Power Supply

[Yogi Bear]

Ok, well i have decided to build a computer for the first time. Ive done a lot of research on all the parts and various other things but i'm not quite sure what power supply to get. Im not sure how much power i will need for my system..

Heres the specs:
AMD athlon 64 x2 4600+
Asus Crosshair motherboard
Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB
Seagate Barracuda 200Gb 7200 8Mb cache Hard Disk
2GB of DDR2 RAM

Will a 430 watt power supply handle this or will i have to get a larger one? Thanks a lot for any help/advice!

[Aedile Rich]

Try this Power Supply Wattage Calculator.
I haven't checked its accuracy yet but it seems to be more up to date than the ones I've previously used, so it should be okay for a reasonable estimate.

[Spart]

430W could handle it, but just get some high-quality 500W or higher, so you won't have any problems upgrading then some day.
Just see that there's enough amps/12V-line, because that's where it's going to hurt. Try something like Antec, HEC, BeQuiet, Enermax etc.. Some good brand.
Google some tests, because the PSU is the part you don't want to explode..

[Aedile Rich]

I'll second the recommendation for a quality PSU but beware of Antec. Their reputation has dropped massively lately. Check this thread for details, amongst the others linked off it.

There's also a comment on the PSU calculator I linked, stating that it's pretty conservative in its bias, fwiw.


A few more recommendations; FSP (Fortron Source) are pretty good for the money but if you have the budget to stretch to it, look for Seasonic or PC P&C (PC Power & Cooling).

[OTZ]

With high end items nowadays, the important thing to check is Amps - as Spartacus mentioned. Make sure that whatever PSU you buy, it is adequate for that 8800. I think it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to get away with no-name, generic PSUs...