Power Supply

[n3uxf]

Is there a way to figure out what the maximum load that can be placed on a pwer supply? I have a 470 watt PS designed for the Tyan Tiger MP mobo, and don't want to overload it.

[maface]

What are your specs? I think it would be pretty hard to overload a 470watt PS you should be fine

[n3uxf]

I've got:

Dual AMD MP 1600+
floppy drive
250mb zip drive
3 40gig HDD connected to Trios drive
standard CD drive
Pioneer DVR-104
Seagate 20gig tape drive
Soundblaster Augidy Platinum
GeForce 4 Ti 4200
Promise Utra 100 Controller card
Slot cooling fan
5.25 drive bay cooling fan

[herura]

The formula to calculate wattage, amperage and voltage is:
Watts=volts*amps
If you know any two you can figure the third using basic algebra. So if you know the power requirements for each device in your PC you can then calculate the total wattage. Also remember most power supplies are switching power supplies, this greatly reduces the cost and size of the supply, but the trade off is that the rated wattage is not meant to be sustained. It is only a peak, for example there is a peak during power up, but then it goes down once post is complete. As a general rule, a 470w power supply would be fine for most uses, the main exception being a server, which uses a better power supply and is one reason servers are more expensive then PC’s.
Hope this helps.