What is too much power?

[kelesh3]

I have an Inwin Q500 full tower case with the default 300Watt power supply. I'm wondering if my new HD and HD fans will push me over the limit of my power supply. I have 3 video cards(2 matrox milleniums and 1 geforce 2 gts), 3 case fans, 1 power supply fan, 1 pci slot fan, 1 hard drive, 1 asus 50x cdrom, 1 ricoh 8x4x32x cdrw drive, and one floppy drive. I am going to buy another Hard drive (ibm 60gxp), along with a hard drive cooler(Cooler Master DCD-4002). Do you think I may be approaching the limits of my power supply?

 

[SCUBA]

i think that is too much i got a 330watt power supply i got 1 vd 2hd 1sc 1 modem and am already scared

 

[knutp]

I got 3 harddrives, 1 dvd, 1 cd'rom, 2 cdrw's, geforce 1 ddr (uses alot more power than geforce2. Athlon classic 850, 512 mb ram, sb live, nic, scsi card, 2 prosessor fans, 2 case fans and 300 w powersupply. Stable as it can get. BTW aopen hq08 tower, and the powersupply that followed.

 

[kelesh3]

h0ly sh*t!! re: knutp


w00t! Senior member status.. sounds old.

 

[han888]

i got:

2 x intel cpu ( 2 X alpha )
1024mb sdram pc133
1 vid card ( matrox g450)
1 sblive
2 X nic card
3 X case fans
2 X hd cooller
3 x hard drives
1 x cd-rom
1 X cd-rw

with aopen 300w ps, and no problem so far

 

[Oyeve]

Oh geez, another "big pecker" contest.

 

[TomBilliodeaux]

The power requirments are generally listed in your mobo spec's less the external devices.
I have found that 300W is adequate for most personal pc systems.
And 250w still for p3's with 'normal' video (avg home use).
It doesn't hurt to have a more robust power supply such as 300w or higher. The power draw will depend on the components.
The small disadvantage in an overpowered supply is that you get excess heat (minor though) and perhaps more noise, and pay more for something you may not need.

You can get a close estimate by adding all the wattages listed for each device (max.value).

 

[kelesh3]

can you estimate wattages per device?
also, i notice you guys listed how much ram you got, and what kind. does that play any significant role in power consumption?