Motherboard wattage

Y

yahn

New Member
How do you figure out the wattage a motherboard needs? The PSU calculators that I've seen just estimate the wattage based on whether it has integrated graphics or not.

Is there a good way to estimate it? Do ATX, mATX, and ITX boards need different wattages?

Thanks,
 
whats your setup?
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Well, I'm thinking of purchasing used SFF business computers in bulk, but I need to know how much extra power the PSU has so that I know what I can add to them.

I had an SFF Dell PC a few years ago and added an 64 MB AGP graphics card and memory with no issue. But, some of these SFF PCs only have a 140W-185W PSU. I'm wondering what will be left over after the 89W from the processor, 30W from the RAM, and 30W from the HDD. I read that AGP cards use 30W-50W of power, but I'm not able to find out the wattage on the card either.
 
Really hard to tell. The chipsets dont use much, unless it has onboard video and you are using it. What kind of CPU you use pulling through the CPU power connector. Or what video card you using, most PCIe slots can pull up to or alittle more then 75W, plus if it has PCIe power connectors, but those are really pulling straight through the power supply and not through the board. If you have any PCI cards.

Alot of things will make it vary.
 
Boards don't generally use much themselves, they get it from the power supply and give it to the components through the motherboard. A good way to guesstimate usage is add the TDP of your CPU, GPU, HDD and any other parts that have it listed and there's your maximum power draw if all components are under 100% load.
 
Boards don't generally use much themselves, they get it from the power supply and give it to the components through the motherboard. A good way to guesstimate usage is add the TDP of your CPU, GPU, HDD and any other parts that have it listed and there's your maximum power draw if all components are under 100% load.
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That's what I figured, but I've been looking at PSU wattage calculators and, unless I'm looking at them wrong, they are adding 30W-60W for the motherboard. That's not a lot, but, at the same time, I'd like to figure out what exactly it is so that I know how much wattage I'll need.

Is 30W-60W a good estimate? There's a huge difference between the two and it seems way too high. I don't want to randomly add 60W to every system unnecessarily...
 
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That 30-60W is probably for the RAM more than anything else. Generally, I take the TDP of my components and add 150-200w for overclocking/other components.
 
POWER REQUIREMENTS for computers

This guide will give you an idea as to what capacity Power Supply you will require when building your own or upgrading your PC.

Add up the power needs of all your components of your computer to find out what size PSU you need.
Aim for around 50-70% of total capacity which should still leave room for upgrade expansion.

MOTHERBOARD
A small board for compact PC's 25W
An average Desktop motherboard 35W
A high end motherboard 50W

INTEL PROCESSOR
Core 2 Duo 8xxx 65W
Core 2 Duo 9xxx 95W
Core 2 Quad 95W
Core 2 Duo Extreme 150W
Core I3 75W
core I5 95W
Core I7-8xx 95W
Core I7-9xx 130W

AMD PROCESSOR
Athlon II X2 'e' 45w
athlon II X2 65W
Athlon II X3 45W
Athlon II X4 95W
Phenom II X2 80W
Phenom II X3 95W
Phenom II X4 X6 140w

Graphics card
AGP or lesser with no extra power 50W
PCI-E with no seperate power supply 75W
PCI_E with 6 pin connector 150W
PCI-E with two 6 pin connector 225W
PCI-E with 8 pin connector 225W
PCI-E with 8 pin and 6 pin connector 300W

MEMORY
Single stick of DDR 6W
Two sticks of DDR 12W
Four sticks of DDR 24W
Two sticks of DDR2 8w
Four sticks of DDR2 16w
Two sticks DDR3 6W
Four sticks DDR3 12w
Six sticks of DDR3 18w

Fans 5w to 10W

Optical Drives 10W

IDE Hard Drives 15W

SATA Hard Drives 10W

Solid State Hard Drives 10W


As mentioned it will give you an idea of your power supply requiremnts

Brand name Power supplies your choice.

Cheers
 
MMM said:
POWER REQUIREMENTS for computers

This guide will give you an idea as to what capacity Power Supply you will require when building your own or upgrading your PC.

Add up the power needs of all your components of your computer to find out what size PSU you need.
Aim for around 50-70% of total capacity which should still leave room for upgrade expansion.

MOTHERBOARD
A small board for compact PC's 25W
An average Desktop motherboard 35W
A high end motherboard 50W

INTEL PROCESSOR
Core 2 Duo 8xxx 65W
Core 2 Duo 9xxx 95W
Core 2 Quad 95W
Core 2 Duo Extreme 150W
Core I3 75W
core I5 95W
Core I7-8xx 95W
Core I7-9xx 130W

AMD PROCESSOR
Athlon II X2 'e' 45w
athlon II X2 65W
Athlon II X3 45W
Athlon II X4 95W
Phenom II X2 80W
Phenom II X3 95W
Phenom II X4 X6 140w

Graphics card
AGP or lesser with no extra power 50W
PCI-E with no seperate power supply 75W
PCI_E with 6 pin connector 150W
PCI-E with two 6 pin connector 225W
PCI-E with 8 pin connector 225W
PCI-E with 8 pin and 6 pin connector 300W

MEMORY
Single stick of DDR 6W
Two sticks of DDR 12W
Four sticks of DDR 24W
Two sticks of DDR2 8w
Four sticks of DDR2 16w
Two sticks DDR3 6W
Four sticks DDR3 12w
Six sticks of DDR3 18w

Fans 5w to 10W

Optical Drives 10W

IDE Hard Drives 15W

SATA Hard Drives 10W

Solid State Hard Drives 10W


As mentioned it will give you an idea of your power supply requiremnts

Brand name Power supplies your choice.

Cheers
Click to expand...

May I ask where you got that info from? Handy to know.
 
linkin said:
May I ask where you got that info from? Handy to know.
Click to expand...
Two magazines in Australia worth reading with wealth of knowledge for computers phones and any thing else to do with the latest technology.

PC Tech&Authority and PC User, have been reading these for years and also a good book for you to read is Upgrading and Repairing PC's by Scott Mueller which by now would be releasing his 20th Edition.... one of the best reference books available... must have for any one.

I have been building and repairing computers since 1990, but not much these days as I only do it for a hobby now.
 
MMM said:
Two magazines in Australia worth reading with wealth of knowledge for computers phones and any thing else to do with the latest technology.

PC Tech&Authority and PC User, have been reading these for years and also a good book for you to read is Upgrading and Repairing PC's by Scott Mueller which by now would be releasing his 20th Edition.... one of the best reference books available... must have for any one.

I have been building and repairing computers since 1990, but not much these days as I only do it for a hobby now.
Click to expand...

Alright cheers, might check that out.
 
That 30-60W is probably for the RAM more than anything else. Generally, I take the TDP of my components and add 150-200w for overclocking/other components.
Click to expand...

I've also read that you only want to use 80% of your PSU. I don't know if this is just a warning to keep you from going over, but it made sense when you look at the efficiency of the PSUs.

Two sticks DDR3 6W
Four sticks DDR3 12w
Six sticks of DDR3 18w
Click to expand...

Memory wattage is directly related to the amount of bytes of storage it has -- unless I've been disgustingly misinformed. It also apparently matters on the type of components inside the chip. I've read that some 4 GB sticks operate at 8W, so those figures could be way off. But, seeing as I have no idea how that term was actually calculated, you could be right on the money.
 
I've also read that you only want to use 80% of your PSU. I don't know if this is just a warning to keep you from going over, but it made sense when you look at the efficiency of the PSUs.
Click to expand...

If it's a quality PSU it should be able to handle 120% load ;) But yes, the less you stress them, the longer they last.
 
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