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Is a 300-watt PSU enough for this build?

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First post, by darkNiGHTS

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  • ATX Motherboard
  • Athlon 64 3000+
  • 6600 GT AGP 8X
  • 3x512MB DDR RAM
  • 3-4 hard drives and an optical drive

I am considering getting a NOS In-Win case with an included 300-watt power supply. It's a good opportunity to get a brand new power supply with only IDE power connectors and In-Win is a respectable brand. From what I can tell, my CPU has a TDP of 67W (with the possibility of upgrading to an 89W) and my GPU a TDP of 47W. I would like 3-4 hard drives and an optical drive. I do not plan on overclocking. How much is consumed by the remaining parts and how much overhead do I need?

If there is any doubt, I may buy all the parts except for the PSU/case and hook it up to a random PSU I have and use Kill-a-watt to get a rough estimation.

Thanks!

Reply 1 of 6, by Ampera

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IMO that's fine. I've seen more powerful systems weasel by on a 300w PSU.

If you're not sure you can always test. Take the TDP of your GPU and CPU, add them. Motherboard can be ignored as it draws a negligible amount of power. Same with the fans. Take the hard drive rated power (On the label) and add it on. That's close to the rated TDP of your system. You traditionally want to shoot for about 80% load on any PSU, but it's not critical.

Reply 3 of 6, by Ampera

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Roman78 wrote:

Mainboard can take between 25 and 40 watt depending on brand and equipment.

Harddisk take between 5 and 10 watt. 2,5" Harddisk take between 1 and 4 watt. SSD less than 1 Watt.

Do you have any sources to back this up?

Even the Z68 chipset has a TDP of 6.1, with the rest of the components being passive, and that's a relatively modern chipset comparatively.

Reply 4 of 6, by darkNiGHTS

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Awesome, thanks for the advice guys. 80% load is 240 watts so even if I used a 90 watt CPU and my mainboard takes up 50 watts, that still leaves 50 watts for hard drives, fans, and optical drives which sounds about right. I hope I can get >137GB drives working in Windows 98 SE, then I wouldn't need more than two drives and I should be well under the limit.

Reply 5 of 6, by maximus

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According to Outervision, that system will draw about 304 watts under load. They recommend a 350 watt power supply, which is about the minimum I'd feel comfortable with. You may be pushing your luck with a 300 watt power supply.

PCGames9505

Reply 6 of 6, by BananaBonez

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Not enough information given. Beware. That PSU that comes from the InWin case could be a 5 volt heavy unit only capable of powering a PIII board. Athlon64 boards are normally powered from the +12V line. Use exteme caution before using such an PSU.

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