power supply qusetion.. sligthly off topic

[Ansil]

so quesiton i am not a computer guy.. so i was wondering.  the powersupplys in the computer..  some are say 500watts and such.. i am assuming that is what the consumption power and not the actuall delivered.

from what i have seen really they put out something like 5A at 12 v plus and minus...  

any takers..  was just wondering..

[niftydog]

I'd say it'd depend on the power supply in question... not the first time a marketing department made a decision like that to make it seem better than it actually is, despite the engineers protests!

Having said that, usually it's the output spec.  I have an old supply that says on the box 200W;

outputs are;
+5V @ 20A
+12V @ 8A
-5V @ 0.5A
-12V @ 0.5A

that adds up to 204.5W...

[spongebob]

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20040122/power_supplies-01.html

Some manufacturers actually print a "combined output" rating on their PSUs, which is a lot lower than the 400/500 Watt ratings. I guess it's the same as with those 1000 Watt computer speakers! :wink:

[Ansil]

thanks that was my second guessing just wondering. thanks so much

[Tony Forestiere]

Power supply ratings are for max power draw. Depending on how many devices (hard drives, CD drives or burners, PCI cards, fans and mother board loading) are running determines your load requirements. On a modest system (1 hard drive, 1CD rom, 1 burner, floppy drive, moderate sound and video card) 250 to 300 watt PS should suffice. If your motherboard requires the dual ATX power (2 connectors) and is running 2 hard drives, DVD burner, CD burner, ZIP drive :wink: , Super Duper 3D accelerator, AND a MegaBuck sound card, 350-400 watts is probably your best bet. Just check the power requirements of each individual component and add them up!

Best of luck!
Tony

[Ansil]

thanks just wondering i dont' have a computer that i getonline with or anything  but my friend does and he is having problems with his old power supply and wanted to know if i could build him one for the computer and i was like hmmm let me think about it.