Need a new Power Supply?

[ReverseC]

I will be upgrading my computer with a new CPU and a few more DIMMS and I was curious if you guys think I should get a 'juicier' power supply. The CPU I'm looking at will increase my watts used by 23 watts. See the before and after specs below.

Current HW & Sys Specs
Power Supply - Allied AL-A350 ATX 350W
MoBo - Gigabyte GA-K8NS-939 (BIOS version F9)
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester 1808 MHz - 67 watts
Video Card - Apollo AGP 6600GT GeForce 6600GT 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X
Memory - 1 Rosewill DDR400 (PC3200) 512MB DIMM 2.6V
Memory - 1 Kingston DDR400 (PC3200) 512MB DIMM 2.6V
HD - Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
HD - Western Digital 20 GB
OS - Windows XP Pro SP 2

Future HW & Sys Specs
Power Supply - Allied AL-A350 ATX 350W
MoBo - Gigabyte GA-K8NS-939 (BIOS version F9)
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Toledo 2.2GHz - 89 watts
Video Card - Apollo AGP 6600GT GeForce 6600GT 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X
Memory - 1, Rosewill SDRAM DDR400 (PC 3200) 512MB DIMM 2.6V
Memory - 1, Kingston SDRAM DDR400 (PC 3200) 512MB DIMM 2.6V
Memory - 2, A-DATA SDRAM DDR400 (PC 3200) 512MB DIMM
HD - Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
HD - Western Digital 20 GB
OS - Windows XP Pro SP 2

Do you think I should get a bigger power supply?

Thanks in advance,
Charles

[bobbyraw]

I notice you did not mention anyting about the other devices wattage usage. yes thay all have wattage usage. especially your HDD. your cd burner, your video card....... However the more power you have the better. depending on what you are plannig on doing with the pc. but more power can't hurt. got for the 450watts

[ReverseC]

Thanks. Are you aware of any Win or dos utility that displays the amount of watts you are consuming? I've looked for one but was unsuccessful. I suppose this would be hard to total up for each device in an easy to read format.

Thanks,
Charles

[bobbyraw]

each device has that printer on it or on the documetation that came with it. try this utility Sandra 2007 it goes indept and give all sorts of info about all your attached devices

[ReverseC]

I checked out Sandra 2007. Pretty cool program. You can download the free version. I decided to go ahead and upgrade to a 450W from a 350W. Thanks.

[jbennet]

Most modern video cards need 450w+ btw

[Serunson]

My computer curently uses a 570W PSU, which is ample for my gfx card, 2gig ram, HDD, DVD/CD drive and the various other things in there.
The more power the better!

[jbennet]

The more power the better!

No because more power = more heat

[Serunson]

Not if you have the correct cooling, Most PSU's today come with either 1 Very large fan attached, or 2 smaller ones. My Trust 570W PSU has two 10cm Diameter fans attached. Ample Cooling. But yes more watt's = more heat disipated.

[ReverseC]

More power = more $$ to pay when the power bill comes. I try not to over allocate.

[az49er]

Did your new MB need the 24 pin attachment? Most new boards need the 24 pins and one 12 vt for the MB and a 12V for video card. If your missing any of these inputs, you may need to upgrade the power supply to get the inputs you need. 500 w is very common, for about 75$. worth the investment.

[ReverseC]

My MB requires a 20pin w/ a 12 vt. I went ahead and bought a 450 watt PS. Works great so far. My new Athlon 64 x2 2.2 GHz CPU has been using ~90 watts.

This is what I got:

Rosewill Stallion Series Dual Ball Bearing Fan RD450-2-DB ATX V2.2 450W Power Supply 115V/230V CSA, UL, TUV, FCC

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817182022

[hardy540]

i think you should go with a 400w or a 450. your HDD and you disk drive use up a lot of power also

[Serunson]

450W should be ample for most tasks, but if you have more PCI expansion cards than usuall, (e.g. a sound card, 2 gfx cards, ethernet card, usb expansion card etc.) then you may want to look for something with over 500W.