Power supply

With all the devices in a PC now a 250 Watt PS is barely enough to run things. The power supply does exactly as the name says it supplies power. So if it has low wattage it will not give out much power. Example would be lightsbulbs, 100 watts is much brighter than 60 watts. It really is't actually related to performance but yes a weak PS would cause the system to perform poorly.

Let's say you had a 1000w Power Supply. That power supply will not provide a 1000w for 24/7. It will only provide power for how many resources it needs...

CdRom - 25w
Floppy - 5 w
Mobo - 50 to 100
Fans - 25

Etc... With that in mind a 300w ps should basically cover 2 cd roms, 2 hard drives, floppy drive, mobo, network card, modem, sound card, video card, tape backup / zip drive, and a few USB devices.

The power supply will only provide power for what is needed and never runs at a constant 300w.

If you want to get down to the dirt of it, you would have to look at the labels on all of your devices and manuals to find out the w consumption of each device. From there you will properly know what minumum specs you would need for a power supply.

Usually, this is only important on servers with arrays, drives, additional devices etc. But for a home user, a 250w or 300 will work fine. Unless you are an extreme gamer that needs to soak your system in a bathtub 24/7 to keep it cool.

I hope this helps.

Assuming that 250 watts provides enough power for your PC, having a larger power supply (300 Watts) will reduce the heat in the case, and have a longer life.

Look at it this way, if you run an engine at it's maximum speed (RPM) it has a shorter life than if you run it at a moderate speed.
Same with a PC power supply. If you run the supply at or near it's maximum rated power output, it will have a shorter service life. If you have an extra 50 watts or more of extra power capacity, the power supply will run longer. Partially because it will run cooler.

Chas

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