Power Supply

[Bacon Machine]

I think that I need a new power supply, this is a guess based on the fact that when I put my PC under load currently it turns off. Now, I don't know all that much about power supplies so could you give me a hand choosing one and teach me a little about them while your at it. Thanks.

My system is:
Pentium 4 3.20 GHz processor
ATI Radeon X800 XL 256MB graphics card(AGP...a shame as I might upgrade soon) link (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0995968206.114580946 9@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccedaddhikikjgmcflgceggdhhmdgmh.0&category_oid=null&sku=019368&microsite_id=Component_Shop&page=Product&fm=undefined&sm=undefined&tm=undefined)
1024 MB DDR RAM

All powered by a terrible little 350W generic power supply.

The power supply needs to fit in this case. (http://www.xcase.co.uk/acatalog/Coolermaster.html)

Thanks for any help you can give.

[totes]

350W? Jesus...I thought I was hard done by...wait for someone more experienced than me to come along to sort this out this isn't really my area.

[Lewiji]

350W isn't actually underpowered but it is bare minimum, you can actually add up the requirements of each component to find out how much juice you need. The errors you're getting, if they are related to the PSU, will likely be because of the weak brand - cheap, unlabelled PSUs are usually very unstable and liable to blow up at any time.

Can't go wrong with one of these though for a bargain PSU.

http://ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=18465147585&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=98566

[totes]

How handy. That's a good link for me too :) thanks Lewiji.

Okay, as for learning about power supplies...I'm sure Lewiji knows a hell of a lot more about this than me, but I'll give it a try.
Like he said, you can basically calculate your overall requirement of power by adding up the minimum requirements. I don't know how much power each of your things take up, but I'm assuming it's more than 350W?

Okay I'll leave the rest to Lewiji...lol sorry I couldn't help any more...

[3v1l |\/|1NiOn]

Wattage isn't everything. Current is also a crucial factor, and with the generic supplies, thats where they skimp. You want to be looking for at least 20A on the +12V rail and substantial current (5A+) on others. You can't go wrong with quality brands: Tagan, Hiper, Enermax, Seasonic, Akasa, Antec.

[The Grim Reaper]

Minimum required power supply calculator:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
I need a minimum of 340W to run my system, remember this is a bear minimum estimate, so round up to the nearest hundred. For example im using a 500w Acbel one