DescentBB

I have never bought a power supply, and I have no idea how much power is really necessary for the computer. The hardware is as follows:

Power supply: 300W with 20-pin and 4-pin power connectors, both of which are connected
Mowherboard: Biostar TForce 550 with 24-pin and 4-pin power connectors
Video card: GeForce 7600 GT
Processor: AMD Athlon X2 4200+; socket AM2
RAM: 1GB DDR2
PCI card with two ATA ports
Two CD/DVD drives, one of which is a burner, both connected to said PCI card
300GB SATA hard drive and 120GB PATA hard drive, connected directly to motherboard
PCI card supplying additional USB and Firewire ports
USB floppy drive
USB joystick
Keyboard, cordless mouse, two speakers, microphone USB printer

I calculated that the power supply should be 650W via http://www.pcpower.com/technology/power_usage/. Does this seem reasonable? Would upgrading the power supply have a noticeable effect on performance? I have no fans on the case except for the one on the power supply. Are additional fans necessary? Thank you.

400 watts would be plenty, 500 if you are feeling spendy. You don't need more then that unless you plan on doing extreme overclocking. I prefer Fortron Source (FXP) or PC Power & Cooling brands. Just make sure you get one that has an ATX-24 pin connector, those will be compatible with any motherboard.

Case fans are good for cooling and the overall health of your system, it also pays to keep your hard drives cool. Just make sure you get QUIET case fans, it doesn't take a lot of power to do the job, but if you get noisy fans you will regret it.

I would recommend getting Vantec Stealth fans, that’s all I run in my cases, along with an Antec Neo-HE power supply. Be careful on getting the PSU on ebay, Antec went through a few revisions, so your best bet is getting it from a known distributor.

Thank you. 650 did seem like a lot. I don't really do extreme gaming, but I do play a new one every so often. Would a switching from 300W to 420W or so make the computer faster in general? Thank you.

Getting a more or less powerful PSU will not have any effect on the speed of your computer at all. However if the PSU is not powerful enough it can cause stability problems and crashing.

Krom wrote:Getting a more or less powerful PSU will not have any effect on the speed of your computer at all. However if the PSU is not powerful enough it can cause stability problems and crashing.

In that case, I will not get a new power supply, but I have learned a few things in any event. Thank you.