Do I really need 400W over 300W

[Smokey0066]

well I'm highly considering the antec 1030/40 series case. the question is, i'm not sure whether i really need the extra wattage.

what i'm lookin to run in the box is the following
athlon something
1 burner, 1 dvd, 1 zip, 1 floppy, probably 1-2 hd to start.. might work my way up to a 2 drive raid... and of course some geforce action.
oh and i'll probably get 4 panaflows for the antec and then another one for the hs (alpha) so a total of 5 80mm fans...

is there enough draw there to require more wattage?
yes i'm tight in the green dept. thats why i'm asking. otherwise i wouldnt mind buyin the extra wattage.
this is my xmas present to myself.. hehe

thanks for the help guys

 

[Emo]

Well, ask yourself how long do you plan to keep the Antec case, 2 or 3 years perhaps? If you do upgrade at least once till then, you would most likely need a better PS than the 300W. In fact, depending on which Athlon you pick, the 300W may not be enough anyway.

 

[Yoshi]

If you look at AMD's recommended power supply list you will see that the 300 watt Antec is only approved for up to an 850Mhz Athlon Thunderbird. I would get the 400 watt PS which is currently approved for use with all AMD and Intel processors.

 

[Greatwolf]

What about the 330 watt enermax psu that newegg includes with their SX1000 case?
believe it was the one $115 shipped

 

[plex24]

I used to have antec 830 running with 2 - 7200 rpm 60 gig harddrive, Dvd rom, Cd burner, Athlon 1.4, 5 - 80 mm fan and voodoo 5 5500, Soundblaster Live drive, and floppy. The system was very stable. So if u get athlon Xp it uses 20% less power and Geforce 3 uses only half power of voodoo 5. Even if you add 2 more harddrive on top of that it should be okay. But if Ur going to over clock than U definitely should go with 400+ watts!

 

[Greatwolf]

In that case how about buying the SX1000 case as a stand alone in newegg.com(about 60 bucks) and then adding a 400 watt futurepower PSU? I saw somewhere sell it for 30 bucks + 10 shipping. The total comes to about $102. Would it be a better deal to do it like that or just buy the $115 one I mentioned up top earlier?

Thanx

 

[tweakmm]

<< In that case how about buying the SX1000 case as a stand alone in newegg.com(about 60 bucks) and then adding a 400 watt futurepower PSU? I saw somewhere sell it for 30 bucks + 10 shipping. The total comes to about $102. Would it be a better deal to do it like that or just buy the $115 one I mentioned up top earlier?

Thanx >>


future powersuplies are pieces of crap...
your powersuply is very important, dont skimp:
antec or enermax

 

[Greatwolf]

Can anyone else atest to that? Some people feel differently about the futurepower brand. Is there any place I can go to check out PSU quality ratings or something along that line?

Thanx again

 

[ChrisADuffy]

Go with tweakmm's advice you won't go wrong.

 

[tweakmm]

<< Can anyone else atest to that? Some people feel differently about the futurepower brand. Is there any place I can go to check out PSU quality ratings or something along that line?
>>


in power supplies, you get what you pay for...

 

[Daovonnaex]

<<

<< In that case how about buying the SX1000 case as a stand alone in newegg.com(about 60 bucks) and then adding a 400 watt futurepower PSU? I saw somewhere sell it for 30 bucks + 10 shipping. The total comes to about $102. Would it be a better deal to do it like that or just buy the $115 one I mentioned up top earlier?

Thanx >>


future powersuplies are pieces of crap...
your powersuply is very important, dont skimp:
antec or enermax >>

Top Power makes outstanding PSUs, as well.

 

[blackhawk]

I recently upgraded to a tbird 1.4 and thought I'd better go up to 350w from my antec 300w in an antec 830 case. That worked fine with a pioneer dvd, plex burner, ATI AIW, 4 80mm case fans, 2 hds, and the normal peripherals. The 5v rail normally read just under 5v.

I just swapped around cases in readiness for another upgrade and left the antec in an enlight case with all the above components and it runs just fine again. No issues whatsoever and the 5v rail reports just over 5v.

If you have the option at purchase of taking the 400 or 300, go for the 400 though.

 

[nealh]

I have a 300w antec ps..running a 1.2 ghz @1.38 1.85v on 138 fsb...used to be at 145-146 but I added PNY ram that best cas2 at 138
I have 2 HDD(40 and 30)
SB live
cdrom
cdrw
nic
adaptec 2906 scsi
radeon 64mg vivo

no problems

I would not get an Antec 350w..the combined w on 3.3 and 5v rail is the same as 300w..180W

I have asked this question as well...if you can afford go with the new Antec pp412x..12v and P4 and Athlon approved...not sure on the noise level...

I did not get the 400w previously since I got an Antec SX830..heard the 400w ps was loud..this was the pp403..no P4 approved

But the 300 w will do fine...