im still around...

[Dr.Feelgood]

I concur with the Komodo, thats the tightrope edge there.

[darklight]

well i try that test and my 350 PSU is more than enough....but i cant run 3 fans on the case for some reason. may be is a crappy PSU. it came with my case.

[Trinity]

What are your rails running?

[Rom]

I got a enermax 460watts and everything run good.

3 hard drives
1 6800 gt
1024 megs ocz ddr 400 premium
1 cdrw
1 dvdrw
p4 3.2 e @ at 3.5

and few more things and the power is very stable

[nonstop]

Here's why you need a good psu:

"A high quality power supply with sufficient capacity to meet the demands of your computer will provide years of stable power for your PC. A poor quality or overloaded power supply will cause all sorts of glitches that are particularly insidious, because the problems occur in other, seemingly unrelated, parts of the system. For example, power supplies can cause system crashes, can make hard disks develop bad sectors, or cause software bugs to appear, problems which can be very difficult to trace back to the power supply."

From: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/power/sup/index-c.html

Not all supplies are created equal. And Antec has produced some lemons.

A lot of power supplies cheat on their ratings. Besides not being able to steadily supply the amperage they list, they round up. Look at this power supply's report:

This is actually a 262 power supply but it reports that it is 300w.

Voltage Amp Total Watts

+12 V 8 12 * 8 = 96

+5 V 30 5 * 30 = 150

+3.3 V 14 3.3 * 14 = 46.2

+3.3 V / +5 V
Limit 150

-5 V 0.5 5 * 0.5 = 2.5

-12 V 0.5 12 * 0.5 = 6

+5 V Standby 1.5 5 * 1.5 = 7.5

Total

96 + 150 + 2.5 + 6 + 7.5 = 262

It can be confusing because many power supplies combine the +12v and the +3.3v rating so notice at the bottom the combined total was only used.

So if the rated power per each voltage can be exagerated your actual PSU wattage can be greatly exagerated. This is unfortunately very common with PSU's.

[law.of.averages]

I concur with the Komodo, thats the tightrope edge there.

Not that I mind living on the edge, but I'd like to understand how you both come to that conclusion? If the page is telling me my requirements are 303, then adding 10%... I'm well within the safety margin.

[darklight]

now....cough cough....nonstop can u post something in english.
numbers and i dont get along.

[Trinity]

For one: Machines consume more power upon booting than when actualy running. I use that site as a guide but not a gospel and always like to have a good portion more than what is needed.

[nonstop]

now....cough cough....nonstop can u post something in english.
numbers and i dont get along.

Uhmmm, sure.. lets see...... Get a good power supply!!!