PSU for a whole whack of drives

Yst

Junior Member
Sep 30, 2004
6
0
0
So my current system, after a recent upgrade, is an

Athlon 64 2800+
on an Asus K8V

with things powered directly off the PSU being:

Radeon 9700 Pro
5 IDE HDs and 1 SATA HD
2 CDR/W Drives
1 5'1/4" bay SB Live! Drive
2 large (front and rear) case fans
1 small (side panel) case fan
2 blue case lights
1 floppy drive

and 5 or so USB devices at any given time.

It's been running off a 430W Enermax I had already, but not happily. I think this beast needs more power.

I could just go out and buy the most expensive Antec PSU I can find, but I'm wondering if I need to look for something specific when powering a system with 8 drives, a vid card with high power demands and the bunch of other random crap I have in there.

Being a bit of a noob when it comes to thinks electrical, I'm not sure how to check to make sure the PSU I'm buying has the amperage I need at the voltage my devices will be drawing, or how the PSU's current is divided amongst those various voltage levels.

Anyone have suggestions?

Thanks.
 

tynopik

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2004
5,245
500
126
add up the amps per rail (5v, 12v) for all the drives and other stuff and then make sure your PS can supply the required amps to each line