Power Supply Question

[dickieboy]

I have my new Antec, P-180 case and it is a beauty. It contains (4) fans. I do not know if there will be a need for addditional fans. My system will be:

AMD ATHLON 64 3700+ (SAN DIEGO)/ 1M SKT 939 RT (CPU)

ASUS SKT 939 NF4 A8N - SLID DLX (MOBO)

I will probably use one of the POWER SUPPLY UNITS recommended by Antec.
QUESTION: Since cost is not a big problem....IS THERE A LIMIT AS TO THE AMOUNT OF WATTS? Can it be overdone? I will not be STARTING with much more than 1 HDD, FLOPPY, DVD'S, VIDEO AND AUDIO CARDS AND XP.

IF YOU KNOW THE ANTEC LINE...DO YOU HAVE A RECOMMENDATION FOR ONE OF THEIR " PSU'S" ? Thanks for your comments!

[BrokenKingdom]

Buy any SLI ready antec PSU at or over 550W and your good to go.

I recommend good old trusty Antec 550 SLI.

Honestly, really can't go wrong with that one.

[jayb1234]

You can't really go "too big" in regards to the PSU since it will only put out the amount of power that the other parts are using.

The Antec TPII 550W in the previous post would be a good choice, quality maker and SLI certified.

[gary_hendricks]

Don't worry. Power supplies can't be too much - only too little

However, I've come across an interesting tool that lets you calculate the power supply requirements in your PC.

[TwoRails]

That is a nice unit in BK's link, and is the one I'm running now. GH's calc links seems to be pretty good compared to others I've seen (nice link, GH!). And finally, yes, 4 fans will be more than enough to cool the system.

[Kiwi]

With a certain amount of experience building PC's, you realize that the total wattage is less important than the amps per leg per voltage, and that all of the calculator sites "seem" to be overestimating the totals.

It is a fact that the easiest way to perform the calculations is to use the maximum current that a given type of component draws, even if at any one time the likelihood of every component all doing so at the same time is quite small. It is also a fact that the PC components market is saturated with cheap, over-rated junk power supplies.

Add those two things together and you have a slight hedge against a newbie buying too small of a psu from one of those offshore makers in the Okia, Powmax, Raidmax mold. Not really enough, in my book. I've compared the guts of several cheap ones, like an Aspire the most recently, with a smaller PC P&C psu, and a 450-watts rated one from an Aspire case had smaller, lighter internal compenents than did a 230 Watt good power supply.

I found several web sites with calculators and liked this one best:

http://takaman.jp/D/?english

(I got a timeout on that one just now, though. It's a Japanese PC enthusiast's web site, with the calculator in English.)

The past three years, my occasional PC-building hobby has expanded some, and I've had many more new cases, many with included psu's, through the room I use for building things (I also build flying model planes from time to time), than in most of the time I've been doing a majority of my own assembling. Most being built to meet minimal budgets, so they went into cheaper cases. I remove and give away the psu's, mostly, though, with my large felt-tip marker warning on them to treat an Okia 400 as if it was a 150 Watt entry level budget piece, for example.

I think everyone I know who might want me to help build or buy a PC now has something that either is already running XP nicely, or will be able to do so easily if they choose to upgrade the OS. My oldest kid's PC is here now; he's not very computer- friendly, and hasn't used it much. I'm upgrading his VGA for him, though. His is the least speedy machine I have worked on lately that I expect may eventually run XP, with a 1.8 GHz Northwood in it.

[dickieboy]

Thanks BK for your recommendation. I will purchase it this week....probably from Computers4 Sure....or NewEGG....both are priced similar....just under
$100........ANTEC...550 Watt ATX12V v2.0 PSU

I do not think my local store Computer Builders Warehouse (Las Vegas) carries it...but I am not sure. I will ask today. I like this store as they are very helpful and show no pressure. It is a franchised operation. Dickieboy