18 amps on the 12 volt rail

[PotGuy]

I just had a worrying thought. The spec of the system i'm building includes:

Athlon 4000+
xfx 7800gt/6800gt/radeon x1800xl (not sure how far i can stretch my budget yet!)
2x Hitatchi t7k250 hard drives
1x optical drive
1x floppy drive
Asus a8n-sli premium

but I've just realised that i only have 18 amps on the 12 volt rail of my psu (thermaltake butterfly 480w) and i have read that many people recommend 20-22 amps on the 12 volt rail for high end gfx cards. I was just wondering if 18 amps is enough.

Cheers guys

 

[.-=ManQ=-.]

I think you are going to struggle with that spec as the PSU is a little on the small side. OK for P4 but not a kick a$$ AMD.

I recomment a TT PurePower 560 ( W0023R )


J.

 

[PotGuy]

ah but i've already bought it you sure it won't do or will i have to replace it

 

[Ian]

I'd have thought it would be enough, as I've got an X850XT which uses quite a bit of power and have a similar power supply. I've not used a 4000+ though so could be wrong - someone here might be using one though.

 

[.-=ManQ=-.]

Ive had a scout around and admittedly, I found a couple of higher pc specs running happily on 480w PSUs such as Antec. But I always suggest at least 500w PSU's for specs similar to yours.

If any 480 is going to do it, I suppose your butterfly is going to.

check out http://stores.tomshardware.com/rating_getprodrev.php/product_id=3996876/id_type=M// for another opinion.

edit: sorry meant to add, it's the second post in the thread.

 

[Me__2001]

that should be plenty, i cant remember exactly but i only needed about 10 for my system when im using everything, you'll probably need 16 max

 

[PotGuy]

Ah good thanks guys. I wish i hadn't bought it already - that ocz looks awesome! But ah well. Just wanna make sure that I'm not going to put it all together just to have to rip out the psu and spend a bundle on another

Cheers