How to calculate PSU load?

[nootnoot1277]

Hey guys

 

Can anyone give me the proper way to calculate your psu requirements? 

Just to clarify, I've been building for years and always gone for more than what I need within reason and chose sensibly but right now I'm building up a Shuttle 2003 retro gaming PC and need to get a PSU for it and being Flex ATX means I'm limited on PSU wattage without breaking the bank so im trying to figure out what my total load would be so I don't have to overspend for not reason. I've got a rough idea but just wanna clarify.

To my knowledge it's the TDP or each part combined but I'm not sure how much the mobo, hdd, odd consume.

 

Specs:

Athlon 64 3200+ (Clawhammer): 89w

Radeon 9550: can't find TDP anywhere but the 9600 supposedly is 12w so I'd guess it's around that?

2x 1gb DDR Dimms

1 x 7.2k rpm SATA drive

1 x ODD

 

Just totalling up the main components with the 9550 as 20w since I'm not certain what it draws, I'm coming up with 141w that's *including* a 30% overhead so I'm guessing once I add ram, mobo and drives it would be around 200w?

 

Am I close or totally wrong?

[SavageNeo]

5 minutes ago, nootnoot1277 said:

Just totalling up the main components with the 9550 as 20w since I'm not certain what it draws, I'm coming up with 141w that's *including* a 30% overhead so I'm guessing once I add ram, mobo and drives it would be around 200w?

 

Am I close or totally wrong

it is afr more than 200w but still under 400w. any decent 450w-550w psu will do. i suggest you to get corsair cx 550w.

[nootnoot1277]

10 minutes ago, SavageNeo said:

it is afr more than 200w but still under 400w. any decent 450w-550w psu will do. i suggest you to get corsair cx 550w.

*Sigh* you didn't read the bit where I said Flex ATX did you?

[johnny5c]

13 minutes ago, nootnoot1277 said:

Hey guys

 

Can anyone give me the proper way to calculate your psu requirements? 

Just to clarify, I've been building for years and always gone for more than what I need within reason and chose sensibly but right now I'm building up a Shuttle 2003 retro gaming PC and need to get a PSU for it and being Flex ATX means I'm limited on PSU wattage without breaking the bank so im trying to figure out what my total load would be so I don't have to overspend for not reason. I've got a rough idea but just wanna clarify.

To my knowledge it's the TDP or each part combined but I'm not sure how much the mobo, hdd, odd consume.

 

Specs:

Athlon 64 3200+ (Clawhammer): 89w

Radeon 9550: can't find TDP anywhere but the 9600 supposedly is 12w so I'd guess it's around that?

2x 1gb DDR Dimms

1 x 7.2k rpm SATA drive

1 x ODD

 

Just totalling up the main components with the 9550 as 20w since I'm not certain what it draws, I'm coming up with 141w that's *including* a 30% overhead so I'm guessing once I add ram, mobo and drives it would be around 200w?

 

Am I close or totally wrong?

I had almost a identical setup with a Shuttle bare bones for my first HTPC and you're probably pretty close on your calculation but because the Flex ATX PSUs have such horrible cooling I would go with a 300 watt unit.

[nootnoot1277]

14 minutes ago, johnny5c said:

I had almost a identical setup with a Shuttle bare bones for my first HTPC and you're probably pretty close on your calculation but because the Flex ATX PSUs have such horrible cooling I would go with a 300 watt unit.

100% agree I planned on going 300w anyway i was just checking to make sure that wasn't undercutting what I needed if that makes sense. I had a feeling it would be enough since iirc drives really only use like 10w or something like that and the mobo about 30 plus I've give it the 30% overhead so im pretty sure I should be right I just wanted to make sure I want doing the calculation totally wrong haha.

Thanks mate

[johnny5c]

22 minutes ago, nootnoot1277 said:

100% agree I planned on going 300w anyway i was just checking to make sure that wasn't undercutting what I needed if that makes sense. I had a feeling it would be enough since iirc drives really only use like 10w or something like that and the mobo about 30 plus I've give it the 30% overhead so im pretty sure I should be right I just wanted to make sure I want doing the calculation totally wrong haha.

Thanks mate

I had a XP 2800 and a Radeon 9250 in mine and the included 220 watt PSU was stable but ran hot and only lasted a few months.  I upgraded to a 300 watt unit and it ran 24/7 for years as a DVR with a WinTV card.

[nootnoot1277]

23 minutes ago, johnny5c said:

I had a XP 2800 and a Radeon 9250 in mine and the included 220 watt PSU was stable but ran hot and only lasted a few months.  I upgraded to a 300 watt unit and it ran 24/7 for years as a DVR with a WinTV card.

Yeah that makes sense I can see why. I'm just gonna get one of the models that was a recommended upgrade in these and rock the 300w. The original blew up years ago i've just had a full-size SFX sitting in the drive bay but it's a bit jank and I wanna use the drive bay so I thought bugger it lets finally do this properly and put a PSU in it that actually fit and then I can play some Half Life 2

[johnny5c]

2 minutes ago, nootnoot1277 said:

Yeah that makes sense I can see why. I'm just gonna get one of the models that was a recommended upgrade in these and rock the 300w. The original blew up years ago i've just had a full-size SFX sitting in the drive bay but it's a bit jank and I wanna use the drive bay so I thought bugger it lets finally do this properly and put a PSU in it that actually fit and then I can play some Half Life 2

Now I wish I still had mine, with the lockdown I could definitely get a few of the old crew into some Starcraft or BF1942.  

 

This is the model I had,

https://www.newegg.com/shuttle-sk41g/p/N82E16856101216

[nootnoot1277]

40 minutes ago, johnny5c said:

Now I wish I still had mine, with the lockdown I could definitely get a few of the old crew into some Starcraft or BF1942.  

 

This is the model I had,

https://www.newegg.com/shuttle-sk41g/p/N82E16856101216

Haha they're a good lil thing that'd be good fun.

For me it was one of the first things that got me into PC building, I found it thrown out (with the blown PSU) it's a very similar model to yours was, mine is an SK21G which had a Sempron 3300+ but I've ordered the Athlon and I already had the 9550 which makes it a perfect midrange 2003 gaming PC so finally I'll get around to finishing HL2 again.