Gateway Parts

How do I tell what type of power supply I need for the computer I'm building?

I'm looking at building my own computer from scratch and I have all the parts I need for it picked out with the exception of the power supply. I'm worried that the power supply that I get will be overkill or won't be enough to power my system.

Public Comments

1. hmm
2. hmm
3. the more watts the better, avg pcs use 400-500w these days but since your building your own id use around a 1000w power supply ps if your power suppply has more watts than your pc needs its no big deal
4. http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
5. It mostly depends on the graphics card you will be using and how much power it requires, and what kind of power connections it needs.
6. Depend of what you will buy for it. The graphics issue, if you want (GAMES) you will need power. Extreem Games, more power. If you will use SLI you need about 800W+ Single Card about 600W these are fore gamers. if you are a office user, you won't need much power. And remember, If you will spend more than a 1000$ on your pc, get a good Power Supply.
7. Well it depends on the kind of PC your going to build. If you build gaming rigs such as I do its good to get from an 800-1000 Watt Power Supply. Make sure if you ARE building a gaming rig and using Dual Graphics such as SLI and Crossfire, it is good to find one approved from NvIdia to support them. If you are building it for office, internet use, and not very much gaming. I would advise a 500-750 Watt Power Supply. I hope this helps and have fun on your build :D
8. It's not that hard to figure out what you need as long as you keep it simple. Basically, for a dual core system with one hard drive, one dvd burner, 4 sticks of memory and no graphics card you need a 300W psu. A quad core with the same components needs a 350W psu. Quads tend to draw a little more power. If you want to add a graphics card, you would add the max power draw of the card to the above psu, and the total is the size psu you need. Example: you have a quad system and want to use a graphics card that draws 150W, add the 150W to the 350W and the total is 500W. In the different systems that I've upgraded or built, I usually tend to add 50W to the size power supply I need so that I'm not maxing out the psu (I like to stay in the 60~80% usage range), plus it still allows for the addition of more memory, more drives, cards, etc. The harder way is to figure the wattage of each component, cpu 65~135W, motherboard ~25W, memory ~6W per stick, hard drive ~7W, optical drive ~15W, etc. When you buy a branded box system, unless it's high end, a slim tower or an all-in-one, it will usually have a 300W or 350W power supply in it. To help you avoid some of the garbage power supplies, here's a tiered power supply list that rates them from Best to Not Recommended. I've checked it out and it appears to be accurate. http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx If you plan on using a graphics card, here's a comparison chart that will tell you how many (if any) 6 pin pci-e power connectors the card uses (you'll need to know that for the power supply you get), the length of the card, and each cards max power draw. http://www.upgraderguides.com/hwdb.php?type=1&page=details&dev=260&dev2=26 If you need any more help, let me know.