PSU question

I have seen many people use 250wt psu on 9800 pros. It realy doesnt matter unless your ocing alot and raising voltages but other than that you should be fine for now. Recomended though a good 350wt psu from antec. Just a suggestion.

Depends on what else you have running on that PSU. It should be able to run a single optical drive, single HDD, and a 9800 pro. If it is an off brand it could very well output less that 250W. If you have to upgrade, get a name brand like Antec.

Performance can actually be HURT with a low grade, or low wattage PSU if power consumtion is stressing the cap of the PSU.

running high end components with a cheap powersupply is a recipe for disaster. when you put enough load on a powersupply it can blow and cheap ones do that a lot more easily than expensive ones. we've taken out multiple entire systems with blown powersupplies. do yourself a favor and get a reputable powersupply from the likes of antec, enermax, etc.

The upside to having a good quality PSU that reaches peak is that it wont die right away, ^^ it gives you a chance to realize something is really wrong before it kills the rest of the system. If I didn't have an antec the first time around I would have nuked this thing.

Luckily the TrueControl 550 hasn't given me any problems yet though. Well minus a bit of added noise. =/

a pretty good metric is how much it weighs. quality powersupplies are heavy mofos. if it has a feathery feeling than it is probably crap.