Power supply and Motherboard?

Question

I want to buy a new mother board and a new powersupply
What should I look for when buying these things?

Is there a maximum amount of watts a motherboard can handle, I do not want to fry it.


The question is.

When buying a motherboard and a power supply unit what should I look for before buying? ?
(It will be nice to know what these things do EX. look for what kind of CPU it supports. BECAUSE IF IT IS AMD INTEL WILL NOT WORK IN IT.) something like that.

Is there power supplies that may not work for certain systems or motherboards? ?

What are SATA and chipsets for ? the north&south bridge . what is good?
like :

Intel ICH9R
Intel X38

that means nothing to me how do i know which one to get or look for?

Answer 1

Big power supplies will only deliver what your PC demands, nothing more. Thus it should not fry anything there. Instead it should run cooler all day long and provide you plenty of elbow room for upgrades. Here's a good but cheap one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339001
It can handle many of the new high end graphics cards.

Answer 2

The wattage of a power supply is the maximum wattage it can provide. It will not fry a motherboard by having too many watts available, as that's just it's maximum load.

As for the motherboard, there are several things to consider:
What socket it uses (this is what decides whether you use Intel or AMD chips, and also decides which Intel or AMD chips you can use (as there are different sockets by each manufacturer).
What speeds of CPUs it supports. Since some processors run faster than others in the same family (like newer chips run faster than older chips that came out with older motherboards) the motherboard may not support the speed of processor that you want to put in, even if the sockets match.
What type of RAM it uses. Usually this is either DDR or DDR2 nowadays.
Whether you want to use two graphics cards or not.
Whether you want integrated graphics or not (or what other integrated features you want).


For power supplies, a 500 W power supply is generally more than enough for a standard system. Maybe even overkill, but that way you have room to expand.

Answer 3

A Power supply will not fry the motherboard unless it malfunctions. Look for a good solid motherboard, I recommend Abit, or Gigabyte, or Asus. Look for a processor and check what socket type it is, Intel's new duo cores are all Socket 775, so look for a motherboard that supports that, and go from there. In the end, calculate the amount of power it would consume. Intel's new processors can range from 100-180W in consumption. And if you're running high end video cards.. they can run up 250W no problem by themselves. If you're building a solid system with the newer high end processors, i recommend atleast 500W if you go with a decent video card too. And make sure it has a 12V rail, if your mobo has it. and try aiming for a PSU that can deliver atleast 17-18A out of the 12V Rail, then you'll be fine.

Answer 4

You're not going to damage anything with a giant PSU because it only puts out what your system needs. Most new boards will have a 24pin connector, a cpu connector and most big graphics cards use a 6 pin connector. Althou most video cards come with a 4pin to 6 pin adaptor its nice to get a power supply that already has the 6pin connector as it makes for less clutter and frees up a 4pin connector. Main thing to look for in a PSU is a lot of watts, massive amps on its +12V rails, 80% efficiency and a 5 year warranty. The PSUs with 120mm fans are quieter. Stay clear of those $19.99 600 watt PSUs as they are junk and can't sustain that 600watts very long before they go POOF. Unless you're running SLI, Crossfire or an ATI 2900XT video card a 750watt PSU is not necessary. Nvidia recommends a 650watt PSU for TWO GTX cards in an SLI yet you see people saying you "need at least a 750 watt PSU" to run one 8600GT which is ridiculous. Heres a couple PSUs that are highly rated. The 520watt is modular SLI ready and has 3 18amp +12V rails while the 550watt isn't modular and has one 41amp rail. Both will run an Ultra with no probs and, if you read the reviews, people are running two GTSs in SLI on the 520watt with ease:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010320058+50001459+1131414178&name=Corsair+Memory%2c+Inc.
Unless you plan on using an ATI 2900XT video card, the most power hungry card made, or to run two Ultras in SLI you dont need 750 watts althou, if you choose to get one, it wont harm anything and heres a sweet one of those that even has an 8 pin graphics connector along with 2 6pin connectors to run the cards such as the 2900XT that needs that 8 pin for its overdrive.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10006237

Answer 5

no fan - fans can get power from the motherboard (most likely) or direct from the power supply . does the fan plug into the motherboard or one of the leads from the power supply? Your intel usually controls the CPU fan (not always) so it is probably plugged into the mb. Case fans and power supply fans can be plugged directly into the power supply and, of course, video card fans and other card fans get their power through the card. If the computer boots and video comes on then power supply is probably ok and your issue is with the MB or the fan itself. Case fans usually go out slowly so tap the blade with a pencil eraser to see if it starts. Power supply fans go all at once so if it isn't running you probably need a new power supply.

Answer 6

well, for the PSU, only complication can be the 20/24 pin connector for the mobo, but that isnt a problem really any more, as for wattage, the higher the better, for todays high end systems your gunna need over 500W (i have a 600W)

as for mobo, if you have an intel CPU, its most likely that it will be socket 775, but make sure your CPU is supported by that, like some mobos only support dual core and quad core, or others only pentium 4.

as for AMD the socket will eather be 939 or AM2

but looks like your gunna need to do your research

Answer 7

best check the specs of the board your going to buy and buy the approiate power supply.

Answer 8

www.ybet.be/en-hardware-1-21/power-supply.htm