Need help choosing power supply

Hi guys, I tried the extreme link in the sticky and it says I need 478w. However I have an HP m9250f and I'm adding a blu ray reader/writer and a geforce 275 and the specs on the geforce alone are 550w. So what would I really need? My current power supply is 350w (way too small).

How much cash are you wanting to part with?

Indeed. Budget is required. Enermax just released their new Modu and Pro87+ units. They are the best power supplies on the market and come in 500, 600, and 700w flavors.

I am going through a Silverstone power supply faze they are pretty solid power supply's and i have not really heard of any any problems with them.

These might help a bit:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...play.php?f=177
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=108088

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/f...splay.php?f=42
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=589708

And here:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/ seems to know a thing or two about power supplys.

Those are where i usually go first anyway, Hope that helps mate...

I'd like to keep it under 100-150 if possible unless there is a good reason to go with a better power supply. Even if there is, I'd still like a value option to compare to the good option.

The specs on the GeForce GTX275 say the max card power is 219watts. The 550watts is the "recommended system power" - i.e., the recommended size of the power supply.
If you included all the devices in the power calculation (including the blu-ray player), then 478watts may indeed be you total system draw. But, of course, there may be small variations and/or incidental items not considered in that; plus, you would want some headroom for future.
I'd say any quality power supply of 500watts or better may suffice, but personally I would opt for at least 600watts in this case.

Okay that's what I was wondering as well Quaker. For example a local store had a few 550 cards for under 100 but the box for the card recommended 575 as a minimum.

One other thing, my current power supply had certain plug numbers being plugged into certain areas, do I need to keep this ordering or not?

since your next power supply may be laid out differently I wouldn't worry about it, shouldn't make any difference anyways (if I understand the question correctly that is).

Most likely, the plug numbering was to make sure that the workers plugged things into the proper connections when it was built.
There would be no numbering on a new power supply. Just make sure that the proper "type" of plug is plugged into the proper type of socket. (They are significantly different, so mistakes are unlikely.)
Within a "type" of connector - for example, the SATA power plugs - it doesn't matter which one goes where, they're usually all on the same cable.
(One minor consideration could be the number of "rails" in the power supply, but these "rails" are usually split between connector types anyway, and you don't have that many devices to plug in.)

Okay, thanks for the help guys. I'm leaning towards Corsair ATM. I checked out enermax, but I have a concern with them failing early, but less of a concern than with antec.

Enermax is a quality brand, as is Antec. For a non high end build on a budget I have found that OCZ makes a very reliable PSU and they are generally priced very well. I've purchased a few of them over the past couple years and have been very impressed with the company. Corsair is very good of course, but tends too be more pricey. I would also consider Thermaltake and Silverstone if the price was right.

It's too bad the new Enermax Modu87+ and Pro87+ units aren't out, because once they come out, they will hands down be the best power supplies on the planet.

When are they coming out?

Probably in March. But, again, this opens up the whole waiting game

You can read Anand's review of them here: http://anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus...oc.aspx?i=3723

Yeah, and TBH I don't like buying products when they first come out either. I like to wait up to a year or so just in case there are any early bugs in the item, the company has a chance to fix them. Like I wouldn't buy a new windows version until SP1 is out.

One more thing, one of the cables on my current power supply has 4 prongs in a square format... what is that and can I get a converter for it because the corsair 750w doesn't have that.

what was it plugged into on your computer? It seems like the corsair should have all the cables that you would need to power a modern computer.

It was plugged into the motherboard, but in the rear by a fan.

I think it was an ATX connector and that I need to get something like this.

The corsair has tons of cables, but the only 4 pin ones seem to be in a straight line.

You should find that the Corsair has a rectangular plug that is 2 pins x 4 pins (ATX2). The plug should be able to be split into two 2x2 plugs, one of which will plug into your motherboard's ATX connector.