Power Supply Question

[scottsracetoo]

Okay...so there's been lots of talk about combined power output from power supplies. 145w combined, 160w, 200w, etc...and some say you need to have xyz rating to be stable or 'safe' or AMD approved. My question is what is the real answer? Does anyone know? I did notice that the enlight 300w PS that I have lying around say 145w combined and I always thought of them as nice stout PS. Is this not the case? Do the Athlon XP's require more? I am about to buy a new case/PS along with an Athlon 1700+ and could really use some help in the PS realm. Thanks.

 

[CurtOien]

AMD has a list of approved power supplies for each CPU on there web site.

 

[scottsracetoo]

I am aware of the AMD approved list...my question is about the fundamentals of how a PS works and what those numbers really mean...I am looking for a better understanding of the meaning behind the power outputs and what are the output ratings(not the brands/models) that AMD recommends.

While I appreciate your attempt at help I would appreciate it if in the future you would at least attempt to keep your answers on point and read more closely what is being asked, that way I dont need to waist time coming back to look at worthless posts.

 

[Mavrick007]

It's not so much your cpu or mobo that you have to worry about, it has to do more with the components that you have in your machine. I would say that if you had just an AMD XP cpu, a mobo, ram, 1 ide hard drive, 1 cdrom, 1 video card, and a sound card and maybe a nic, then you shouldn't have anything to worry about even from a 250Watt psu.

It's more when they talk about people with 2-3 or more hard drives, extra cards, alot of fans, extra video cards/hardware rendering and other peripherals such as lots of USB devices, then you might want to have a larger psu such as the 300, 350 and in extreme cases, I would say a 400watt. Then we could talk about the different voltages which psus have a 5volt rail and a 3.3volt rail and the different components that might use either voltages could max out the power from the psu, but I would say that unless you are one of the people who must plug a zillion cards and peripherals into his machine, then you shouldn't have any problems with your 300watt enlight psu.

 

[scottsracetoo]

Thanks...here is what will be in my system

2 maxtor 5400RPM drives
1 IBM 7200RPM drive
Kenwood 72x CD-ROM
HP9200 Burner(SCSI with applicable HP card)
Elsa Gloria II video Card
SB Live
Netgear Nic
2 92mm Fans
2 80mm fans
Floppy
2 USB devices...
Currently these are all in a box with a K6-2 500 on a DFI(BLECH) MB

I have had power problems in the past thus I only use 1 cd drive if all 3 harddrives are powered up or if I need both cd then I goto 2 HD...

I will be putting in a MSI K7 Turbo(the red one) and an XP 1700+.

With these parts, would 160w combined be enough or pushing it? The enlight 300w okay??? How do I go about doing the math to figure these things out for myself?