First of all, as I have said before on several occassions in this Hardware Forum, I have a DELL 8300 and PC powercooling is the only power supply company that I know of that makes a power supply that fits into a DELL case without any modifications whatsoever. If you don't have a DELL, PC Powercooling has a standard 350 watt ATX/ATX12v power supply for $66.75 Secondly, I challenge MR. NONSENSE to find where I said that "many power supply companies unrealistically assume 77 degrees CELSIUS in order to exaggerate their wattage claims." You need to learn how to read, MR. NONSENSE. In fact, if you knew how to read carefully you would most likely not ASSUME that 77 degrees MEANS celcsius and a ridiculous 170.6 degrees. As for the +12V rail, +5V rail, and +3.3V rail, I wouldn't want you to have to go out of your way and list your specs . . . It might give you a BRAIN CRAMP which would induce the old "foot in the mouth" remedy.
HI All The best article ever written about power supplies is located at: www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/index.html If I messed up the address, this article is titled "Inadequate and deceptive product labeling: Comparison of 21 power supplies" PC power and cooling makes a terrific power supply. When I can catch a good deal, they would be my first choice. But, with all the discount coupons floating around from places like Amazon.com, Staples etc its hard to pass up the Antec true power supplies. Sterling
A fantastic article on power supplies, which basically confirms what I was saying earlier regarding BEING AWARE of CHEAP POWER SUPPLIES!!! Also, there is a neat little table that gives you a pretty good idea about power consumption by the various componentry of your PC, including which RAILS are used. You can figure 8 watts per 128mb of RAM, since the example of power consumption in the following link only assumes 128mb of DDR RAM: http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/powersupplies-02.html Again, the power supply isn't a very GLAMOROUS component to your system, but it is VERY important. As usual, you get what you pay for!
I believe that you indicated that anyone would be INSANE ( your words, not mine ) to pay $143.00 for a power supply . . . Yet, you obviously are not aware of the power supply market and the compatibility issues with DELL Computers, which I might add is a pretty popular box-maker. As for my using 77 degrees ( without any reference to Celsius ) I did that on purpose since most traders here would be much more familiar with Fahernheit, and can automatically make the reference without seeking out the conversion formula. In the end, you still never answered my question about the +12V, +5V, and +3.3V rails of your system. I guess that caused yet another BRAIN CRAMP for you. . . Sorry Bro
I tried to trade a little bit last year with a single computer but it was difficult enough learning how to trade and then having to deal with lost internet connections, power outages and computer failures. Once I had to wait for three weeks for the computer shop to repair my computer. I had several active trades on the go and I couldn't access my brokerage account for that whole time. It was then that I decided that I couldn't depend on others to keep my computer running, I'd have to learn to do it myself. I built three modest computers by just scrounging some new and used parts. I had some extra hard drives, CD roms, a router etc. I bought a couple of upgrade kits for about $200 each that included a case, motherboard and power supply. I found a couple of inexpensive 17" monitors and one used 20" monitor. I was able to find some inexpensive software for all the computers. Basically I put everything together for less than $2000 Canadian or about $1500 American which would have been the price of a typical new computer. None of the three computers are extremely fast but any one of them can run several programs at once without any problem. If one computer fails I have two others for backup. They're all networked together and connected to cable internet. I also have a separate dialup internet ($40/year) service connected for backup. I found a good used UPS for $100 on ebay which will run one computer for a short power outage. I can also set up to run one computer for longer power outages with an inverter hooked up to my car. In essence I have a good inexpensive system setup for trading with 99.999% reliability. I probably wasted too much time setting my system up, but in the process I learned enough to keep my computers going no matter what happens. Now I just have to continue learning enough about trading so I can finally start making a profit. To me thats not as much fun as putting a computer system together but it's an essential final step.