Is 420W enough for this build?

astralsolace

Junior Member
Dec 3, 2007
23
0
0
I'm trying to get people's opinions on whether or not my current 12v, 420W power supply is enough to power:

A Q6600 Intel Core 2 Quad processor,
An Abit IP35Pro motherboard,
A 512MB 8800GT,
2GB of PC-6400 DDR2
Possibly an internal soundcard--I'm not sure if my old Audigy 2 would be better than the on-board audio on the motherboard in Vista64/32.

I plan on overclocking the Q6600 to at least 3.0GHz or 3.2GHz, by overclocking the mobo's FSB--I doubt I'll overclock the RAM, but we'll see.
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The power supply I'm using I've had for about 2, 2.5 years--got it from Alienware when I was stupid enough to order a PC rather than build it myself. (12v, 420W) Unfortunately I don't know a lot about power requirements. I've read it's worse to have too little power going to a component than none at all, so I'd like to be sure.


Thanks for any and all input!
 

cozumel

Senior member
Nov 29, 2007
337
0
0
It'll be very close to edge of what you need. In fact, with the ageing process reducing the max power of your 420W to under 400W you would probably need a new PSU. I would suggest something around the 500W so you have plenty of headroom.
 

magreen

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2006
1,309
1
81
Do you have a make and model of the psu? If it's a decent make it ought to be enough.