P/S recommendation

you can read also this one
http://firingsquad.gamers.com/print_article.asp?current_section=Guides&fs_article_id=1162

what I am seeing from several of the website is that I need to make sure that I have enough +12V amps.  The 400 W is plenty of power, but the really question is can it handle the amps?  This is what i am getting from the websites. I am correct?
thanks for the help

Hello again,

power and amps are dependant things. Power = voltage x amps. Knowing that voltage is always the same, what you need is to know the amps that the device will use. If you have a power of 400W the part of this power gived to the 12V output should be 280W and the 5V output should be 120W (more or less, this is the proportional part).

So, if you have 280W with 12V you can give as much as 23 amps.

It's nice to remember the old electronic school's days ;)

As I said before, my opinion is that you can forget this matter with the PSU that you have and invest the time looking for a really breaking hard disk.

See you!

SoMoS

doing a little searching and some work in excel i have came up with this

      Amps at Voltage                  
part                      12V       5V       3.3 V      watts used
seagate hard drive      2.5      0.8            34
western digital      1.8      0.5            24.1
maxtor HD      1.05      0.4            14.6
case fan one      0.14                  1.68
case fan two      0.14                  1.68
case fan three      0.25                  3
case fan four      0.25                  3
case fan five      0.25                  3
cd rw                      1.5      1.5            25.5
cd rom                        1                  12
memory fan       0.11                  1.32
CPU fan                       0.5                  6
CPU Athon XP           8                  96
video card                  3      9.9
memory  1            3            15
memory 2                            3            15
mouse                             0.5            2.5
keyboard                            0.25            1.25
usb device 1            0.25            1.25
motherboard      0.5      3.5      1.5      28.45
pci controller card            1            5
floppy disk            0.8            4
usb device 2            0.25            1.25
total amps      18.99      15.75      4.5      321.48 total watts
                        
I understand that all these figures are on the high end of power consumtion.

listening to that many fans is not bad.  I can stand to listen to the noise if my equiment last two more years.

that did not turn out like it was supposed to

ok the max amps on +12V is 18 for my power supply.  As you can see(actually it is hard to see) that the max pull of amps from all the computer componets is 18.99 amps.  This is above the max of the power supply.  What can happen if to many amps are pulled?  I realize it is probably has something like a breaker system.  Also, how much does it effect the power supply?  In this I mean having about half or more being pulled all the time can not be good on the P/S in my eyes.  Would it drastically change how long the P/S will last?

It will probably take it for awhile, but that much strain over a long time is Not A Good Thing.

What happens to other hardware when a P/S goes out?

Depends on how it dies. Usually nothing happens to other hardware, but once in a great while ( rare ) it could send a spike thru the system, which could fry something.

Like coral47 says most of the time all you need to replace is the power supply. But a direct or very near hit of lighting can pass the power supply and also take out other componants such as the mother board. That is why it is realy important to have a good surge protector. One that opens up and will not let current through after it take a large spike. Good Luck, Jerry

Mmmmm, just wait a moment. There are more things to have in mind than what you are saying.Y ou can have several possibilities:

a) You have only a small overcurrent: that won't hurt for sure. Maybe the PSU works at 2º or 3º more but nothing else would happen. When a dessigner writes limits they are giving at least a 10% tolerance so you will be inside the tolerance. (Remember overcloking basics?)

b) You have a big overcurrent but not big enought to burn everythin, like a 25 - 40% more current for example. A swiched power supply will drop the voltage as the current goes up, so what you will have is a system that hangs. If you're smart enought to find what is happening you won't get the PSU burned. Of course, if you have it sometime with the overcurrent it will blow up finally.

c) You have a REALLY BIG overcurrent. Not like a lighting because it has nothing to do with overcurrents. This is a grow of the input voltage not a current requirement too high. You have just a too big current requirement. Here you can also have two possibilities, first the PSU can burn and then maybe something  can get damaged inside the computer. Also, all those switched PSU have shotcircuit protection. If you do a shortcircuit the PSU stops working before being damaged. So its possible that the PSU thinks that you have done a shortcircuit and will stop working until you power it again.

As you can see it's hard to damage a PSU (they're supossed to be robust!). The worst case is when you have only a, say 20%, overcurrent, too high for the tolerance, and not high enough to drop voltage. Then you can have a overheat with time that will damage the PSU over the time. You will notice this because the PSU will be really hot.

<<I can stand to listen to the noise if my equiment last two more years.>>
I really doubt 5 fans will help at all...might even hurt by kicking up the dust...but even if they do, how much will the system be worth in those last couple years?  I bet it isn't even worth the extra electric bill not to mention the cost of the fans and the annoyance of the noise.
Also, depending on the size of your old hd's it might be cheaper to put more $ into a larger new one rather than upgrading your ps.

thanks to eveyone who has posted. I have learned a lot of information. I divided the points up to how many times you posted.  Thanks again

Thank you, Jerry

Thank you much.    : )

Thank you :o)

Thanks.