Is 380W Enough

[Dougal]

I reckon I cursed my QTEC earlier today

So would a 380w Tagan be powerful enough for:

Asus K8V SE Deluxe
3000+ Winnie @ stock
80GB 7200RPM & 160GB 7200RPM PATA Drives
36GB 10000RPM Raptor
TV Card
9600XT
2GB RAM
Audigy 2 ZS

I currently have a 450W QTEC, so i think it should be good enough.

I can't afford to go over £50 tho.

[Kezzer]

Yeh i reckon

[Dougal]

Hehe, just saw the other thread with the 415W PSU.
Getting that one

Please lock mod!

[Jonny]

Yes I think so. I definately wouldn't go any lower. You may wish to get something more like a 480W supply anyway if you want to save money long term, especially if you are planning to update soon (which I doubt you do with that rig). A 480W Tagan, though, will provide more power than a 480W Q-Tec.

[alexander]

I had 350 Watts running:

3800+ Venice/3500+ Newcastle
2GB RAM
6800GT
2GB RAM
Audigy 2
2 x Samsung Spinpoints
And Loads of Fans
DVD+-RW
USB 54G thing
PS2 controller


And it all ran fine.

350 would be ample.

[rajindergill]

Ebuyer have an antec true power 380W for £25 which will easily run your rig. Also, consider Thermaltake Butterfly, which is 480w for under £50. I'm kicking myself as i missed out on an Antec Neo Power 480W for £46 from Aria when they were getting rid of them.

[OmarSantiago]

In my experience it depends pretty much on the type of chassis you're using. The Tagan listed there uses a pull/push design so air goes in from the front and out the back - nothing gets drawn in from the area above the CPU. That's a good idea in theory as it means your PSU won't overheat because it draws in only fresh air from the case. That said, if you don't have any decent airflow coming into the case the effect will be largely wasted and the exhaust duties will only be handled by the 80 or 92mm fan(s) at the back.

So if you have very little airflow OR your PSU hangs directly over the CPU rather than above it go for the 370w Enermax Noisetaker as that'll help you cool your system and power it without showing any kind of strain.

Bite the bullet and buy something bigger (at least 100w more - you'll thank us later)

[kempez]

I would reccomend a 480w PSU for an NF4 board - and thats certainly the wattage that is reccomended by many many manufactorers - DFI being one of them

[irishjoe]

It will be fine.
I got a 350 watt PSU and its running...
3x 10,000 rpm SCSI hard drives,
1x Sata hard drive,
Sony DVD copier,
cd drive fan
Abit socket A mobo
2800 Barton,
9800 Pro

And I also run a iDeq which only has a 200 watt PSU and its got
Dvd drive,
GeForce 2MX,
IDE hard drive.

Everything is running fine.

[kempez]

It will be fine.
I got a 350 watt PSU and its running...
3x 10,000 rpm SCSI hard drives,
1x Sata hard drive,
Sony DVD copier,
cd drive fan
Abit socket A mobo
2800 Barton,
9800 Pro

And I also run a iDeq which only has a 200 watt PSU and its got
Dvd drive,
GeForce 2MX,
IDE hard drive.

Everything is running fine.

NF4 requires more power than NF3

[Dougal]

NF4 requires more power than NF3

I dount socket A is NF3, more likely nf2

And this is SORTED.

[junglejim]

One of the main power eaters in a pc (other than the cpu) is the graphics card. The 9600 are pretty much the least hungry power cards out there (something along the lines of 9Watts idle, 17 undel load) compare that to a 6800. 5900 or 9800 and you are looking 40Watts idle and 70-80 under load.

So your system should be absolutely fine unless you change the GC.

I am going for low electricity bills so my system runs on a 250W.. thats with a 6600GT (best new geberation card for power) and a not prescott p4 3ghz (prescotts use loads more power)


Cheers,

JB

[magicrichard]

Useful link: http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/


It's only a rough guide - but it helps.

[sawyen]

Just drop the cash for a 480W Tagan already!! You'll thank all of us.. trust me on this..

[plesuvius]

Yes i have a tagan and its a nice PSU. I think you might as well overspec the PSU and get a 500w+ unit cause its not as if you're gonne need to upgrade that. And that way, you can add more hard drives later!

my 480w is marginal at the moment, but then i have more stuff

[amjedm]

The Tagan will be enough as advised by other people here. A psu from a good manufacturer (Tagan, Fortron, Seasonic, Enermax etc.) will cope fine.

You have to watch out when using a psu (even if 500w) from a cheap manufacturer. You will hear the odd report about my QTec or Ebuyer was ok with this spec but most of us wouldn't trust a those psu's.