEW1000AMG for $100 at Fry's a few
months ago, so that was an especially good deal. Something like the TP 480W
will run $130 and up. But I do think the TP 430W is a nice balance between
quality, performance, and price. Btw, that TP 430W is rated for > 9 yrs.
MTBF @ 25C!, compare that to the cheapo units, you'd be lucky to get 5-6
yrs. But if you have the bucks to spend, go for the 480W'ers and more!

Btw, one of things I always do when comparing PSUs, esp. case+psu deals, I
take a look at the amps on the 3.3v rail, anything less than 28amps, forget
it. That and the weight are quick-n-dirty signs of a cheap vs. quality
unit. It's those 12, 16, and 20amp on the 3.3v rail PSUs that cause all
those memory problems (remember, the RAM runs over 3.3v rail)!

JMTC

Jim



"Jedd de Lucia" > wrote in message
...
> I am building my first system and I was wondering if
> anyone had any recomendations as to which powersupply i
> should get and how to tell them apart.
>
> I'll be running a pretty basic system doing grafics, a
> little video, CAD (mostly 2d) and minimal gaming.
>
> It will have a CD RW, DVD Rom, modem, network card AGP 8x
> 128, on an abit is7 mb w/ a p4.2.4ghz 8oomhz fsb. Do I
> need a 400wat ps?

[Amethyst]

Jim wrote:
> Antec TruePower line, anything 400W and up, beautiful units, long
> leads, lots of 'em, wrapped cables, HEAVY (good rule-of-thumb, the
> heavier the better quality), intake + outtake fans, quiet, love 'em.
> Enermax is of the same quality and construction too, its really a
> toss-up. Whatever you do, don't skimp on the PSU! It's the most
> common mistake I see, people buying getting $35-50 case+psu deals,
> made possible by crap PSUs. Then when all the weird stuff starts
> happening on their PC, they're stumped.
>
> You could spend a lot of time researching it, but frankly, for my
> money, I would recommend PSUs in the following order: 1) Antec
> TruePower Line ( http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_powerSupply.html ), 2)
> Enermax, or 3) PC Power and Cooling. I say, get as much as you can
> afford, it will outlast several upgrades. I have the Antec TruePower
> 430W (
> http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details_powerSupply.php?ProdID=20430 ),
> it came w/ my Antec PLUSVIEW1000AMG (
> http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details_enclosure.php?ProdID=90510 ),
> plenty for me, but had I decided to buy separately, would have gone
> w/ 480W or better. The TP 430W is about $80-100, depending on
> whether you can dig out a sale. In fact, I got my Antec
> PLUSVIEW1000AMG for $100 at Fry's a few months ago, so that was an
> especially good deal. Something like the TP 480W will run $130 and
> up. But I do think the TP 430W is a nice balance between quality,
> performance, and price. Btw, that TP 430W is rated for > 9 yrs. MTBF
> @ 25C!, compare that to the cheapo units, you'd be lucky to get 5-6
> yrs. But if you have the bucks to spend, go for the 480W'ers and
> more!
>
> Btw, one of things I always do when comparing PSUs, esp. case+psu
> deals, I take a look at the amps on the 3.3v rail, anything less than
> 28amps, forget it. That and the weight are quick-n-dirty signs of a
> cheap vs. quality unit. It's those 12, 16, and 20amp on the 3.3v
> rail PSUs that cause all those memory problems (remember, the RAM
> runs over 3.3v rail)!
>
> JMTC
>
> Jim

Never was a truer word spoken - you took the words right out of my mouth,
Jim.