How Big Should My Power Supply Be?

[Corduroy]

I need more power! I am currently running my system with only a 350 Antec TruPower PSU. My system specs are included below. I recently tried adding another CD-ROM to my system and found that simple addition caused my system to shutdown when under load.

If I eventually want to have two CD-ROMS in addition to my burner and DVD drive and two removable hard drive bays that will be running 5400 drives, should I get a PSU as big as 550Watts?

Is it best to buy a high wattage PSU just to be safe?

I currently use Enermax and Antec PSUs. What other brands are safe brands that actually support the wattage they are rated for?



My Specs:

1400MHz AMD Athlon Thunderbird

Kingston 512 MB DDR RAM

ePox 8KHA Motherboard

LeadTek WinFast Geforce3 TI 200

80 GB Western Digital Caviar

40 GB Western Digital Caviar

ASUS 8X DVD Drive

LiteOn 48x12x48x CD Burner

Sound Blaster Live! 5.1

Netgear FA311 Ethernet

3 Antec Blue LED 80mm Case Fans

2 Antec 80mm Case Fans

Enermax 350w Power Supply



My system can be viewed using the link in my signature.

[Wiggo]

Yes get a higher rated PSU and get one as high as ya can afford if ya goin' to keep addin' to this. ;)
<center>:cheers:</center>

[FLaCo]

Wiggo lemme ask you this...what is up with some PSU makers claiming that their PSU is a "TRUE" 400W...?

What is that "TRUE" all about? ...what the others are "LYING"?...hehe

[Corduroy]

Well Antec's Tru series will actually handle over the rated amount. Other PSUs will give out well before their rated amount of wattage which is why Antec calls their brand TruPower. That's also why I want to know a good brand. I don't need another PSU that is a POS fusing itself to my motherboard.

[Wiggo]

FLaCo[/size]]
Wiggo lemme ask you this...what is up with some PSU makers claiming that their PSU is a "TRUE" 400W...?

What is that "TRUE" all about? ...what the others are "LYING"?...hehe

It's not really that they're lyin' as their sums are right but the distribution of power is wrong. The cheap PSU's tend to load the watts on the 12v rail to the detrement of the 3.3v and 5v rails where these last two are critical these days. I look for PSU's that equal or exceed 180w total combined on the 3.3v and 5v rails (this is stated on good PSU's and the higher the better) and I've been usin' a lot of 350w Eagle PSU's lately, yeah they're cheap, but they produce 200w across those two rails plus will cure ECS K7S5A power probs. ;)
<center>:cheers:</center>