How much power supply is enough ??

[sys-eng]

I know that AMD requires a 300W power supply for the Athlon but what assumed extra loads are built into that 300W?

Do I need more than a 300W supply for the following in a new system:

1 - Athlon 1.2 GHz CPU
2 - 7200 RPM hard drives
1 - Radeon vido card
1 - DVD drive
1 - 16X CD R/RW
1 - 48X CD-ROM drive
1 - 3 1/2 diskette drive
1 - FastTrak disk contoller
2 - case fans

I can upgrade from 300W to 400W for $99 which I don't want to spend if I don't need to.

[NDC]

A quality 300W should put out more than enough juice for the setup you posted! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

To get an idea how much a 300W PSU can handle, take a look at the setup I have using a SevenTeam ST-300GL PSU:

Click! (http://forums.digitalmntsnow.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=57&FORUM_ID=9&CAT_ID=5&Topic_Title=Here%27s+Mine%21&Forum_Title=Symmetric+Multi+Processing+%28SMP%29)

[This message has been edited by NDC (edited 08-02-2001).]

[Roraycr]

You may want to check the AMD site to see which PSU's are AMD approved.

[Brangwen]

I'm using 300W PSU to run:

- 1.33 Ghz TBird
- IBM 30GB ATA100 HDD
- Plextor 16/10/40 CDRW
- G-450 Matrox Dual Head monitor vidcard
- SBLive Value
- 56K modem
- FOP 32 fan on CPU Heat Sink
- 4 120mm Panaflo case fans
- 2 80mm Panaflo case fans
- 52X Creative CD Drive
- 3.5" FDD
- Baybus 2 fan cooler
- Neon light inside case


I think 300W (<u>AMD</u> <u>approved</u>) Power Supply Unit (PSU) will be ample.

Brangwen http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif