Small Form Factor Do I need a bigger psu?

Hello all, and happy new years first off!

I've recently got myself an asus v3 p5g33 barebones box and I was going to stick this lot in it;

• q6600 quadcore
• 4gb pc6400
• geforce 8800gt
• 1xsata dvdrw
• 1xsata hdd
• 1xfloppy
• wifi nic

My question is, do you think I'd need to upgrade the stock 300w power supply in order to feed all that kit? My gut says yes but I'd like to hear your suggestions.

 

I think you might get away with it, as long as the PSU is a good quality one.

You can use this calculator to get a good estimate, welcome to bit

 

*trundles off to play with the calculator thingy*

Recommended PSU Wattage: 303W


Ouuuh, thats a bit of a nut buster. I might get away with it as you said but I think I might be just as well investing in a new psu from the look of that. Am I correct in thinking that the only difference between a mATX psu and an ATX psu is that one is "deeper" than the other?

 

Funny, when I went to a e6300 and a x1900xt than I was told my Antec 550W true control isn;t good enough and I should get a newer/bigger unit. I didn't believe that and kept my PSU and all was fine... even with my recent 8800gt.

People get a little too out of whack about PSUs as IMO they have been bitten by trying to use a no-name 500W unit and it give them grief. The rating on the el cheapos is what they will put out before they melt nevermind what the power quality is like where as the rating on a good PSU is what it will put out before the voltage fluctuates a certain amount like say +-5% and even still they are usually very conservatively rated. You've got nothing to lose trying what you have, you're not going to wreck anything (hardware wise, data loss is still a possibility). If it's not big enough you'll end up with an unstable system, IF that happens, then get a bigger one. 300W does sound a little small but if it's rock solid then you might be pleasantly surprised and saved yourself some cabbage.

 

that psu calculator linked tends to give you a minimum value, and is not really to be trusted. the stock power supply is probably a bit dodgy, so that's not even a clean 300w you are getting there. you definitely want to upgrade.

i believe mATX power supplies are thinner as well as less deep, but you probably want to double check that.

 

Well in that case then is there a power supply out there that you suggest I get? this enermax 400w modular one seems to tickle my fancy but again, I'd like to here your suggestions.

 

Corsair hx520v Modular power supply is simply perfect.

 

The PSU calculator tends to be ridiculously inaccurate.

Enermax 400w modular also tends to be pretty terrible. Works fine for about a year, blows up right after your 1 year warranty is up. And, only 30a. Corsair HX 520 has more power than that, And it's not much more, And it's sexy.

 

Well I just chucked some gold at the corsair one seeing as I've not seen a bad thing said about it. All in all I cant wait for my new toys to arrive as soon as!

Thanks for everyones input

 

I agreed.

I suspect you may not be ok with existing 300watt and here's why...

The 8800GT is a card that can probably eats up 15-20A on the +12VDC during heavy load like gaming.

I doubt WATT is the issue here. It's about current - Ampere.

Did a quick bench for you with 2xPrime95, Lightsmark 2007 and APC Software:
One of my rig got 8HDD, 2x6600GT, AMD X2 6000+, 1DVD, 1 floooooppy. Idle-light load: 195-220W. CPU Max: 265W. CPU+heavy graphics: slightly over 300W. If i rip DVD and benched my HDDs, it will be way higher.

PSU tend to loose efficiency overtime. Generic PSU are the worst. If you can get it running now, over sometime, it may gradually become dry and cause reboot during heavy gaming.

get a good 500+ Watt PSU with strong +12DCV Amp.

I like the HX520 and HX620 from Corsair. It's circuitry is a bit 'different' with current load-balacing among rails.

Oh, i'm not fond of Corsair as a company.... too much PR & marketing spin. find myself in the mist of PR fog too often.

 

Thought I'd reply here rather than starting a new thread.

Basially Im in a similar situation however I have a better PSU than the original poster which is an Enermax 420W Noisetaker PSU rated at 29A on two rails bought about 3 years ago.

http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/cases/Enermax_Noisetaker_420w_1.html

I've just purchased the following :


Intel Core 2 Duo E6750

1 xBFG GeForce 8800GT OC 512MB

MSI motherboard P35 Neo2-FR LGA775 Intel P35 ATX

Geil Ultra DDR2 2.0GB PC6400 Dual Channel memory kit

Seagate 80GB Barracuda SATA II 300 7200rpm 8MB cache Hard Disk Drive

Also in the PC is :
Creative Xi-Fi Sound card
1 x DVDRW
4 x 80mm Fans
1 x Floppy Drive
1 x Card Reader

The PSU calculator tells me that all this will only utilise 295W even after overclocking the CPU which seems a little too optimistic. I know the general oppinion now is that you need at least 500W or more as stated in the above post however with such a bare system with only 1 hard drive and 1 DVDRW plus components will 420W with 29A be enough?

Thanks in Advance