OT. Power Supply?

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DaveKDEN

Charter Member
Sorry for the OT post. How do you check the rating of your computers power supply? I'd like to know for future upgradability (for FS performance boosts of course :mixedsmi:).
 
650-Watt in the least for today's systems, preferably 750-Watt or higher. I think the administrators have opened a new DG for tech talk Dave. It's called the Toy Room.

Caz
 
All UL/CSA approved power supplies are supposed to have a label on them which will show the rated power, etc. Probably have to open the case, and MAY have to remove the PS to find it, but it should be there.
If it's a production line box ( like HP, Compaq, Dell) you should be able to find the PS rating on the manufacturer's website ( sometimes with a lot of digging)

Rob
 
i did see somewhere a way of figuring out what you need
here
i have a 350 watt ps
and its not enough
H
 
I had a 350 Watt PSU also and it was weak. I upgraded to 550 Watts and my board fried.... (Mobo).


So........ Be careful. Maybe have someone install it for you.


(Yes, I know.. I had all the wires in the right places.. It was also working, but fried on the 4th reboot...)



Bill
 
That sounds like either the motherboard was ready to fail or the PSU had serious problems out of the box. If it was a cheap/unknown brand of PSU, I'd suspect the PSU.
 
We already had this kind of thread a while back (an off-topic discussion in one of Harleyman's threads, I think). I also posted one or two links to PSU calculators in it.

Anyways, excessive wattage isn't necessary at all, as long as the quality of the PSU is right. You'll be amazed what you can run with a 400W PSU nowadays (e.g. my system).
 
yeah - my tech told me that the PSU needs to have enough wattage but that more importantly - it needs to be able to provide a constant rate of wattage. All PSU's are not created equal.

Also - the flow of electricity can be uneven or oscilate as it comes to your house and through your circuit breaker panel and this oscillation can wear out your PSU and all of the components of your rig very quickly - if there is a wild fluctuation - or a major surge naturally.

Just as critical as a good PSU is a good quality surge protector or better yet power conditioner that will filter out the highs and lows and provide the PSU with a constant, even current.

You can buy a relatively cheap meter at any hardware megastore that simply plugs into your wall outlet and will show you what I mean.
The ol' gas and electric co. must provide you with electricity for a fee, but there is no stipulation about its regulation or condition..
 
It's all about the amperage. I've a 375watt psu in my Dell XPS420 and it happily runs 3 hdd's, 2 optical drives and an 8800GTX card.
 
I replaced my Power supply a while back it was causing many problems. Hard to boot, CTD, etc. It was all due to not enough power and started happening after I went to a 22" DVI screen? I guess it was demanding more power from my Video card?

David :kilroy:
 
The bad thing about power supply are most of the time the cheaper one say they are putting out 750 watts but under a full load they are only putting out half that amount. A good power supply has adjustable bars so when it is under load if there is a drag you can increase the supply to meet the proper voltage when a larger than normal load in required. As we update the HD,Video card,processor and memory the load calls for more demand and a larger supply. A easy way to understand this is take like your kitchen. Most kitchens have a seperate line going to the refh. and maybe two more lines in the wall circuit. Then you add a microwave,toaster oven,blender. The oven is on a seperate circuit. Then the wife fuss because the kitchen is hot when she is cooking so you install a small window AC...now the circuit breaker or fuses start to blow....lol....there ain't one of these on a power supply...so guess what burns up.
 
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