I think RAP meant it in a more general way whypowt (lol, wipeout?), and that he simply dislikes the way PSUs are labeled and advertised nowadays. And with that he would have a very good point, as for some time we've seen some horrible overkill being done with all those 1KW PSUs that give a gazillion W on the 12v rail.

As for 15A, I guess to a lot of people it will be enough. A friend of mine had an HP system, and it came with only a 250W PSU. It had a Pentium D even, and later on he added an X1900GT, and I never heard of any problems at all. The ratings aren't everything, but you really need to know what brand you're picking. Of course, with lower official ratings you're always taking a gamble. But well, my PSU is branded as a 580W model, offering 360W on the 12v rails. So far it's been handling everything I've thrown at it, although I haven't done any multi GPU systems, I think I really purchased a great PSU considering future investments.

But indeed, nowadays you need the 12v rail for almost anything, better safe than sorry, but with a quality 500W model you don't have to look any further.

 

I think RAP meant it in a more general way whypowt (lol, wipeout?)

......But well, my PSU is branded as a 580W model, offering 360W on the 12v rails. So far it's been handling everything I've thrown at it, although I haven't done any multi GPU systems, I think I really purchased a great PSU considering future investments.

But indeed, nowadays you need the 12v rail for almost anything, better safe than sorry, but with a quality 500W model you don't have to look any further.

whypowt can also mean "why pout?" or "whip out" depending on your contextual interpretation of a made-up similar sounding word.

as for your psu, it's a little more realistic at 30A than previosly mentioned15A. these days, even for a budget pc i would not go below 20 or 25A, with 16A only just adequate for pcs with no gpu card. lower may work, but not for long.

my only other advice is look at the specs for the model on the official website, or view the label on the psu case itself - do not trust what you read on boxes.

 

dislike and call me censored names all you like, but you are the jerk-offerer here, and here's why:

at 230w you need 19A + 20% overhead = about 24A,
your recommendation of 15A is a joke, and so are you. you shouldn't subtract 20%, this is why you build cheaper pc's: because you are incompetent. also note that the cpu also requires about 12A at 12v on top of that = 36A total, you are giving people false advice, and the core of your exessively long post was invalid - get to the point and stop confusing people [and yourself]

I wasn't referring to you, specifically, but to the one that started the whole more amp = better argument. We had a loooong discussion about it back in the days. And it was getting to me, so I probably went a bit overboard there. My bad...

Now, back to your statements, I would have to completely disagree that the CPU draws that much from the 12V rail. It's true that it draws the majority of its power from the 12V rail, but not all of its power from the 12V rail. But I'd consider the wattage rating of the CPU as well.

A CPU rated for 65W (most dual-core nowadays) would mean that you need to be able to supply 65W to it for it to operate normally. So about... 5.4A necessary. Not more. But these ratings are mostly for the worst case scenario so the manufacturer is not listing them as the least requirement. In the worst case scenario, where you stress both the GPU and CPU to their absolute limits, you'd need that kind of Amp. There is nothing in this world that you can run to get them to hit that limit except for Folding@Home or something similarly taxing... or at least I haven't found anything else that could do it.

12A on 12V rail? That's 144W. It's true that you'd need that kind of power supply for really monstrous CPUs with requirements upwards of 130W, some quad-core enthusiast would like that... But I don't think anyone looking for a budget build would even consider something like that. Though I could be wrong...

Or if you'd be so kind as to explain to me how in this review here:
Test Setup - Galaxy GeForce 9600 GT LowPower LowProfile | [H]ard|OCP
Overclocking - Power - Temp - Galaxy GeForce 9600 GT LowPower LowProfile | [H]ard|OCP

The QX9650, rated at 130W, coupled with a 9600GT, can possibly use only a bit over 200W for a full system load in game test? That's just roughly 18A drawn from the 12V, disregarding 3V and 5V altogether. Meaning you don't even need a 300W PSU to run a quad-core along with a 9600GT? Wait... what?

Nah, just kidding. But honestly, I think you should start taking some meters to your system and start taking some readings. I'm sure you'll be amazed at just how much power your PSU still have left. It's just the way these parts are built. We are past the age of Pentium 4 when components would draw monstrous levels of voltage and require so much more to sustain the load.

So, no need to get hostile here. I'm just trying to tell you how something you've learned or read from other people can be misleading. Specifically, I wouldn't trust those "power consumption calculators" on the internet to pick my PSU, and I can see you are the same. It's good to go overboard and be sure, but when you are on a tight budget, I'd think carefully about how you'd like to choose your components. The wattage rating of the CPU, the wattage rating of the GPU, other components, and minimal parts.

I won't deny it. When I go cheap, I can go extremely cheap... but cheap is good IMO. There is no shame in trying to be economic about what you are doing (especially in this economy). Why must you spend $500 on a great build, when you can spend $250 on a decent build with similar specs? And if you go cheap, you'll have the budget to get better parts next year.

But that's just how I do it. I'm not going to tell you to do the same as you obviously believe in something else. Me, I'm just a cheap system builder trying to get by, who also happens to dislike the way corporates are lying to people to get them to buy more. But hey, perhaps I was a bit too excited, so my apologies if I said anything wrong. I'd also love to hear your opinions, so feel free to correct me.

 

editut of curiosity, who was this person you had the argument with?

5.4A for a cpu? the cpu needs a mainboard to run, and according to most respected manufacturers 16A is the min needed just for a mobo/cpu.

as for the links, the quad without gpu rated as using 120w=[10A+20%]=12A total

with [low power/low profile] gpu 200w=[16A+20%]=19-20A

with the gtx 260 at 300w, it needs 30A

-so my previous post still stands

 

Well, someone from another forums... I'm not there that often anymore...

And my friend, I think I've already gotten my point across there if you can accept that the same system (Core 2 Quad + 4GB of RAM + 500GB HDD + GTX 260) would need 30A to operate.

30A means pretty much any decent 450W PSU with power to spare can handle such a system with ease. Like this one here:

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite Power RS-400-PSAR-J3 400W ATX12V v2.31 Power Supply

Specs:

+3.3V@20A, +5V@16A, +12V1@16A, +12V2@16A, -12V@0.8A, 5VSB@2.5A

And it's only $30. It has 32A on the 12V rail total (16A for each division), more than enough to handle the system according to you.

If you're not building a Core 2 Quad system with 4GB of RAM and a GTX 260, I can only imagine that that same PSU would be enough.

Or if you are the absolute cheapo, like me, I'd even go for this PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104951

It also has 31A on 12V. :lol: Oh and there's also something funny: it's compatible with Core i7. That says something, right?

 

Is any of the stuff I'm saying helping you tom_mai?

Yes, very helpful. I'm not going to give up just on that.

And there are more stuffs just below your post. So, what I am going to do, is to read all of them and make sure I get them right.

 

And my friend, I think I've already gotten my point across there if you can accept that the same system (Core 2 Quad + 4GB of RAM + 500GB HDD + GTX 260) would need 30A to operate.

30A means pretty much any decent 450W PSU with power to spare can handle such a system with ease. Like this one here:

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite Power RS-400-PSAR-J3 400W ATX12V v2.31 Power Supply

Specs:

And it's only $30. It has 32A on the 12V rail total (16A for each division), more than enough to handle the system according to you.

i think also my point has gotten across, as now you are looking at amps which you were previously against. it's risky looking at watts alone as many come to that total with excessive amps on the 3.3/5v rails, and that's not where you need it.

 

Nope, I wasn't against Amps. I was against very high Amps = better.

Since it's a budget build we have been discussing here, very high Amps seems like a waste...

Though that 300W FSP PSU I found on Newegg was quite a surprise. It's obviously capable of more than 300W if it can push 15.5A through 12V..

 

FSP Group PSUs tend to be as solid as anything else but loud. They're definitely not cheap garbage though.