Power Up Your Purchases With The NewEgg PSU Calculator

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://lifehacker.com/5313141/power-supply-calculator-figures-out-what-size-psu-to-buy' target='_blank'>http://lifehacker.com/5313141/power...size-psu-to-buy</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Simply enter your CPU, motherboard, video card, and the rest of your components into the form, click the Calculate button, and you'll see an estimated wattage for the power supply you need to buy. As somebody who not only builds his own PCs, but wrote a whole series on how to build your own computer, I can tell you that when it comes to power supplies, you want to buy quality&mdash;don't cheap out or it will die very quickly."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1247604007.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Having a powerful enough power supply for your computer is absolutely critical to a healthy computer.&nbsp; Insufficient power can lead to random reboots, shutdowns and damage to your hardware.&nbsp; The problem has been how much is enough?&nbsp; NewEgg has stepped up to offer their own Power Supply Calculator so you can quickly figure out what the minimum wattage rating you should look for.&nbsp; After trying it out, I do find it somewhat basic, but it does do the job, taking into account all the major parts of a computer.&nbsp; However, if you're looking for something a little more advanced, PSU manufacturers like Thermaltake and Antec offer a branded version of OuterVision's PSU calculator which offers much more detail.&nbsp; When picking a power supply two big pieces of advice I can offer that will save you headaches, money and screaming in the long run.&nbsp; First, whatever a PSU calculator recommends, always add a little bit more, since you never know when you'll be adding another hard drive, video capture card or more memory.&nbsp; Second, buy a high quality PSU.&nbsp; So called "no-name" PSUs often don't work efficiently, supply enough power on the 12v rail, degrade faster or fail earlier.&nbsp; A brand name PSU, while it may cost two to four times as much, will never let you down.&nbsp; I've had cheap power supplies fry during a lightning storm while I've yet to replace a name brand one.</p>

[Yukster]

I tried out the calculator at Newegg, and its completely out of date (which has to tell you something about my system). According to Newegg's calculator, I am underpowering my system by about 300 W, while Antec's calculator shows that I have 100 W leeway.

Newegg's calculator is completely useless, and probably designed to push people into buying their overpriced 1000 W powersupplies. Not recommended.

[Reid Kistler]

You would need to run dozens - if not hundreds - of examples to know for certain, but a SINGLE example does show the NewEgg calculator to be - ahhh: "Safely High."

NewEgg: 335W recommended

Antec: 232W recommended

Am HOPING NewEgg's report is, indeed, Safely High as the info plugged into it is for a system running a 300W PS.

OTOH, we have a similar system that is equipped with only a 250W PS - and it is behaving like it might be experiencing PS problems...

The 300W system runs a SilentPipeII Video card - which has an appreciably lower power draw than the standard nVidia card in the 250W system - but this is something the Antec Calculator fails to take into account, even though it is otherwise much more detailed than the NewEgg calculator!

In the end - based upon trying to decipher any number of "How to Choose A Power Supply" articles - would still rather end up on the "Safely High" end of the spectrum.

And won't even get into "12v Rails" or whether a given PS TRULY has Separate Rails or if it is only a Marketing Slight-of-hand.... :eek:

[randalllewis]

Yukster is right on. I wasn't disappointed when the first entry on the calculator didn't include Intel's Core i7 processor as an option. It is still rather new, but the calculator tops out at the Core 2 Quad Extreme. Under video card however, newegg's tool really falls short. The highest end nVidia card listed as an option is GeForce 8800 GTX. I think the 9000 series have been around for well over a year now. I am unfamiliar with ATI products, but the highest end card listed for them was the Radeon x1650.

The rest of the calculator entries are more generic- DDR or DDR2 memory but no speed listed. Motherboard options are very generic: desktop, high end desktop, server, workstation. Optical drive options include some I was surprised at: does any computer come with only a CD ROM drive anymore? Hard drive options are all speed based. You can also adjust the number of installed hard drives, optical drives and memory.

The calculator didn't list my video card or allow the exact configuration of my memory, but coming as close as I could, like Yukster I was told my system was vastly underpowered. I mean by almost 50 percent. I know HP does put the bare minimum PSU it can into the Pavilion, but I doubt it is that far off the mark.

A tool like this could be helpful to consumers, but this one strikes me kind of like those internet connection speed gauages: it's main purpose is selling something, not providing reliable information.

[Tony Rylow]

I pulled 549W from the Newegg calculator, and 304W from Antec's. Antecs did take more hardware into account - such as my system fans (4x120mm, 1x250mm), my Thermaltake BigWater cooling, and SSD drive. I run a 600W SeaSonic PSU, so I am well covered either way.