Scaveng P/S or Buy New?

[Cirerrek]

I'm in the process of building a new rig. Rundown is as follows

mobo - Gigabyte GA-55-UD3R
processor - Intel I5 2.66 GHz
ram - G. Skill 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 1333
video - eVGA GTX260
storage - 2 Western Digital 1T SATA drives
add. storage (possible) 2 Seagate 200GB SATA drives
optical - DVD-ROM & DVD Rom burner
fans - 2-4 120mm case fans

In my current rig I have a Antec 500W Neopower p/s, which if I go by the calculation page at Antec assuming 30% on the capacitor aging (plan on keeping it a while), I'm looking at about 499W. That is pretty close.

Of course tinkering with the numbers (regular desktop vs. high end desktop), regular SATA drives verses high speed SATA drives can drop that to 446W, which leaves some overhead.

So to my question, should I invest in a new power supply or see if my old one can handle the load?

[glc]

Nvidia recommends 500 watts minimum for a GTX260, and it needs two 6 pin PCI-E connectors. The motherboard requires a 24 pin main connector and an 8 pin ATX12V connector. The Neopower you have lacks the 8 pin, all it has is a 4 pin.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371015
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

[Cirerrek]

Thanks glc. The mobo manual confirms your observation and it also suggets a p/s of greater that 500W. Thanks also for the links to appropriate models.

I'll likely also look at some of the models with modular cabeling. Do you know if there is a significant difference between the models that are labeled as

ATX12V V2.3

vs.

ATX12V V2.2

for my purposes?

[Cirerrek]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX

ATX12V v2.3 The most recent revision, effective March 2007. Efficiency recommendations were increased to 80% (with at least 70% efficiency required), and the 12 V load requirement was lowered. Higher efficiency generally results in less power consumption (and less waste heat), and the 80% recommendation brings supplies in line with new Energy Star 4.0 mandates.[10] The reduced load requirement allows compatibility with processors that draw very little power during startup.[11]

Well, seems like a fairly innocuous change except the part about the 12 V load requirement being lowered.

[glc]

If you prefer modular:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139002

[Cirerrek]

Modular it is then. And with a nice fat $50 MIB too. Much appreciated.

[nicolaus corelius]

seasonic oem ftw