What's up with power supplies above 350w?

S

smatts

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 17, 2003
Messages
143
What is the point of having them besides killing your monthly hydro bill?

Like seriously I have a 350w antec supply and it runs my system great (see specs). Now if you have maybe 4 hard disks and 2 cd writers then I guess a 400-450w power supply is justifyable.

But whats with people buying 550w power supplies when they are running the same specs as me? Is it me or are those power supplies way overkill? I bet if you filled up ever hard drive bay and 5/14 bay with something you still wouldn't come close to maxing out load on a 550w PS.

Someone post some links or something about power supplies and how much is REALLY needed in certain systems.
 
IT's fro the future probably...If they want to upgrade their stuff later they won't need to upgrade their PSU...
 
Just cause it says 500 it doesnt mean it's using that.
it uses what it needs, i have a 480W and i'm probably only using 250. but if i get 8 300gb drives and use them all at the same time i would probably be using more than 500.
 
instead of getting 8 40 GB drives... why not get a couple 120's?
Originally posted by EricF
Just cause it says 500 it doesnt mean it's using that.
it uses what it needs, i have a 480W and i'm probably only using 250. but if i get 8 300gb drives and use them all at the same time i would probably be using more than 500.
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Originally posted by jamezzz122
IT's fro the future probably...If they want to upgrade their stuff later they won't need to upgrade their PSU...
Click to expand...
Hit the nail on the head that time Jamezzzzzzz. Cmon Smatts, you knew that already.... right?
 
Originally posted by Tnadrev
instead of getting 8 40 GB drives... why not get a couple 120's?
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He said 8 300gb drives. Where do 40gb drives come in?


I have a 500w because my 300w went out. So I updated with the future in mind. I don't want to have to upgrade in a year just because things are more demanding.

Not to mention, just because it says it has a rated power output of 500w, does not mean it is actually putting out that much more. It only puts out what it needs (this seems oddly mirrored to what he said up above, hehe).

People with 500w systems are also normally the people running extra things off them. Such as peltiers or watercooling kits.
 
i guess i was mixed up, because lowercase b represents a bit, not a byte
Originally posted by Spidey329
He said 8 300gb drives. Where do 40gb drives come in?


I have a 500w because my 300w went out. So I updated with the future in mind. I don't want to have to upgrade in a year just because things are more demanding.

Not to mention, just because it says it has a rated power output of 500w, does not mean it is actually putting out that much more. It only puts out what it needs (this seems oddly mirrored to what he said up above, hehe).

People with 500w systems are also normally the people running extra things off them. Such as peltiers or watercooling kits.
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to me, it's marketting in terms of the bulk of owners. if you're going to be suckered into it, then fine. you've got some room for the future.
why do the quality 500 watts ones exist, that actually don't fry when they get even close to 400watts? mainly for SMP machines, or machines with RAID or other hardcore uses of amperage and wattage. many times enthusiasts use em so that when they overclock everything in the system, nothing begins to go out of spec. also, future processors often chew up more power, the concern of upgrade-ability.
 
Do I sense some e-penis envy in this thread?

An Antec True380 is 65.00. An Antec True480 is 83.00. To me, the True480 is worth the extra 18 bucks.

Cough up a few extra bucks... you can have a bigger e-penis too :)
 
I'll be getting a 550W Enermax in my next system most likely, but mostly because I want to make sure there are enough plugins for my fans and fan controllers (yes, I want to minimize the daisy chaining). I'll only have 2 HDs and 2 optical devices, but have no idea what the future holds. I'll also be getting a Radeon9800Pro 256MB video card w/P4 3.2 CPU, so I want to make sure I have enough power for this and future upgrades. One more thing is being able to handle any spikes in power. Yes, you may only need let's say no more than 400W, but what happens if it spikes to 500W? Also, I'm getting the Enermax for a full-tower case (Enermax has longer leads).
 
Personally i wouldn't be afraid to invest in more power, especially with more and more products coming out that are power hungry. On top of my standard Athlon XP 2000+, 768MB system, i have 3 hard drives, 1 dvdRW optical drive (sometimes 2 if i feel like throwing yet another y-splitter in there) 2 fan controllers (each require a 4 pin molex), about 8 fans, 1 USB hub(powered), 1 non powered USB hub, a Koolance Exos which requires a power connector, 1 floppy drive. These are all running off an Antec 400w and several Y-cables which i don't like. I calculated the power consumption based on some website, and i'm meeting the requirements although i don't think by very much. I do have to mention though that i don't have a videocard that requires a 4pin molex connector so i guess that saves me a little. Either way i can justify spending a few extra bucks for a powerful and reliable PSU for some peace of mind. My next one will probably be a PC Power & Cooling 500+w PSU just so i know i have myself covered for a while.
 
Originally posted by jamezzz122
IT's fro the future probably...If they want to upgrade their stuff later they won't need to upgrade their PSU...
Click to expand...

by the time the future comes their psu will be dead
 
my psu has outlasted my mobo procesor ram, adding 3 drives, lights and fans, the future came and my psu is still running fine, for the extra couple of bucks id like to know i can add what ever i like and not have to worry about doing the math to see if another hd or fan setup is going to make things a little screwie,

its giving me options, peace of minde, and saveing me $ during upgrades.
 
Higher wattage power supplies have higher quality, more robust components that mean you will get more reliable power now and in the long term.
 
I have an antec True power 550 watt because I know no matter what system i have, and no matter what I add to it, i will never have a power problem
 
That extra power the power supply can provide may save you when your computer is running hard, combining multiple disks, drives, a fast processor and particularly a video card with its own power connect can eat up power.

My APC is telling me that with the maching in my sig (the 2.8Ghz p4c) and my 19" LCD and 19" CRT I'm using 275 watts. Even with my firewire hard drive on (which only bumps it up to 286 watts) and running my computer harder (playing games and such) the highest I've seen my APC report was around the mid 300 watt range I believe. So my 430 watt power supply most definitely is not constantly demanding that much power from the AC.
 
In reality it would never consume nearly as much AC power as DC power, due to the approximately 30-40% power loss during the conversion process from AC to DC. These inefficiencies are why power supplies have huge heatsinks and 80 mm fans.
 
I had a Enermax 330 for about the last 3 years. I only changed it because my case got ugly and the new case has a 350 Antec, my penis didnt grow much :)
 
Im still using a PC Power and Cooling 400 Watt power supply I used with my 440bx system. At the time it was like $300. But I would say it was worth it.
 
I know my psu is over powered for what I'm running, but do I have to worry about adding more ram or another [h]ard drive and my psu not being able to handle it? No. I'd rather spend the extra 20 bucks or so and get some thing thats 50-100 watts more and feel safe. My current rig is a a7n8x-e deluxe, 2800+ barton, 2x120gig maxtor on raid 0, 1x120 gig wd se 120gig storage[my documents], 1 gig ddr 333mhx ram, 6 fans, cdrom+cd burner, 9700 pro[needs power connection],cold cathode light. I'm not about to figure out the exact power draw but I like to feel safe that if i throw another fan in my psu isn't going to be max'd right out. If it matters I'm running a 465[iirc] watt enermax. I'd rather feel safe then sorry for the extra 25 bucks. If I was going to OC my rig to hell then yes I'd get a 500+ watt psu just to feel safe. You have to remeber your system runs off your psu so if it isn't up to par then you computer may never be either.
 
I have had my PC Power & cooling for about 3 years now. A lot of power supplies decline in output as the temp increases. So a poorly ventilated case, may need a higher watt rating on lower quality power supplies.
 
Originally posted by Xeese
A lot of power supplies decline in output as the temp increases. So a poorly ventilated case, may need a higher watt rating on lower quality power supplies.
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This is just what I was going to say. Most good power supplies (Antec, Vantec, Thermaltake, Enermax,etc ) have their output rated at around 40C temp, whereas your cheaper power supplies are rated at around 20C. My case temps usually hover around 30C, I'd have to buy a much higher output generic psu to get the same amount of juice in the end.
 
It's not like you actually use all the rated power all the time... and headroom and e-penis are wonderful things.

I had the same antec 400 supply for three years before I moved on (just because I needed more PSU's actually....)
 
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