is 300w enough power

i got my hands on my first intel processor and intel motherboard with pcie and i'm wondering how you determine if you have a powerful enough power supply. what kind of symptoms would i expect to see if it is underpowered. my power supply is an Antec 300w. i was told that the 12v pin runs the board, processor and video card and that i should check the output amperage for that pin against what intel recommends, intel's tech sheets are telling me that i need 16a on the 12v pin under maximum load and my power supply is rated for 15a, will this really make a difference?

i have a :

intel d915pbl board, intel 3.4ghz ht processor, ati x700 video card, 2 optical drives and two western digital 160g hd running off a ide controller card. running xp pro

 

It's not enough if you're ever going to want to run one of the new nvidia cards. Many of them require at least 350W. If you're satisfied with your video card and don't plan on switching any time soon you're probably okay. These days in a new system I'd go for at least 450W, if not more.

Tarkus

 

A quick check with a calculator shows you are border line depending on how many system fans and pci cards installed, I would upgrade the psu

Rick

 

Go to this site, http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/, and check out wheater 300 Watts is right for you..before you look for a new PW Supply...

 

Here is a list of typical items in a PC (after you add them up, multiply the total with 1.5 to get the value of the PSU you need. Why multiply with 1.5? Because the total wattage in use should not exceed 70% of the PSU's capacity.

These are rounded approximate values for current PC components:
CPU (Pentium4 3GHz, AMD XP3000+) ~ 100 Watts
HDD (each 5400/7200rpm EIDE or SATA drive) ~ 20/25
Video Card (Geforce 6600/X600 or better) 128MB/256MB ~ 80/120
Floppy/mouse/keyboard ~ 10
CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-RW ~ 25
Mobo (if sound is integrated 35 if not 25
RAM DDR SDRAM (each) 128MB/256MB/512MB ~ 15/20/25
for each PCI card installed ~ 10
for each case fan ~ 10
now add all applicable parts and multiply by 1.5

Also remember the +5 and +3 currencies should have high amp values, higher the better. It is always smart to purchase AMD/Pentium approved PSU too!

Hope this helps....