powersupply buying guide?

[marine63]

how much do wattage do one need? i mean y buy more than you need? what would be nice to have in a powersulpply and what are major brands?

[Jimmy0]

You need as much wattage to power the components you have, so if you have a very high end machine you obviously need a lot more power than a low end workstation will.

Buy more than you need to allow some headroom and allow for future upgrades without constantly buying a new PSU.

Check this thread, it has a list of reputable brands and also other useful links to information about PSU's.

[Cricket]

There are some wattage calculators on the web but most calculate on the high side...I think it's because of all the low quality cheap power supplies out there that claim to put out a certain amount of power but really don't. It might say 500 watts on the label but it might only put out 350 to 400 watts realistically. It might hit 500 watts peak power right before it dies. The calculators might be taking this into account and calculate on the high side just to be safe.

High quality power supplies will put out the amount of power they claim to (sometimes a lot more power).

Cricket

[blue60007]

I'd say a *quality* 500-550W is plenty for a high end gaming system with one video card. Might need more if you start using beefy dual video cards or start adding tons of hard drives, or whatever...

400-450W is probably a more reasonable number for general use computers.

I hate to beat the horse to death, but quality is one of the most important things. I don't care if it's 800W - if it's not quality, a solid quality power supply at a lower wattage will trump the higher wattage cheapo.

[marine63]

i guess i should have read the general hardware section >.<