It’s a good idea to draw up a general power budget for a PC build before purchasing a power supply, rather than relying on the sometimes misleading ratings that vendors assign to their PSUs. You can do this by adding up the total energy draw from each of your system’s components. CPUs typically fall in a range of 35 to 130 watts, the motherboard from 25-50 watts sans RAM, drives usually fall between 15-20 Watts apiece, and graphics cards may require anywhere from 30 to 200 watts depending on the specific make and model in use. Add 30 percent to this total when you’re finished just to be on the safe side. If you want to make room for future components or upgrades, bump this fudge factor even higher, but don’t forget that power supplies tend to be somewhat less efficient as loads increase. |