Need to know if power supply will be sufficient for computer in the works.

Coldbrand

Here are the stats I'm looking at:

CASE: ($20 off Mail-in Rebate) RaidMax Smilodon Med-Tower 420W Case w/ Side-Panel Window
CPU: (Socket AM2) AMD Athlon™64 X2 6000+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD : (Socket AM2)MSI K9N4 SLI-F nForce 500 SLI Chipset DDR2/800 SATA-II RAID MBoard w/ Dual 16x PCI-Express
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)1GB (1x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD : NEW!!! NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB 16X PCI Express (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA)
VIDEO CARD 2: NONE
LCD Monitor: NONE
HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
Data Hard Drive: NONE
Optical Drive: (Special Price) 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: NONE
SOUND : HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/sp2.asp?v=d#configurator_top

Anyways, the Power supply would be 420W, but I'm worried that it'll be insufficient for what I'm planning to run with, not to mention later I'll be adding a X-Fi soundcard, the monitor, speakers, and another gig of RAM. So should I make the move up to 500w? Or even higher possibly?

Crossfire

I wouldn't take the risk. Bump up to as much power as you can afford.

tsmvengy

420W is plenty for that build. Not sure what brand the power supply is - I would assume raidmax but I don't know how good those are. Do not buy "as much power as you can afford" because that's just a waste. Those PSU choices on that site suck, but I would pick a thermaltake if I had to, I guess...

Gotta love that the smallest PSU available is 420W though. And that they don't offer any really good brands on there (Antec, Corsair, etc)

AtomBomb

Coldbrand wrote: »

Anyways, the Power supply would be 420W, but I'm worried that it'll be insufficient for what I'm planning to run with, not to mention later I'll be adding a X-Fi soundcard, the monitor, speakers, and another gig of RAM. So should I make the move up to 500w? Or even higher possibly?

Since it comes with the 420w, I would just try that out. The thing will at least turn on, and will probably work fine. If you find that you have weird errors/shutdowns when doing stuff that involves a lot of components, like ripping something from your optical drive to the HDD, you could always upgrade later.

Adding the soundcard isn't going to put much strain on the PSU. Adding a different monitor won't make a difference (it has its own power supply), same with the speakers. The ram won't add much drain. You would see more power needed if you added a 2nd video card, more drives (HDD or optical), more fans, stuff like that.

Coldbrand

Looking at the images from the case I'm going with: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/ultra8500.asp?v=d

It would look like the power is indeed RAIDMAX, correct? So I should be all set, right?

Sir Red of the Manti

Your build as it is uses a little more than 300 watts. As long as you can trust that the PSU that came with the case can put out that much, you should be good. However, I've heard stories of how some no-name power supplies only put out half the voltage they're rated for, so I'd look up whatever reviews you can about your new power supply to make sure it's up to the task.

Iroh

420 watts is going to be cutting it close with any computer that has fairly recent components. I strongly recommend 500+ if you can make it happen, as an insurance policy. Your power supply is absolutely not something to skimp on when trying to make budget.

Fristle

9 out of 10 people are going to advise you get a bigger power supply than you need. They will say better safe than sorry, that you will want the breathing room, etc. These are good points, but it's human nature to keep adding 30% to the last person's recommendation with the "just to be safe" mentality, until things get out of control, and soon everyone is going around buying 500W power supplies.

I say, stop the madness.

If you care about energy usage, you might want to try matching the power supply capacity to your actual needs. The reason is that power supplies have an efficiency curve. For instance, when delivering at 30% of their capacity they may be far less efficient at converting AC power to DC power than when delivering at 70% of their capacity. The lost efficiency becomes heat (wasted energy) which will also make cooling your case that much harder, so the fans will have to work harder and louder also. The more power you plan on using, the more important power supply efficiency is: if your system is drawing 200W from the PSU but the PSU is losing 35% of that in heat because it isn't running anywhere near its peak efficiency (say 65% instead of the ideal 85% efficiency), then you're pumping 108W of heat into your case! If you buy the right power supply and operate it at is peak efficiency then you can reduce that to 35W. URL="http://silentpcreview.com/article28-page1.html"]source[/URL

Here is a power supply calculator to help you determine your actual power needs:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

I'll ruin the surprise and tell you. I ran the numbers for your hardware (including your expected upgrades) and came up with 255W as the recommended PSU wattage. So is a 420W enough? Absolutely. Perhaps too much. Find another power supply calculator and run the numbers again. See what you think.

Eat_Fire

I would just like to say I found Fristle's post interesting and intend to check out power supply / heating ratios in the future.

I personally would recommend a 500 Watt PSU in case you intend to get a second video card or more components later.

I would also note if your not on a tight budget to buy better products for your custom PC, most of the parts listed in your configurator are knockoff / lowend versions of quality gaming components. Spending a little more (not at that site since they charge alot more for the good stuff) will get you alot more bang for your buck.

tsmvengy

Fristle wrote: »

9 out of 10 people are going to advise you get a bigger power supply than you need. They will say better safe than sorry, that you will want the breathing room, etc. These are good points, but it's human nature to keep adding 30% to the last person's recommendation with the "just to be safe" mentality, until things get out of control, and soon everyone is going around buying 500W power supplies.

I say, stop the madness.

If you care about energy usage, you might want to try matching the power supply capacity to your actual needs. The reason is that power supplies have an efficiency curve. For instance, when delivering at 30% of their capacity they may be far less efficient at converting AC power to DC power than when delivering at 70% of their capacity. The lost efficiency becomes heat (wasted energy) which will also make cooling your case that much harder, so the fans will have to work harder and louder also. The more power you plan on using, the more important power supply efficiency is: if your system is drawing 200W from the PSU but the PSU is losing 35% of that in heat because it isn't running anywhere near its peak efficiency (say 65% instead of the ideal 85% efficiency), then you're pumping 108W of heat into your case! If you buy the right power supply and operate it at is peak efficiency then you can reduce that to 35W. URL="http://silentpcreview.com/article28-page1.html"]source[/URL

Here is a power supply calculator to help you determine your actual power needs:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

I'll ruin the surprise and tell you. I ran the numbers for your hardware (including your expected upgrades) and came up with 255W as the recommended PSU wattage. So is a 420W enough? Absolutely. Perhaps too much. Find another power supply calculator and run the numbers again. See what you think.

Yeah, I ran it in the PSU calculator and got like 300 - and that's after I added components that you might get (another hard drive, etc.) Somebody did an article about what it actually takes to run hardware, and made a system with the hungriest P4, a 7950GT or something, and a bunch of other components and ran it off 400W. I only recommended 500 because I'm not sure how good Raidmax PSUs are, and whether they can actually output the power they say they can. Also, :^::^: for silentpcreview.com - one of the only sane places on the net when it comes to PSUs.