Question Buying a new computer- need guidance and advice

[DarthGizmo]

I have long owned a Dell Inspiron 620 running Windows 7 with HD Onboard 2500 graphics.

I am seeking to now buy a new computer, but I have some concerns.

We've have some power issues in this room when we ran a television and a computer and then plugged in other electronics and the grid got overloaded and the switch tripped in the electrical box to avoid a safety hazard.

I'm concerned that if I get a new computer with a better graphics card and memory and lots of upgrades that it would run too hot with too much wattage and possibly trip the switch again.

How can I know how much wattage this room can handle and how much wattage the new computer will use compared to the old computer?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Lafong]

The maximum watts used by the PC can be approximated fairly accurately once you have a complete list of parts.

Could be under 100 watts most of the time and virtually never 200 watts.

Or as much as 800 watts or more all the time.

All depending on your components and what tasks you do on the PC.

But I'd guess you'd need a pro electrician to evaluate the wiring and circuit breakers in your house. We would have no idea of what appliances may be on a given circuit.

 

[bill001g]

Not a very simple question and mostly not computer related. If you want to know how much power a device is actually using they make meters to test it. This is the most popular brand but you can get more generic brand names much cheaper

Amazon.com

When you trip a breaker in the house it is much more complex than just what you are plugging into one outlet. It depends on what other outlets in what other rooms are also hooked to the same breaker. It could be something in a different room causing it. You are going to have to investigate which outlets in which rooms are on the same breaker. The simplest way tend to be to turn off the breaker and then go around the house and see what outlets/lights etc are not working.

It take quite a lot to blow a circuit breaker. Most times it would be you had something like a small heater on the same circuit.
You need to make a list of stuff that shares the same breaker and figure out how much power there is left for any pc you build.
Depends what country you live in but you should be able to run at least 1500 watts total of equipment on a breaker. That is actually a lot when you consider something like a big tv might use 100-150watts.

Most times you would only worry about this if you were building some high end machine that uses stuff like 4090.

 

[DarthGizmo]

Thanks, very helpful answer, I'll do more research and post more later if I need it.