Need new power suppy advice

So planning on doing a massive upgrade to my computer soon and i've recently done some experiemtnging and figured that that basically 90% of my PC's noise and a good 70% of the heat is coming from my power supply.

I have an Alienware P2 case which from my research includes a 700watt power supply but i have no idea the brand or anything other than that.

I live in south florida, and my house is kept between 75-78 degrees though my computer can easily knock the temperature in my room up to 80-85. Just leaving it on 2-3 hours web browsing heats up the room by a few degrees if the AC isn't running or it isn't cool outside.

Now, i know that any gaming machine is going to put out heat and noise, but since my power supply is whats generating most of it, i want to make a change here and do the most that i can to lower the volume and heat output.

So i have three questions.

1) How can i find out how big of a supply i need? i've gone on sites like cyberpower and setup the sytem there and it looks like a 500 or 550 will be fine but i'd like to be sure.

2) With the temperatures my room is, should i go with a fanless?

3) if not a fanless than a recommendation for a quiet and cool power supply would be very appreciated. I'm currently looking at this one on Amazon.
Amazon.com: Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 500w Power Supply (RS500-PCARD3-US): Electronics

Lastly, the area for the power supply in the P2 case is completely covered except for the rear of the computer and the opposite side with the fan, the bottom is covered, and i've noticed that in many power supplies and fanless including the one i posted have fans on the top, and in my case it wouldn't get any ventilation on the top.

if i have to i'll take the thing apart and see what it's like inside, but i'm hoping to avoid that until i actually get a new one.

Long post i know but thank you in advance to anyone who can help me out here.

Power Supply Calculator


Try the above I would not get one below 700 watts.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...010-_-Homepage

Thanks for the reply, if i did it correctly it came up with 406 watts. which sounds about right because the cyberpower estimate put me at 395 and that didn't seem to add hard drives, optical drives, and my card reader.

Though it is a gaming PC, i'm only running one video card and don't have anything super fancy in it, just basic good hardware.

If you ever want to upgrade your Graphics Card, that low wattage of a PS may not do it. What GPU do you currently have? Most Gamers want the best.:)

How to Pick the Right Power Supply

This post was pinned.

currently a radeon 6850 1gb.

If theres a 700watt that's quiet and cool i'll gladly go for it but it seems to me that the higher the wattage the more heat and noise the card may put out. at least 600 i'd probably go for. I'll be honest, haven't done that much looking yet since i don't know much about power supplies.

I'm not the type of gamer that wants to run things at 4k resolution in 3D on ultra-insane-godly settings. I just like to run things on high-max and get 30-60fps. I also play console games so i don't want my PC to look so godly that i can never go back to a console lol

Thank you all for your help.

Currently reading dozens of amazon reviews to see how hot and noisy different ones are.

NeoK182 said:

currently a radeon 6850 1gb.

If theres a 700watt that's quiet and cool i'll gladly go for it but it seems to me that the higher the wattage the more heat and noise the card may put out. at least 600 i'd probably go for. I'll be honest, haven't done that much looking yet since i don't know much about power supplies.

I'm not the type of gamer that wants to run things at 4k resolution in 3D on ultra-insane-godly settings. I just like to run things on high-max and get 30-60fps. I also play console games so i don't want my PC to look so godly that i can never go back to a console lol

My 700 watt PS is quiet. It is a bottom mount but it only has one fan. Like essenbe it will only put out the wattage that is required for your system.