What kind of power supply is in your PC?

[networkguy]

What kind of power supply is in your PC?

[networkguy]

Just bought a new 700W M12 Seasonic for my system, wonder what everyone else has?

NG

[Dr.Dan]

Through alot of time and research, I've found a very good yet inexpensive line that I've been using for awhile now... Sparkle Power (http://www.sparklepower.com/)

[IntelCore2]

Not sure what make my is but I have a 300 watt which is low by todays standards I know . I think you at least want a 400

[IntelCore2]

I also can not get over that they have a 1000 W now !

[Mischief007]

600W Thermaltake. Needed to get it to power my ATI 1900XTX in the new system.

[Swordfish]

Antec 450 watt nice and Quiet PSU :)

[sybil]

Just keep an eye on that Antec - I've seen 3 with bad caps. I've got a Zalman, and 3 Enermax's.

[Swordfish]

Just keep an eye on that Antec - I've seen 3 with bad caps. I've got a Zalman, and 3 Enermax's.

Thanks :) I'll keep an eye on it....so far no problems my next one I think will be an Enermax

[Tess]

Thermaltake Butterfly
480W

[Limey32]

Cheap Dynex 550 watt.. quiet and has given me zero problems in almost a year.

[Mindfield]

Thermaltake 600W modular. Works great, lots of connectors and you can get rid of the ones you don't need.

[Pedar]

Enermax 350 in my system, Antec 350 in wife's system

[Taz]

500W Generic, sure maybe I should know better but had it 2 yrs now and no problems

[al manarey]

Nothing fancy,,,a 350watt Antec PSU.

[smirnoff]

GameXStream 600 Watt gift from my better half.

[Steven]

Well, I use a laptop... Have a ZD8105 with a huge brick of a 180watt power supply made by HP. What exactly is making the bloody requirements of a desktop PC go over 500w? Other than the video card, what is getting so power hungry? New CPU's and memory take half of what my Pentium 2 did, and it ran fine off a 300 watt. Is it mostly the video card / multiple drives?

[Steven]

I should also mention I have a "Server" here running with an Athlon 64 2800, 1gb ECC memory, 2x 250gb 7200rpm drives, 2 DVD drives, floppy, gigbit ethernet, Radeon 9600se all running off a 350watt PSU. I couldn't see a video card needing 300 watts all to itself.

[Deb]

Raidmax RX-630 Volcano (http://www.raidmax.com/Products/performancePSU/volcano/volcano.html)

[networkguy]

Nice Deb, never heard of raidmax but it looks very similar to my Seasonic M12

Can you post your system specs so we can all see what you use?

NG

[IntelCore2]

Networkguy! Her system specs will make us all weep lol !

[Dan]

500W Ultra. Modular :)

[Nic]

SilenX.

[Aristera]

Not sure what make I have, nothing fancy. My case came with a 400 but that blew a few months ago and I replaced it with a 450

[networkguy]

Well, I use a laptop... Have a ZD8105 with a huge brick of a 180watt power supply made by HP. What exactly is making the bloody requirements of a desktop PC go over 500w? Other than the video card, what is getting so power hungry? New CPU's and memory take half of what my Pentium 2 did, and it ran fine off a 300 watt. Is it mostly the video card / multiple drives?

There are several reasons for getting a more powerful power supply. Many people these days, gamers mostly, perfer to use two high end video cards, in the Nvidia world this is called SLI, in the ATI world its referred to as crossfire. Two high end video cards require a power supply that supports either of these configurations, both of which will require a lot of power by themselves. A lot of people also like to overclock there system components, cpu, memory or video card. Overclocking puts stress on each of these components and also demands more voltage and power which requires a stable power supply. So if you spec your system out properly with say a 400 or 500W power supply and then decide you want to become a hardcore gamer and drop a couple 8800GTX's or Radeon 1950XT video cards into your system, you may find you need a couple hundred more watts of power or a power supply the supports this and if you want to do some overclocking, you'll need even more power. These are reasons why people get power supplies with so much available power. And as components like video cards get more powerful, so too will their demand for power which will mean even larger power supplies.

One thing I have found through past experience and recent research is that a good solid power supply can mean the difference between a stable system with a good life span capable of running 24x7 and a system with inherent problems, instability and unreliability. I would strongly urge anyone with a generic power supply in a non brand name computer (so NOT a Dell, HP, Compaq or Gateway etc) to think about buying a brand name power supply, any of the ones listed in this thread are good, but ask someone you know who knows a lot about computers, don't just take my word for it, what they think a good brand name is. Good clean power flowing to your components is very very important.

NG

[Aristera]

Don't forget about all the extra fans we need to run. Used to be the only fan was the one on the power suply. Now ther are fans on the CPU, video card, soundcard, front, back side and everywhere else in a case. USB and firewire also power devices like mice, flashdrives, lights and your George Forman USB powered IGrill. Add some neon lights to your case as well, add a radio to one of the 5 1/4 bays and maybe a cigaret lighter too.

[networkguy]

Good point Aristera, I forgot about case fans, however I don't think they really draw that much power to consider, at most I'd say we'd be talking about 50W for three or four case fans, but its still a good point and I'm glad you mentioned it.

NG

[DazedNConfuzed]

Antec 450 watt nice and Quiet PSU :)

likewise.

[AMD]

Due to the new energy efficient processors, power supply requirements have actually declined for the first time - ever. This is a good thing; the average new system with a mid-range video card can use a 350W (good quality, of course) powersupply with no issues. PSU efficiency has also increased; a lot of the more expensive models are now 80%+ efficient. (compared to 60-70%)

I hope that video cards follow suit.

[smirnoff]

Unfortunaly this has had little effects on other hardware.

More then ever people have more harddrives,burners,videocards extra.

We can only hope that things do go down or the requirements for power for most wont be in the 350 area.

[AMD]

There's no need for multiple drives and video cards, given the performance of high end hardware.

A single Gf 7800 (or whatever the fastest video card is) is more than sufficient for most people. Same goes for 250Gb+ hard drives. Dual-everything is not the way to go.

[smirnoff]

There's no need for multiple drives and video cards, given the performance of high end hardware.

A single Gf 7800 (or whatever the fastest video card is) is more than sufficient for most people. Same goes for 250Gb+ hard drives. Dual-everything is not the way to go.

For the average user i whole hardly agree.

For some of us more cpu power and harddrive space are a must for work or otherwise.

[Mischief007]

Or we don't want one HUGE drive but smaller physical drives, just in case ;).

[Mouse]

Given the scope of the market, let's not all go banana's over bigger and bigger power supplies. Think Green.

Get what you need, not what will sound impressive.

[networkguy]

Since when are consumers anywhere close to reality in terms of what they need? We always want more, bigger, louder etc. I know what your saying, we should want the opposite, but we are inundated by the media to want bigger, better newer stuff all the time. I buy used electronics all the time because I believe in recycling them, there is no need to have the latest and the greatest, although its nice sometimes to spoil yourself. I think the big companies have to start with the attitude shift first, there are simply too many of us consumers, millions would have to change our habits before the companies started to take notice.

NG

[AMD]

Given the scope of the market, let's not all go banana's over bigger and bigger power supplies. Think Green.

Get what you need, not what will sound impressive.

The power supply's job is to convert 120v alternating current from the wall outlet into direct current in three different voltages: 12v, 5v, and 3.3v. (basically into power that computers can use)

The amount of energy consumed is determined by the loads (Hardware. Ex: hard drives, video cards), not the wattage rating. The wattage rating is only the absolute maximum capacity of a given powersupply under ideal conditions.

In other words, replacing a 300W unit with a 600W model will not double energy consumption. (A common misconception)

That's not to say that conversion efficiency is not altered by oversizing or undersizing Powersupplies.

[glitch]

Right now I have a Powerman 300w which is really made by Fortron.
I'm building a new system now and I'm waiting for my new OCZ 700Watt GameXtream which is also has Fortron guts.

[Shinma]

Antec and Fortron/Sparkle...