Power Supply Calculator

[Kougar]

I've seen a few to date, but this one is simply impressive in the breadth and level of details covered. Besides overclocking, you can factor in Peak Utilization, Capacitor Aging (Explained at the end of the page), and Surge Compensation which deals with the power surge required when you first power on the system from a cold start. From my experience trying to calculate what my main rig draws, the number given was very accurate.

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

[werty316]

Great find but this was posted a long time ago here:

http://www.bjorn3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5675

[Kougar]

Bah, your going to start making me run searches now before I post Thanks for the linky!

[zachig]

Yea, this PSU Calculator has already been posted a long time ago...but I wanna say that I personally think this is the BEST online PSU calculator.

I'm using this one ALL the time...and the good thing is that it's being updated ALL THE TIME with the latest hardware!!!

So...let's put it that way...VERY RECOMMENDED!!!

[Gray]

I think we should have an area in the site for keeping decent links like this just incase you forget them.

A handy "Links" section for overcloacking tools, small programs, and other tools like the PSU calculator.

Thanks Couger for the repost, I may be buying a new one soon. It never hurts to plug in the #'s.

[Das Capitolin]

I think we should have an area in the site for keeping decent links like this just incase you forget them.

A handy "Links" section for overcloacking tools, small programs, and other tools like the PSU calculator.

Thanks Couger for the repost, I may be buying a new one soon. It never hurts to plug in the #'s.

I agree, we should have a topic area or FAQ that includes all these usefull links. This one was helpful, because I lost it.

[Scott]

Or me being the god of fun around here could just make it a stickly like I did.

[vfrex]

Can someone explain surge compensation? Do components need more power when the computer first turns on or something? And what PSU Utilization has to do with anything?

[Kougar]

Can someone explain surge compensation? Do components need more power when the computer first turns on or something? And what PSU Utilization has to do with anything?

When you first start your computer up after it's been off for awhile, there will be a strong surge of power drawn from the PSU to get everything started, in particular the hard drives are one big source as the motors must start the platters turning, then quickly rev them up to full speed. Also pretty much everything is powered on, if just briefly, so the BIOS can check it's there or get info from it.

PSU Utilization is simply how much of a load you are running on your computer. Like if you were only web surfing it would be considered a light load... but if you were playing Oblivion you'd pretty much be maxing out your hardware, and using 100% utilization since everything would be running full out.

[mousiness]

thats the reason PSU wattages are important to gamers

[vfrex]

So what's the difference between PSU Utilization and Surge Compensation? Shouldn't 100% PSU utilization be the equivalent of the startup surge?

I mean, everything makes sense to some degree. But I just get the feeling that you can easily overshoot a reasonable wattage for your computer by a longshot by playing it safe on this thing.

[werty316]

I think PSU Utilization is the amount of load that is put on a PSU and Surge Compensation is the power surge required from a cold boot to start up but I am not 100% sure.

[Kougar]

So what's the difference between PSU Utilization and Surge Compensation? Shouldn't 100% PSU utilization be the equivalent of the startup surge?

I mean, everything makes sense to some degree. But I just get the feeling that you can easily overshoot a reasonable wattage for your computer by a longshot by playing it safe on this thing.

Did you catch my previous post to this?

For PSU Utilization, think of it this way. Your CPU and GPU draw hardly any power from the PSU when your system is doing nothing, or even if you are checking your email and websurfing. If you load a game and play on the highest settings your system can handle, both your CPU and GPU are going to drastically increase their power consumption, usually by half-again their current power draw. If you are playing a game on high settings, maybe listening to an audio CD at the same time too, your system will be drawing the most power that it can possibly draw, therefore it would be at 100% utilization. Idling is almost no utilization, a full system load would be 100% utilization. It's a setting to see how much your system would draw as a "worst-case scenario" if you ran everything at once to it's highest potential.

Surge compensation is different an just deals mostly with when the machine is cold booted and the +12v line is heavily stressed by all the system components and drives spinning up at once, while the CPU is loaded down booting the system. I suppose you could say it's like adding a little extra headroom, since hard drives alone need a small surge in power to get the physical disks spinning, before they can operate at their normal power levels.

[vfrex]

I understand that. Now I'm asking, what is the difference? Why not just include startup power necessity in the 100% utilization figure. The note on the calculator is confusing.

Recommended to add an additional 15-25% if you are not sure about you PSU peak load reliability.

PSU peak load reliability? Like, whether the PSU can actually put out what it claims it can? Shouldn't the surge compensation be based on the other components in the system? Also, isn't it murky to determine the current a PSU is capable of putting out based entirely on the voltage?

[ToXic_WaSTe]

Even though already posted, i wanna say thx from the new members... Just decided to go with a 700W instead of a 600W, great calc.