[PC] How many Watts is enough?

L

Limbo

Contributor
Veteran XV
I've got all the parts narrowed down except the PSU.
I'm deciding between 600 and 700W.
I'm gonna be using the following:

e6600 w/zalman 7700alcu
gigabyte 965p-ds3
ocz 2x 1024 pc6400 plat
ATI X850XT PE
Seagate 320gb sata2 16mb cache (main)
2x WD 160 gigs 8mb cache (storage)
Plextor 740 dvd Burner

Now obviously 600 is enough for now, but say I want to run two 8800s later on, or two R600 in crossfire later, would 600 be sufficient?
I know the E6600 peaks at 65W, but i'm not so sure about the other parts, is there such a chart out there that tells you all the approximate watts usage?

In conclusion, less or more?
 
Personally Limbo...I'd get the 700...just in case future vid-cards need more then even the 8800's.

my 2 cents
 
how are you going to run 2 8800s on a motherboard that only has one 16x pci-e slot?
 
oh well I guess I won't need SLi anyway, might as well just get the 8800 or R600, should be good for a while i think..
 
well shit apparently the case i chose won't fit the new vid cards
I picked the coolermaster 632 mystique.
Apparently at the lower part there's only a 10.5" wide clearance, and the X1950 needs like 13", doh.
 
i was thinking of getting the Thermaltake Ultra 120 and leave it on without a fan, since i heard it cools passively pretty well.
 
If that Plextor is more than $35 you're paying too much for a name.

Get the NEC.
 
If you want to go passive, I'd recommend a tower heatsink like the Scythe Ninja or the Thermalright HR-01. More/larger fins, and they're parallel to the mobo so the case's airflow will cool them a little better.
 
Research it more carefully. DON'T JUST LOOK AT TOTAL WATTS. You also have to think about the number of rails, and watts per rail. If your video card(s) suck alot of power, it might be too much for the individual rails of a cheap 700w supply, but not too much for a quality 600w.
 
CarpeIppon said:
Research it more carefully. DON'T JUST LOOK AT TOTAL WATTS. You also have to think about the number of rails, and watts per rail. If your video card(s) suck alot of power, it might be too much for the individual rails of a cheap 700w supply, but not too much for a quality 600w.
Click to expand...

I think you mean amps per rail? But you are correct, you need to worry more about how much amperage you are pushing on lets say your +12v rail then you do having a huge wattage number.
 
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