hey everyone, im new to this website and currently working on a near silent pc solution. i really like the PW-200 psu, except i would like to have a little more wattage than 200 watts, so i was curious as to how i would go about linking two of them together so i can get 400 watts. any advice on how to do this would be great. thanks.

There are a few simple solutions. one power supply manufacturer specified its powersupply as being able to run in pair.

How, simple ATX cable that automaticaly turned on second power supply. Not sure if it actualy was able to link the power lines of both ATX lines for single motherboard, but morelikely it used second powersupply to power other periferials (HD/Vid/Optic/etc)

Similar idea to what termaltake (i think it was them) created a "5 1/2 bay" power booster.

Some have argued against using two PSUs, such as if you join them together the voltage won't be stable, or that if you run them separately there wouldn't be enough load on the 3.3V and 5V rails on the PSU not connected to the motherboard. Some say these are not good for the PSUs. What do you guys think?

prodeous, so you are saying that i can get some sort of atx cable splitter to hook up both the psus? i dont need to run more than 200 watts to the motherboard, infact my whole system load power is probably under 125 watts (havent quite got around to calculating it). having one psu run the motherboard and having the other psu running the other components would be ideal.

You might want to calculate this first; you may not even need 2 PW-200Ms.

what would be the most accurate way to calculate my systems total power consumption?

If you list your components we can normally produce a total accurate to within +/-10%, normally more accurate than those PSU calculators you find on the 'net. there might even be someone w/ a similar build who can give you actual power consumption numbers.

my system components are as follows:
asus k8n-vm mobo
athlon 64 mobile 3000+@ 2.2ghz
1gb Kingston ram
300gb maxtor pata hdd
asus geforce 7300gt @530mhz core 900mhz memory
LG DvDrw
firewire/usb pci card

thanks in advance for everyone's help

at first look I would say 125W max is about right, can you download CPU-Z so we can find out what core you have (ie Clawhammer/Oakville/Newark).

unfortunatly my cpu has not come in the mail yet:( it's a clawhammer core and i've heard of people pushing the chip to well over 2.2 ghz so i can only assume that i will hit my 2.2 ghz mark. right now im using a sempron 2800 as a replacement until my a64 comes in. once i have it up and running ill be sure to get all the specs on it.

another question- im my motherboards manual it says not to use a power supply less than 300watts, so even if all of my system components use less than 125 watts will this be a problem?

Manufacturers often overestimate what the system may need--mostly to compensate for crap power supplies that SAY 500W but really only are capable of putting out half that. It seems like most less reputable psu manufacturers add up their wattage numbers with some creative math.

As long as you're sticking to quality PSU's, you won't need anything more than the calculated load of your system (+10% for good measure). Have you read SPCR's Power Supply Fundamentals article? IIRC even the most powerful system only drew 265W...so you should be fine.