Too Much Power?

#1
I have been to many sites, including [H]ard|OCP, Hardware Pub, OCTools, Overclockers, etc. Some say that a 350W PSU is the bare minimum, and 430W is the sweet spot, while others say that this is way, way too much. Which would be the best for me?

#2 I have seen this case(stated below) advertised all over the internet by different names and manufacturers. Is this a common practice? Is there no sort of "copyrighted" or "patened" design laws?


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AMD Athlon XP 2100+ CPU w/ Cooler Master DP5-7H53F
Kingwin KT-436 case
SOYO KT333 DRAGON Ultra motherboard
HP DVD200i DVD+RW
2 Western Digital Caviar SE 80 GB HDD's RAID 0 Striped(WD800JB)
Internal 250MB ZIP Drive
SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum sound card with Front Panel Internal Audigy Drive
Atech Flash PRO II USB Multi-Slot Card Reader/Writer
Belkin F5U220 5-Port(4 External, 1 internal) USB 2.0 Controller Card (Internal port routed to Atech unit)
512 MB PC2700
ATI All In Wonder Radeon 8500 128, OC'ed to 300/600, w/ tin-coated copper RAM sinks, Artic Silver III, and Thermaltake Crystal Orb Fan
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Herbal Health Shop

heres what i was referring to.
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VAPIR ONE REVIEW

Penguin4x4 said:

#1
I have been to many sites, including [H]ard|OCP, Hardware Pub, OCTools, Overclockers, etc. Some say that a 350W PSU is the bare minimum, and 430W is the sweet spot, while others say that this is way, way too much. Which would be the best for me?

#2 I have seen this case(stated below) advertised all over the internet by different names and manufacturers. Is this a common practice? Is there no sort of "copyrighted" or "patened" design laws?

Click to expand...

#1 - You can never have too much power. You can have more power than you need, there is a difference.

#2 - This is a normal thing these days. Look at Chieftec and Antec and there is one other brand, they are all the same case just with different names on them but really only one company manufactures them.

Dont worry about overkill with psu's.

You will only draw as much power as needed, if you are using a 450w psu and only require 300w you will only use 300w.
The one benifit to this is the psu will run cooler because you are not straining it.

As stated, a larger PSU will not hurt. The only reason some of us say it is overkill is the price. A decent 350W costs about $50. A 400W+ can be more than $100. In most cases the extra expense is not needed.

Having something sold under different names is common for many products, not just cases. The companies are trying to increase market share, the percent of buyers that buy their product. Just look at cars, for example the Ford Ranger and the Mazda B8200. Both are basically the same truck, designed by the same engineering team. Lets say (total guess) 21% of compact trucks sold are the Ford, 13% are the Mazda. Combined they control 34% of the market.