Should I choose a 350 or 400 watt power supply?

[tecumseh]

I'm looking at the cooler master cases (SWEET!) and they have the 300, 350 and 400 watt flavor. The 300 watt is out of the question. Should I go with the 350 or 400 watt computer case. The price difference is about 30-40 dollars between the two cases. I'm thinking 350 should be plenty. My system is going to consist of:

DFI AK76 mobo (any good? firing squad gave it high marks)
AMD XP 1500+
512 mb ddr
G3 Ti500
Creative Labs Audigy (gamer)
52X Cdrom
40 gig hard drive
modem (3com)
24X10X40 Cdrw
Windows XP
ethnernet card

So should a 350 watt power supply be enough for this? Or should i go for the 400 watter?

thxs =)

 

[earthman]

If you have a lot of drives you might want the bigger one.

 

[Woody419]

The 350 watt should be plenty, and it might be quieter than the 400w.

 

[tecumseh]

Yea, woody I'm also thinking about going with the 350 watter. I was checking out Alienwares site the other day and they use a 340 watter with there systems and they pack there systems with all kinds of cards, drives, etc. So ill wait and decide this week.

 

[robg1701]

Another vote for the 350

 

[DN]

I run a full set of hardware (2 hd, dvd, cdrw, disk drive, sound, video, ethernet, etc) and I only have a 235 watt power supply, so 350 watt should be way more than enough..

 

[ChrisIsBored]

300 should be enough but I would say get a 350 for the safe side. I've put (and have) systems with way more drives connected to them than yours and i'm running off 300W power supply's.

 

[damocles]

The quality of the PSu is much more important than the wattage. What brand are the PSus?


DFI AK76 mobo (any good? firing squad gave it high marks)

They were a good standard board about 6 months ago. Now you would be better served by getting a newer mobo, probably a Via KT266a or maybe an nForce with its excellent intergrated sound . I'm also not 100% sure that i'd take an audigy as my first choice for a gaming sound card ( i like the Santa Cruz and Acoustic edge more)

 

[veryape]

In my opinion unless the 400 is a lot more expensive than the 350 I would get the highest wattage possible because it may be enough now but what about the next time you upgrade? At the rate processors are progressing in two years a 400 watt ps will be just about the norm most likely.