"News Groupie" said:
Will a 380 watt power supply work and be enough power for my Asus P4B533-E
motherboard???
TIA
P.S. - It's a Antec TruePower 380 watt power supply.
Power supplies are rated by total wattage and also
each output voltage has a rating or limit as well.
The total consumption of a basic computer with a decent
processor in it, might be 100 to 150W. So, from a total
wattage perspective, there is plenty of room. A high
end video card, instead of a low end card, might add
another 50W to those numbers.
Over the years, the output providing most of the power
for the motherboard has changed. P4 boards right now,
use the +12V output to power the processor voltage
regulator, and quite a lot of current is drawn from
there.
The Antec Truepower line is generous on all its outputs,
and I doubt you will have anything to worry about.
There are some bargain, high wattage power supplies, that
only offer 12V at 10 amps, and those are the ones that could
cause problems. Those bargain supplies have plenty of +3.3
and +5.0, but don't provide as much +12V as is needed by
a P4. They have a high total wattage, but don't put the
wattage where it is needed.
HTH,
Paul
