how much could i run with a 400w power supply

vagasplayer · Post by **vagasplayer** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:59 am

i have a

2.50ghz quad core
2 gb of 677mhz ram
8400gs 512mb
250gb barracuda 7200 hd
cd drive
and 2 fans for the cpu

could i swap the graphics card for a GeForce 9600 GSO 1GB or better card in the pricwe rang of 100usd

b_rubenstein · Post by **b_rubenstein** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 11:22 am

If it's any sort of decent 400w PS there should be no problem at all.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:00 pm

Even, if it's any sort of decent 300w PS there should be no problem at all.

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 3:29 pm

Hi, I ran my Core 2 Quad 9400 at 3.2GHz with a GTX260 off a Seasonic S12II-330w PSU for a while.
Granted the Core i5 is probably a hotter chip under load but the GTX260 doesn't exactly sip power

I think was running around 200w when Foldin@home on CPU and GPU.
400w should run quite a lot, does depend on the 12V rail(s) though as thats where most modern PCs draw power from.
For example I bought a very cheap "350watt" PSU the other (was suprisingly quiet too!) but it's only rated to 10A / 120w on the 12V rail so not great for modern PCs.
Regards, Seb

RBBOT · Post by **RBBOT** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:47 pm

I just bought myself a power meter and found my machine draws from the wall 180W when idle and 275W during game play - and as you can see, there are an above average number of components:

Core 2 duo E6600 overclocked to 3Ghz
4 x 2Gb DDR 800 RAM
Nvidia GTX8800 with 2 displays
1 x 500Gb Hard disks
Sound blaster audigy2 ZX
4 Nokia 800rpm fans
Corsair HX520 power supply
USB lava lamp!

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 4:39 pm

i was running this setup on 300W:

E6750 @ stock speeds
8gb DDR2-800
9600GT
2x HDD

and i was doing Virtual Machine work, FSP 300W ended up dying, not sure what happened, but it died, moved on to a 400W, and now it's rock solid.

300W lasted for a pretty good beating, but still died quickly.

Merlinen · Post by **Merlinen** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 4:53 am

With a Corsair 400w i did run this with some OC.

Core i7 [email protected]
Asus Maximus II gene
Corair 3x2gb XMS3
2 x Radeon 4770 crossfire
Intel X25-m

That machine did peek at about 330w.

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:01 am

bonestonne wrote:i was running this setup on 300W:

E6750 @ stock speeds
8gb DDR2-800
9600GT
2x HDD

and i was doing Virtual Machine work, FSP 300W ended up dying, not sure what happened, but it died, moved on to a 400W, and now it's rock solid.

300W lasted for a pretty good beating, but still died quickly.

I wouldn't say that the FSP dying was because you drew too much power. I too had an FSP 300W PSU die on one of our work PCs. Wasn't drawing more than 150W max. Another FSP 300W PSU has been running just fine for years in a similar setup. A 400W PSU could just have easily died as it was most likely a defect in the PSU. Overloading a PSU is not the only reason they die. In fact, I would guess that more PSUs die from defects and shoddy construction then being overloaded.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:48 am

I would guess that more PSUs die from defects and shoddy construction then being overloaded.

plus dirty power and voltage spikes.