This PSU and this vidya card

F

fortyways

banned
So, the machine in blue in my sig, it's got this, an Antec EarthWatts 380 PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371005

And I want to put this in it, a GeForce 8400 GS:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127316

According to the video card/PSU list here, the 8400GS needs a 300 watt power supply and 20 amps on the 12V rail. I'm not sure how many mine has. It was a 12V1 and 12V2 rail, each with 17 amps, but it doesn't say the total 12V wattage for me to divide by 12, and it doesn't give the overall amperage of the 12V rails.

Is this a safe thing to do? According to the list, the 8500 actually needs less amperage which I don't really understand. Does it consume less power?
 
It's safe. It's only a little bit better than onboard, from what I know, I'm sure something less than 20a would suffice as well. Especially considering the gaming being done on it wouldn't be as much a power hike as gaming on a higher end card would be.
 
It provides a total of +12V@27A, and is more than sufficient for that video card. To answer your other question, yes, I believe that the 8500GT does actually use less power than the 8400GS (although I wouldn't concern myself too much about the difference between 18A and 20A in the recommendations list, since these lowend video cards don't have a huge impact on overall system power consumption).
 
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Well if the 8500 uses less power I might as well spend the extra $30 and get something that I know works for me.

Thanks both, especially for telling me my 12V amperage, I couldn't find it anywhere.
 
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