On Wed, 2010-08-18 at 00:27 -0500, Thomas Cameron wrote: > I would guess that too much juice might hurt the systems, The voltage must be correct, but that's not one of the variables. The power is (which is voltage times current, to put it simply). A power supply is capable of supplying up to the maximum that it's designed for. Something drawing current (your computer) will draw the amount of power that it needs. The same explanation applies, that it will draw what it needs, whether you're talking about drawing power in watts, or current in amps. If a device needs 12 volts at 1 amp, it will draw 12 watts. If the power supply can provide 12 watts, then your device (computer) will draw 12 watts from it. If the power supply can provide 300 watts, your device will still only draw the 12 watts that it wants. There are a few problems with using a power supply which can supply more power than you need: It *may* not operate efficiently. Power supplies usually have a couple of ratings, for continuous power, and peak power (the maximum that they can momentarily supply). They're probably designed to be most efficient somewhere close to their continuous power rating. However, if the supply is well designed, it may just be a bit inefficient when only supplying a low amount of power, rather than being very inefficient. They may run hotter than a smaller power supply. > but would too little actually damage anything? Well, you have the obvious of problem of unreliable operations. If it's too insufficient, the output voltage will drop considerably, and digital circuitry may start operating between the legal 0 or 1 binary voltage levels. When in the illegal voltage range, things can behave unpredictably. If something locks up it could draw too much current. > -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
