Powersupply big enough?

[Bomber]

If you had an in line power meter with the mains I would bet the PC does not go near 200-Watts. I don't know where the idea comes from that PC's are power hungry. The maximum power required by my imac is 200w and don't forget that includes the monitor.

I suspect your failures are the result of software/hardware incompatibilities, clock times between boards. I've encountered system crashes in the past just because an IDE cable was longer than necessary, this error only occurred after software update albeit.

I thought this was the way to go but on second thoughts the voltage drops down to ~12v so therefore theres plenty of scope for the PSU to increase the wattage. 200W wouldn't even power my HD's nvm CPU, Ghaphics etc.

[scooterscot]

I thought this was the way to go but on second thoughts the voltage drops down to ~12v so therefore theres plenty of scope for the PSU to increase the wattage. 200W wouldn't even power my HD's nvm CPU, Ghaphics etc.

Every heard of a laptop using 200 watts? Yet delivering near the same quality as a desktop machine.

With energy consumption increasing hardware designers have an opportunity to consider power requirements in the technology they develop. CMOS parts are widely available, more expensive yes, but as long as business demands cheaper equipment you'll have people plugging in power hungry peripherals.

It really is an unfortunate situations and if the government were serious about reducing power consumption I think this would be a good area to start.

Look you can do your washing on 200w yet cannot run a PC?!!! 200w would not run my hard drive, cheese louise

[DiscoStu]

A slightly old example, but stretching a 200W power supply really isn't difficult...

[lilelvis2000]

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6440737610.html

But I don't think I could fit in my office.

[scooterscot]

It seems clear that the watts burnt by the graphics cards today are probably 95% spent on heat while the remaining 5% is used to change the picture you see on the screen!