Will my 400W PS work with this configuration?

[Jim Bancroft]

I'm buying a Socket 939 motherboard with an nForce4 chipset (non-SLI), and an Athlon64 3200 CPU. I'll have an Nvidia 6600GT graphics card, two Serial ATA hard drives, a floppy and DVD writer. Very minimal overclocking if any planned.

My current power supply is 400W and puts out 17amps on the 12v line. Will this supply enough power or should I bag it and look elsewhere? If I upgrade in a year or two I'll certainly get a new power supply, so assume the confirguration above is all I'll be asking this 400W unit to maintain.

 

[Operandi]

It would help to know who makes it.

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: Operandi
It would help to know who makes it.

doesnt really matter all too much. only 17amps on +12v rail.

yes, it'll be fine, but i do recommend you in getting a better psu. 🙂

 

[Jim Bancroft]

Thanks for your replies. This is the case in question.

I'm curious...not knowing much about power supplies, if I do get another unit, what are the most important characteristics to look for? It seems like there's a lot of misdirection in the sector; for instance, you could have two units "rated" at 400W but with one more powerful than the other. A casual buyer would have trouble spotting the difference. Caveat emptor!

 

[akira34]

I'd replace it with a power supply by one of the better makers... Such as Antec, Zalman, Enermax, to name just a few.

Just to compare, an Enermax Noisetaker 420W has a total of 29A on the 12V rails (two rails). Even an inexpensive Antec 400W has 18A on the 12V rail. The 450W Antec has 20A on the 12V rail...

Generally, people here want to see at least 18A on the 12V rail. Especially on a 400W PSU. Now, if that was a 300-350W with 17A it might be considered decent. With ANY overcocking, you'll want more power available to you, as well as from a quality PSU. You really don't want to get it all setup, do you OC and have the cheap PSU crap out on you. You'll have the down time while you either run out to the store to get a new PSU, or order one online. Get it now, install it, and you'll be better off. Plus, you won't have to worry about the PSU killing parts of your system when it does fail.