200 watt power supply : enuff?

[crazyray]

I am building my first DIY computer using hand me downs. The case came from a Gateway and includes a 200 watt power supply. The box will be used for surfin' the web and burning some audio CD-R's. I have a Sony CD-ROM, Yamaha internal IDE burner, a floppy, and a Western Digital 40 gig HD. The cpu is a Celeron 466 slot 1, the video card is a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, and the audio is a Soundblaster Live! Value, version 2. I will not be overclocking nor will I be playing games. Will the case/ power supply I have be adequate?

[Savant]

I have my doubts that 200 would be enough, but then I never used anything less than 250 even in the 4x86 days

[Mntsnow]

The 200 should be plenty for what you have as far as hardware. but I would caution you concerning the Brand of case and ps involved. Look very closely at the main power connector to see if it will connect to the new motherboard you will be using. Also look at the back of the case to make sure the slot and keyboard/mouse/comm ports all will line up correctly.

[crazyray]

Good advice! Fortunately, I've learned what goes with what as far as ATX, etc. No doubt many have stumbled on those issues as they learn. I'll just stumble on something else...

[NDC]

I would also say that 200W will be more than enough even if you added a couple more HDD's!

[Win_98]

The 200 watt is only meant to be enought for 2 IDE device so adding just 1 more pretty much stresses your powersupply it may just short out in the long run. don't try anymore then that as it will fry your powersupply. I have had 250watt with about 5 harddrive, 1 cdrom, and it fried the whole case along with my motherboard as well.
with 230watt I barely have enought power for 3 harddrive. then again what he doing with 200 watts?! isn't 250watt now the standard?
which is only enought for 4 IDE devices

[This message has been edited by Win_98 (edited 12-10-2000).]

[NDC]

Technically yes......but I have a system that's been using 200W PSU with 3HDD's, CDROM, CDRW, a Twin Bay Fan, 4 80mm fans and P3 450Mhz @ 558Mhz, and no problems yet. It's been running that way for some time now.

[This message has been edited by NDC (edited 12-10-2000).]

[Mntsnow]

Win_98
If you are using good components then their power requirements are lower than a lesser quality one usually. To truly figure out what size power supply you need all you have to do is add up the amp requirements for the installed devices.

A CHEAP 200watt ps might only supply 9amps where as a QUALITY 200watt ps might supply 12amps! (which anyone with some power knowledge can tell you means ALOT!)

the reason that people recommend a larger ps is mainly due to the fact that they dont understand the "true" power requirements a computer system.