Wattage & Amps
By cmdr001
@cmdr001 (371)
Portugal
September 12, 2009 4:26am CST
So, I was considering building a computer and since it has been a while since I last had to worry in assembling a machine I realized that these days components are a bit more power hungry.
Quad-Core CPUs shouldn't be light power guzzlers, we got VGA cards sucking power from the PCI-E slot PLUS two external connectors, add the hard disks and other cards, plus the RAM and...
It's a lot of thing eating power and leaving one without knowing that power supply to purchase. Sure, I could just go out and purchase a over 9000W (Pardon the lame joke) PSU with God knows how many amps on its N 12V/5V rails, but I surely wouldn't be using all that.
Clearly it's a bad idea to try and get a PSU to feed the system just marginally, but it's also pointless to invest on a super-powerful PSU that'll be at waste. Unfortunately, the manufacturers don't really provide enough information at times in their sites neither... for example, I was a while back about to buy a ATI HD4850 without knowing of the external feeding and how that sucker alone will probably require about 10amps from the 12V line... my PSU wouldn't cut it.
Anyone knows a certifiable hardware list or something that encompasses information for the power ratings? Clearly just the Wattage these days isn't enough, so I needed something that both analyzed watts and amps.
Any ideas?
1 person likes this
4 responses
@dhugoi (315)
• Philippines
12 Sep 09
If you buy PSU separately, you can check the wattage and amps, its on the label. 500 watts is the safe bet, and also you can ask for PSU with double fan, which reduce the heat it creates, there are lots of them now, the only question is your budget, if you're willing to spend more. you can also ask how many connector, the more connector they have the better the design. good luck.
@cmdr001 (371)
• Portugal
12 Sep 09
The PSU in itself is not the problem. I am aware that I can check on the PSU itself for the ratings or I could try and ask the supplier, but more often than not they provide this kind of information on their webpages and so.
So I can buy the one I want.
The problem however is knowing which one I -do- want.
For example, you go look at the specs of an ATI card and the most ATI advises is to have a have PSU with N Watts. I came to learn after that the wattage wasn't all that mattered, so does the amperage since a given equipment may require more power on the 12V rail than on the 5V rail (or vice-versa if we look at HDDs). But they don't give the power requirements in terms of amperage.
If I had bought the VGA with my current PSU.. they advised 400, mine is 520W, but it wouldn't be able to power it... so I'd be screwed.
Thus I was wondering if out there someone knew about a list that encompassed a lot of hardware and respective power requirements.
One way or the other though, thank you for the response.
@shankarbaddi (785)
• India
13 Sep 09
I I think you need to change your smps of your computer so as to save power. As this is the main unit that consumes power and supplies to the mother board. This smps contains various power consuming. Like there are smps that consume only 700watts some that consume 600 watts. I feel i have some how given the best information that you needed.
@May2k8 (18080)
• Indonesia
12 Sep 09
usually given a lot of power on the processor is having to process all the data into the desired shape. If your VGA is using 3D image then it can be used for two power VGA and processor. You could find it in their manual book (how maximum power), for Quad Core I think 500W-550W. I only have Pentium IV-2.66Ghz plus two hard-disk plus On-board VGA plus LAN-Card and consume 1.5A in my AVR, 220 Volt Output then the 330 wattage has been using. Try a AVR with 1000W with Ampere Meter, and you can see how much they use the Wattage & Amp because in Power Supply have been converted from A.C. to D.C. then I do not know to calculated the right way.
