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Power Supplies: How Much Power Do You Need?



Component Requirement
AGP Video Card 30W - 50W
PCI Express Video 100W - 250W
Average PCI Card 5W - 10W
DVD/CD 20W - 30W
Hard Drive 15W - 30W
Case/CPU Fans 3W (ea.)
Motherboard (w/o CPU or RAM) 50W - 150W
RAM 15W per 1GB
Processor 80W - 140W

For overall power supply wattage, add the requirement for each device in your system, then multiply by 1.5. (The multiplier takes into account that today's systems draw disproportionally on the +12V output. Furthermore, power supplies are more efficient and reliable when loaded to 30% - 70% of maximum capacity.)

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