opinion on needed psu

im intrested in getting the new 7800 agp vid card and was wondering others thoughts on if my current psu will do or if i need a better one.

1. antec 350 watt psu
2. p4 3.2 ghz ht
3. asus p4p800-e deluxe
4. current vid card bfg 6800gt oc
5. wd 80 gig hd
6. 1 cd/dvd drive
7. 1 floppy drive
8. 2 120mm case fans
9. 2 gigs of ram ddr pc3200

thanks

 

You could always try a wattage calculator to find out for sure!

 

it didnt list a 7800 series vid card so i just checked the 6800 ultra. it said i need 364 watts, so yea guess ill have to get a better one.

 

350 Watts is quite low for a fairly powerful system such as yours.
Also, if you intend on overclocking your CPU or GFX card in the future, you'll be surprised at the amount of extra power needed to do so (not to mention the extra power needed to cool it all down).
I'd recommend a good quality PSU with at least 500W true power.

 

my friend has the same CPU, mobo, and ram, except he has the 7800 Geforce GTX. He uses this PSU http://directron.com/w0101ru.html It works excellent, though he refuses to overclock (go figure ).

 

"it didnt list a 7800 series vid card so i just checked the 6800 ultra. it said i need 364 watts, so yea guess ill have to get a better one."

You clearly mis-calculated. I come up with 305 Watts for your system. Granted, I may not have used the exact specs you used, but what I used is fairly close to your system. Let's see
Intel Pent 4 S478 Extreme Ed (3.2 -3.4 GHz) 103W
nVidia GeForce FX 6800 Ultra 7xW (couldn't see 1's digit)
Two sticks DDR2 SDRAM 15W
1 HD 25W
1 DVD/CDRW Combo Drv 30W
2 fans

Plug that into the calculator and you get 305 Watts

 

Bear in mind that the "calculator" is only a rough guide.


The things that use the most power are optical drives and hard drives, as well as late generation video cards.