How much wattage do I need?

[The_Dude]

Hey, guys.

I'm in need of a new PSU, and this time around I'm going to buy a name brand instead of the generic garbage that's about to die on me. First, I went here. Everything was fine and dandy until I got to the column on the right:

Now I don't know the first thing about PCI cards & slots, etc. Hell, I don't even know what PCI stands for (personal computer internet). Anyway, it'd probably be easier for me to show you my motherboard, and let y'all tell me what to check and what to leave unchecked. The generic PS I was using was a 550w unit. It seems like I didn't even need that much...

Specs:
Operating System: MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
CPU: 3.04GHz Intel Pentium D 930
RAM: 3GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 268MHz (4-4-4-12)
Motherboard: Gigabyte 965P-DS3 (Socket 775)
Graphics: VW26L HDTV10F @ 1360x768 NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512
Hard Drive: 500GB Seagate ST3500630AS ATA Device 37 °C
Optical Drive: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-212D ATA Device

Take into account that I might be upgrading my RAM from 3GB to 4-6GB within the next year or so...

Thanks in advance.

 

[FuryRosewood]

PCI refers to any addon cards you have, the white slots you are likely to see less of now with PCI-e 1x becoming more common... honestly that should be a good ballpark figure, probably can run it on a 400 or 450W psu easily, with headroom...

have a friend running a phenom 9500 with 3gig of ram and a pair of 500gb hdds, as well as a 9800GT all running off a 350W psu, its a gateway, but still is just a 350W psu...probably nearly maxxed tho.

 

[danthrax]

I would agree with FuryRosewood by saying that 450W should be more than enough, but a good number to go with. Might even wanna go to 500W if you ever plan on upgrading your GPU.

 

[DCIScouts]

I'd go with 500W minimum since you have to take into account that the PSU will drop effective output over time. And, if you want to upgrade the video card or and another hard drive or CD/DVD drive, then you need to add another 10 to 15 watts for each of those...

 

[Okedokey]

My next purcahse would definately be a Core 2 Duo rather than RAM. Your bottleneck is in your CPU and that motherboard will take Core 2 Duo/Quads.

Second, with the G92 GPU plus an inefficent CPU, you need at least 26A on the 12V rail (forget watts as it means little).

I would recommend this at $50 which can provide 12V rail of 32A. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

 

[Method9]

. . . I don't know the first thing about PCI cards & slots, etc. Hell, I don't even know what PCI stands for (personal computer internet).

PCI: peripheral component interconnect

. . . Anyway, it'd probably be easier for me to show you my motherboard, and let y'all tell me what to check and what to leave unchecked. . .

How are you connecting to the Internet? If it's wireless, there's a chance you might check the very first box titled, PCI NIC (NIC stands for network interface card--one way your PC might connect to the Internet). This is all kind of moot, since we're talking about adding 4W.

Most likely you are plugging in a cable that resembles a phone jack into the back (your RJ-45 port), so you can leave the first box unchecked.

All the other PCI boxes are for fancy hard drive setups that you don't have--leave them all unchecked.


On the bottom, select 1 instance of PCI-e x16 (this is for your GeForce 8800) and everything else blank.

Also, I'm counting 7 USB ports, not 4.

 

[bomberboysk]

My next purcahse would definately be a Core 2 Duo rather than RAM. Your bottleneck is in your CPU and that motherboard will take Core 2 Duo/Quads.

Second, with the G92 GPU plus an inefficent CPU, you need at least 26A on the 12V rail (forget watts as it means little).

I would recommend this at $50 which can provide 12V rail of 32A. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

Its almost worth it to grab one of these at 20% off over that, nice large 40A 12v rail and seasonic build:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030

Nothing wrong with the BP550, just seasonic outputs a far better unit than the FSP build BP550(quite poor ripple on the basiq's).

 

[87dtna]

A quality 400w power supply would handle everything you have no problem, even if you upgrade to a quad core CPU later on.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008&Tpk=corsair 400w

You should get 4gb of DDR2-1066 cas 5 ram, that would be a nice upgrade. The Pentium D 930 is not all that bad of a CPU, easily gameable without a bottleneck on most games.

 

[Okedokey]

Its almost worth it to grab one of these at 20% off over that, nice large 40A 12v rail and seasonic build:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030

Nothing wrong with the BP550, just seasonic outputs a far better unit than the FSP build BP550(quite poor ripple on the basiq's).

i only ever buy Corsairs, but hey seasonic same diff in many cases. I always avoid FSP, thanks for the heads up.

 

[The_Dude]

Thanks guys, I went ahead and got this one. You were all a big help

 

[87dtna]

Thanks guys, I went ahead and got this one. You were all a big help

Hmm, only two 17a rails....IMO a single 30a 12v rail is better. For the price you paid ($70 shipped) you could have done way better. Just my opinion.

 

[bomberboysk]

Hmm, only two 17a rails....IMO a single 30a 12v rail is better. For the price you paid ($70 shipped) you could have done way better. Just my opinion.

To be fair, its 80PLUS bronze, which the 80plus bronze units generally cost a bit more. I would have picked up an antec or 400W corsair before going with a dual rail seasonic...seasonic is about as good as it gets for ripple suppression, but only 408W on the +12v rails of that unit, and many of antec's units are seasonic built units.