How can I work out my power consumption?

N

ngc1967

New Member
I am buying a new PC with the following spec:-

i7-3770 3.4Ghz processor
Asus motherboard P8H61-M
2TB WD Green HDD
16GB RAM DDR3
DVD Writer
Onboard Graphics and Sound

There is no OS yet but I want to put on Windows 7 Pro

The PSU is only 300W which obviously is OK for the above spec otherwise the manufacturer wouldn't put it in.

But

If I want to add another SSD (120GB) and a Front Panel card reader with a couple of USB 3.0 ports on, how can I work out if I am on the power limit and therefore need to upgrade the PSU.

I read somewhere that the SSD is only about 2W and the HDD is about 10W so where is my main power being used?

On top of that I will occasionally plug in my USB sticks which will require power from the PC to run them as well.
 
That's kind of scary to see a 3770 with just a 300w PSU in there. I highly suggest building it yourself and with better quality parts.

As for adding those 2 parts, that's an almost negligible increase in power consumption. If you did get this PC I'd advise getting a better PSU than that because almost all prebuilts have crappy PSU's.
 
I wouldn't rely on those PSU calculators.

My Dad has an i7 3770 with no graphics card running on a Corsair CX 430 PSU. No problems to report, so I'd recommend you get one of those.

Adding hard drives and SSDs and stuff like that doesn't really have a massive impact on the power consumption. It's when you start adding graphics cards and overclocking stuff that your power consumption increases.
 
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