Calculating Power

[Flixster]

I ran some numbers through Rob's reference site for calculating the size of power supply you need, and I came up with numbers around 350w. This just strikes me as really low. Roughly, the system will be on par with E6850, 4g 1066 DDR2, Nvidia 8800 Ultra, the handful of fans, DVD RW/CD combo drive, SATA 320g 7200rpm HD, SoundBlaster X-Fi, and then of course a nice 2.1+ sound system.

I want to have sufficient power to upgrade in the future without having to replace my PSU for awhile. Should I just cough up the dough and go 1k, or do you think the price difference is significant enough to call that a bad idea?

[Jamie Nixx]

To be honest the amount of 'watts' in a PSU mean absolutely nothing to me, obviously you need a good foundation to start with but the quality of the PSU plays a very big part.

I know of 1000w PSU's that can't even handle SLi 8800GTS's but yet a Corsair HX520w can handle SLi 8800's and QX quad CPU without batting an eyelid.

Another thing is that components are being constantly made to be more energy efficient.

Ok lesson over lol.

An Ultra needs a minimum of 450w but that PSU has to be of the utmost quality.

For a system like that, i would go for a Corsair HX620w, easily one of the best despite its seemingly low wattage, good for upgrading as well.