what happens when a PSU hits its "peak output"

[EvilCloudStrife]

i have been wondering because i added up the PSUs rails and at "peak" levels a 450w turns into 550w! is it safe if it ever hit that? would it run as stable? i have always wondered and any help or insight would be just awesome :cool:

thanks ECS

[4GHZ_or_bust]

Depending on your PS, it may not be 550 watts at all but rather (for example) the 5v and 3v raid uses the same power. So if the 5v rail is at peak, 3v rail gets nothing.

Does any of the voltage uses the same current total? Chances are it's shared.

[EvilCloudStrife]

take a look if ya want

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817171001

[AlabamaCajun]

You may have 200 watts of hardware, I doubt if you could sink that PSU! You 12V rails are getting about 9amps max a piece pulled on them and the rest of the controller chips are way under maxing the to low voltages. When I say 200 Watts, you still need a minimum of 380-400 total to survive the system surges.

HP/Compaq will put a system together with a venice 3xxx one HD, Optical, onboard video and a 250 Watt PSU. NO OC, you can add one additional Optical, an Extra HD and a Video Card. Will it be stable, probably not but most never see more than the extra drives adding about 50 watts to the draw.