How much power supply does a typical PC build need?

4

I am building a system for a friend. The potential specs are like this so far:

  • ASUS A8N-VM motherboard
  • AMD Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2.0 GHz
  • Any 7200RPM SATA HDD
  • Palit GeForce 8800GT 512MB GDDR3 PCIe
  • One DVD/CD combo drive
  • Creative SB Live! 5.1 sound card

I was wondering what wattage of power supply would be able to support this hardware. I had a 350W in mind... would that do?

Wesley

Posted 2010-04-01T03:04:15.077

Reputation: 1 238

Question was closed 2017-12-11T13:02:22.993

Answers

3

check this out -> http://www.journeysystems.com/support/calculator/

That power supply might be able to handle that hardware. I typical computer only uses 200watts or so.

keep in mind though that power supplies are designed to be most efficient at a fraction of the advertised wattage(not sure what the actual percentage is, 75% or so). so running a computer that actually uses 350 watts is a bad idea because it will put too much stress on the power supply.

WalterJ89

Posted 2010-04-01T03:04:15.077

Reputation: 248

THanks for your answer... I was using other wattage calculators that were way off the number given by that link. Much more accurate... thanks! – Wesley – 2010-04-01T18:44:34.557

Asked: 2010-04-01T03:04:15.077

Viewed: 638 times

Active: 2011-05-26T13:01:08.867