Phoenix Network Forums

Me again

Some of you may be aware that I'm rebuilding my system so I can, err, show off, and I was wondering if we have a PSU wizard here! I'm having a bit of a problem finding a proper PSU, as I'm all confuzzled as to what voltage will suffice, and how many damn amps I'm in need of. I'm posting my soon-to-be specs below so if someone finds the time to either point me to a tutorial that is neither over my head or too long ( ), help me personally with the PSU problem or give me a few pointers as to if I should change something in my specs, please do give me hand

Please be aware, that what you will see is not for the gamers, but it should be whee for me and cheap too (so no: what a crappy mobo, and only 512 memory..):

MoBO: Asus A8V-VM
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Memory: M-TEC 512MB
HDD: Western Digital Sata II 160GB

Extra:
1 x DVD/CD player (burning)
1 x USB-device (camera, usb-stick, joystick)
Speakers (~40w)
1 x modem
1 x monitor

The specs specified above I am getting for about a little under 300 euros, and I was hoping the PSU wouldn't cost more than as little as possible
I'm ready to fork out 100e, but I would rather not if there is a cheaper alternative - thus before I buy the 500 watt monster with all the bells and whistles, I need to know how many watts I would need, minimum (read: the recommended amount for my specs), and what the hell the amps mean.

If anyone can help..?

First of all - monitor and speakers do not use power from PSU, so they are not an issue here. Second, you didn't tell us what graphic card are you going to install on your system.
But if you're not going to have more optic drives or PCI cards doing something, a brand name 350-400W should suffice your needs, and my guess is that it won't cost you more then 50-60€.

I don't have any suggestions concerning the brand itself but I can give you some guidelines. Go to AMD's website and try to find recomended current outputs on 12V and 5V power lines a PSU driving AMD CPU should have and take a good look on the PSU specifications when buying one.
Usualy the 12V power line is OK, but some (noname) PSUs lack current intesity on the 5V line - it should be about 30-33A.

cicika wrote:First of all - monitor and speakers do not use power from PSU, so they are not an issue here.

Oh yeah, that's what the power cord is for

cicika wrote:Second, you didn't tell us what graphic card are you going to install on your system.

'tis integrated into the mobo.

cicika wrote:I don't have any suggestions concerning the brand itself but I can give you some guidelines. Go to AMD's website and try to find recomended current outputs on 12V and 5V power lines a PSU driving AMD CPU should have and take a good look on the PSU specifications when buying one.
Usualy the 12V power line is OK, but some (noname) PSUs lack current intesity on the 5V line - it should be about 30-33A.

tyvm

I would recommend the same as what cicika said. I have a 450 watt PSU powering my Pentium III 800mhz with three 300 gig hard drives, a 32 meg graphics card, a wireless card, an ethernet card, a 16X DVD DL burner, a case fan, and a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 card. So far, so good. If I had more IDE cables, I'd also have a fourth 160 gig hard drive in here.

Good luck finding an affordable PSU. Mine is a no-name brand - but it works excellently. No-name brands can be a mixed bag, though, so if you have the money, go for a better brand and a model that has decent reviews. It's sad that you don't live in the United States -- newegg.com has excellent offers on PSUs, but they only ship to the US. I don't know any other place to recommend to you, since I buy 99% of all my computer parts off of there.

earg sdgh