Power Supply help?!

Is there anything special i should be looking for in a power supply.. i assume the more wattage and fans the better.. but should i stick to certain brands.. not go under a certain wattage? im building a new computer and the case may or may not come with a PS.. thanks in advance for the help..

 

Just because a power supply SAYS that it delivers XXX watts doesn't always mean that it can deliver those peak watts at steady voltages. One of the easiest ways to tell a good power supply is just by its weight, a good one will feel heavy, cheap ones feel light in comparision. Naturally STEADY voltage is a MUST, a cpu that operates at 1.3 volts won't be happy if that voltage fluctuates, if that voltage drop Windows might crash, if the voltage rises too much you can fry the cpu. Check this thread.

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10854

SLI DFI boards are among the most power hungry and demanding, here's a thread on DFI-Street.com about the recommended power supplies for a DFI SLI configuration, if you get one of these it will power anything you need. If you're not going for looks (like the OCZ) then the best deal is a 550 watt Fortron power supply. Froggle it or check newegg.com

If your needs are lesser then these same brands will still give good guidance at to quality. Also this thread has a link to a thread on the best psu for Intel machines, as well as lots of other links. Check it out.

 

but will a power supply that says 350W be good enough.. or should i be looking for 400w and above? thanks for the help

 

Good enough for WHAT!!! What processor, what mobo, what graphics cards, how many graphics cards, do you want to overclock it, how many hard drives, how many optical drives?

Google "power supply calculator" there are a couple of freebie programs out there and you can input what your plans are, and it will give you a minimum.

 

thanks.. id be looking to run a AMD 64x2 3800, dvdrom, dvdrw, 2 gb ram, 2 200gb HD, x800 VC, for the most part.. i'll check out the calculators.. thanks again

 

Then 350 watts won't be NEARLY enough. You need at least 450 watts for those things. I'd get a 500+ watt myself, a little headroom is always welcome. The 3800+ X2 cpu is 89 watts all by itself, that's at a stock 2.0 GHz, if you overclock then we're talking 110 watts or more, then you've got the motherboard, fans, the memory, the two big hard drives, the optical drives and the graphics card which likely uses a bunch of watts, etc.

With that setup you NEED a power supply that's on the DFI-street.com link list I provided earlier, anything less and you've got a good chance of having mysterious problems that come when a psu is taxed to the extreme.