Trying to identify my power supply?

Question

I checked on the side of my tower... this is what it says:
100-127V ~ 7A/200-240V ~ 4A, 50/60 Hz
What does this mean?

Apparently I need 15 amps on the +12V rail to run what I want.

My power supply is 300 Watts. If it helps at all. I'm trying to run a 8600GT... processor is AMD x62 dual core 3800+ @ 2.0ghz and 1G ddr RAM

Answer 1

The quoted figures are the maximum current that the PSU draws from the mains supply. At 120 volts it draws 7 amps, and at 240 volts it draws 4 amps.

Similarly, for a lower voltage output, it will supply a higher current. If we assume the PSU is 100 % efficient and it only had to supply 12 volts, it could supply it at a current of 70 amps.

Now factor in the inefficiency and the need also to supply 5 volts and the chip voltages.

From this ballpark guesstimation it is likely that the PSU is up to the job.

Answer 2

That's the power supply usage from your 120V power source,(plugged into the wall), or your 220v source. You have to look at your power supply itself, the info's on a label generally on the top, so you usually have to take it out. This could be dangerous should you forget to unplug it from the wall,(or power strip), first!! (SO UNPLUG IT!) You might try downloading CPU-Z from CPUID.com,(free, small program). It tells you about the installed hardware inside your computer without opening it, BUT for the life of me I can't remember if it has info about the PSU.

Answer 3

If you have only one rail, you need to consider upgrading anyways....
A seperate rail for CPU, Video is preferred... a third for HDDs is even better...

Nothing worse than low power on a high performance machine....

Answer 4

What you need is a power supply which supplies enough watts to run all your components. You didn't mention your ps watts.