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General discussion

Power Supply Unit ~ ~ ~ Watts ???

Nov 21, 2004 1:59AM PST

My present PSU is 250Watts - Is this enough power for my system described below?

Motherboard without onboard devices
2 x Fans (including PSU fans)
Memory (512 SDRAM)
1 x Graphic Card
1 x PCI Sound
1 x PCI Network Card
2 x HDD
1 x CDRW
1 x DVD
1 x Floppy
1 x USB devices
1 x Keyboard
1 x Mouse
1 x PCI Modem
CPU: Intel P3 @ 651GHz
Windows XP Pro SP2

Tks
Poltonis

Discussion is locked

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Re: Power Supply Unit ~ ~ ~ Watts ???
Nov 21, 2004 2:03AM PST

This system has to be 3-4 years old, why are you asking this now?

Many systems from that time came with 250Watt power supplies and they were sufficient, more would be better, but if it has run for 3-4 years it probably was enough.

If you needed to replace it you probably want to get a 350-400 Watt PSU, but unless you are having problems you don't benefit changing out a power supply on such an old system.

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Re: Power Supply Unit ~ ~ ~ Watts ???
Nov 21, 2004 2:20AM PST

You are right - I have had the PC for 4 years. But I added the DVD RW and Second Hard Disk few days ago. The shop assistant asked me whether I wanted a 400W PSU also. I declined as I have already changed the original 200W PSU to a new one (250W P4 Ready)10 months ago. Some people tell you 250Watts is enough others insist on something more powerful! I just don't want to spend money on something not useful.
Thanks for your added input.

Poltonis

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Re: Power Supply Unit ~ ~ ~ Watts ???
Nov 21, 2004 2:11AM PST

personally, i'd go with a major upgrade of power supply if for no other reason than eventually you will need to so why not now. if your system is running fine with your 250, then you may not need one, but any future system upgrades (especially upgrading that cold-molasses speed cpu) will probably require more juice.