How much watts should i get

The best power supply for your PC build is the one that provides the right amount of wattage to all components simultaneously. Manually calculating this requires that you multiply the total amps of all components by the total volts of all components. The result is the total watts that your PC build requires. If you input all the components of your PC build into our calculator, it will do this for you and provide a list of options.

The power supply provides power to every component and if you install the wrong power supply, you could damage the components. The right PSU will provide all your components with a consistent amount of energy when they need it. Every PC case has a space for the power supply unit although the space may vary in size and shape. Occasionally this can be accompanied by a breaking robot voice. However, that has nothing to do with the graphics card; it results from the whole system malfunctioning due to the underlying lack of power.

For example, users who see vertical or horizontal lines running through their screens, pixels changing colors without cause, or icons blinking when they should be stationary may be experiencing issues with their power supply units. Many different issues can cause each of them.

Insufficient power to a PC can result in many problems, so the easy solution should be to buy the most powerful power supply unit possible and use that, right? Not exactly. The more wattage a power supply unit is capable of providing, the more that unit costs.

Why waste all that extra money on power no one needs? That money is better spent on further upgrades, games, or anything else! Users should take that number and add 50 to Watts to it to account for future upgrades. Another option is to enter the specs in the calculator as if he already has his intended updates in place. That should give him a more accurate representation than just guessing. Another reason for buying a power supply slightly more powerful than required is the percentage of total load over extended periods.

This means less heat inside the power supply when operating making it more likely for your power supply to have a longer lifespan.

Finding the appropriate wattage is paramount when considering which power supply unit to purchase. However, there are other things that users must consider when trying to find the best unit for their needs. The greater topic of PSU selection — that is, regarding topics beyond wattage — is out-of-scope for this content, but it's worth going over a few basics.

This should hopefully get the conversation of PSU selection started, hopefully spinning-off a few research ideas for PSU shoppers. Each component in the system, no matter how small, requires some amount of power. The main power connections in a system operate on rails of three voltages — 3. Some PSUs run multiple 12v rails, something we talk about here.

The motherboard's pin header consists of 3. Some components are powered directly by the PSU, some receive power through the board, and some are a split of the two. This is another small power reduction, though it's primarily a decision made in favor of noise levels. Depending on the device, this sometimes makes assumptions of other system components — if it's a higher-end GPU, the minimum PSU spec may be assuming higher-end accompanying components, which will draw more power.

It's ultimately the objective of these specs to provide a one-size-fits-all operating range, where almost no one will be under-powering components. This can also mean that the wattage suggestions err a little on the high side for safety. But that's OK, because modern power supplies will draw only as much as required to drive the system. It's not ideal to buy too high on wattage — we sink on the efficiency curve — but it's not going to actively damage anything by purchasing a W PSU and using it with a W draw build.

That'd mostly be an awkward allocation of resources. Patrick Stone :. Some power supplies may be able to output Watts safely for a moment, but can only provide Watts of continuous power. Most of the time the labeled wattage is continuous power.

Michael Kerns :. Efficiency comes into play here, but we'll talk about that in more in the 80 Plus definition. Many users grossly over-estimate the required size of a gaming power supply, so we always suggest running your components through a power supply calculator first though they also over-estimate, in general. Before diving into this one, you can read about 80 Plus ratings in our PSU dictionary. Your motherboard probably uses 50 to watts, and each stick of memory requires about 15 watts.

The processor needs between 80 and watts of power. Purchasing a power supply that provides exactly or close to the power you need today is probably not enough. You should purchase a power supply that provides more power than you need in case you decide to expand the computer. For example, if you decide to upgrade your video card and the card requires additional power, you don't want to have to replace the PSU in addition to the graphics card because you didn't plan for expansion.

The actual amount of power that you use will vary based on how you use the computer.