how much is to much
 

i have a 500 watt power and im wondering how much can one plug thing can cary i also herd that they have a 1000 watt is this beter?

A 1000w power supply is really useful if you plan to jumpstart your car from your PC.... other than that a 500w ps should be way more than enough for most people. I would say only if you are running 2 7800GTX's with multiple HD's and optical drives..... and lights... and etc etc etc... would you need anything bigger

It's actually hard to say how big of a ps you need unless you tell us what you are trying to power with it.

very important to look at peak vs. average power, too, since many PSU suppliers note the peak rather than sustainable output.

I've always found this link to be useful when deciding what power supply I need:
Power Supply Calculator
Pick your processor and then check what you want/got.

(sad I've got this bookmarked even! I need to get out more often... :) )

The wattage of the PSU doesn't matter nearly as much as the brand. I'll say it again because most people disregard the fact: the wattage of the PSU doesn't matter nearly as much as the brand. The shitty PSUs that come with cases (RAIDMAX and POWMAX) are usually 350-400w, yet they blow if you attempt to run more than one hard drive. If you buy a 400w Enermax, Sparkle, or any other top of the line PSU, it'll run anything you throw at it, probably even dual 7800 GTXs. Seriously. My brother's 400w Enermax is current running 5 hard drives, a 6800 Ultra, and all sorts of other crap with ease. I have a 350w Enermax and it is simply amazing. It's completely silent and runs my 6800 Ultra easily.

A 350w Enermax is the equivalent of a 500-600w generic PSU. One test to determine how "good" a PSU is lies within it's weight. Pick it up! If it feels cheap and lightweight, it's a piece of shit. If it's heavy and feels sturdy, it's a good PSU. Good PSUs have lots of heatsinks inside them, one of the contributing factors to the weight.

If you're worried about your PSU, just buy a good one. Go to NewEgg and buy a 350 or 400w Enermax and not worry about it ever again. Your 500w may actually be a shitbox if it's a low quality brand!

-Lasereth

Often the current rating for the +12vdc is most important.
The wattage is inclusive for all voltages supplied.

Wow. Punctuation is your friend, dude. What does that even mean? "one plug thing?"

I wholeheartedly agree with Lasereth's post and add Antec to the list of "kick-ass power supplies". Pretty much everything in their product line rocks. If it says 480W, it means you can load that sucker up with 480W and it'll keep on trucking. Cheap PSUs seem to use the "the meter showed 480W when the damn thing finally went up in a puff of smoke" test.

Also worth considering:

Modern PSUs can have 2 or more 12v rails and these are what are important for stuff like running two VGA cards in SLi mode.

If you try and run all your drives and fans off one branch of your wiring, you will exceed the amperage of that branch and rail.
(By branch, I mean the group of molexes on one set of wires)
Try to split them evenly.

I put both my HDDs on one branch, MY DVD on another and the fans on the last one.
The VGA got a bit arsey with my in FarCry when I had it cranked up until I put it on it's own cable branch.

Aside from the stated brand issue, the AMPERAGE is also very very important.
Certain devices suck huge amps and as such cannot share a rail or cable branch with another device. (Like my VGA card that was sharing with one of the HDDs)

just remember more power is more heat.. more heat is bad for electronics.

True but doesn't apply when your not getting the electronics hot. More power is not enough power, can never have too much power. Power is sweet. But alas I'm a tim taylor--Home Improvement disciple, others thoughts and opinions may vary.

There's a magazine here in the UK called Custom PC, they have recently done a scientific test on several PSU's of varying brand and power. The results make for interesting reading, I can try to scan and post the article here if anyone's interested.

1000 Watts? Man I would not want to pay for your power bill... Seriously 400W - 500W is normally plenty. I have a 350 W Antec, and that's plenty of power. Just buy something from Enermax, Thermaltake (sp), Sparkle, or Antex and you'll be fine.

ok ummmm.... my reply to ALL is 2 hds 2cds 4 fans 3 lights ya thats it and it is vary hevey its just....(dont ask y) i had a few fans on the power cord going in to the hds and evry minit it wold shut off and start up agian(mager LAG) i was going to add 2 new 200GB HDs. when it shuts off it loses data... i lost so much most of windows didnt start so i did a scan disk(took about 5 houers) and it cam up a little beter so i restored the backups and that didnt help so i reprogramed windows and thats what im useing now and i dont want it to heppen agian when i put those in so help plz

i was talking about the thing that u plug into the hard drive or the cd drive...the thing with 4 prongs

Go on the side of the power supply and look at +3.3v, +5v, and +12v and read off the amperage ratings.