8800GT which PSU?

[Yosh]

Read on some big US sites that many people are going for single rail solutions
like the Corsair VX PSU's, but other people saying that multi rail psu's are fine, and seeing
as though the multi rail psu's still have 1 or 2 6 pin pci'e power connectors on them surely
they must be capable to run a single 8800GT.

Bit confused about all this

So who's running what??

[staffsMike]

I don't think it really matters that much. As long as you have a fairly decent PSU around 450w or more then it will run fine on anything. Corsair VX450w is a great psu for the money though

[Yosh]

Yeh i used a psu calculator a while back and it worked out that i could use a vx450w, i was looking at the vx550w to make sure, they are both single 12v rail psu's though, i was really wondering about the multi rail psu's and if they can be used.

[Pob255]

The power number is probably closer too 400w for a C2D system with 8800gt, 450 for a C2Q

The main reason that the Corsair VX450w is doing so well/popular is that it's a good 450w PSU that is often cheaper than most of the other decent 400w PSU's
It's a very good value for money PSU and should power the vast majority of single graphics card pc's.
I probably wouldn't risk it on an old Pentium D + 8800Ultra, but who'd actually team them up?
If you can afford the Ultra then you could afford a better cpu and a better PSU.

[Yosh]

And running it on an AMD 6000 is fine i guess?

Have been looking at a c2d 6850 or the 6600 quad but not sure what to do yet.

[Pob255]

A good PSU multi rail or not should be fine.
esp. as many of the multi rail PSU are not that seperate on the rails, the main thing seems to be just seperate soilder points on the PCB with cross links, so that if any one area/component trys to pull too much power the heat generated will be more spread out and so nothing should burst into flames.
Also other components shouldn't get starved because of the demand of one and Electromagnetic interference should be reduced.

At least that's how it appears to me with what I've read about it, I'm no PSU engineer.


EDIT: even though the AMD x2 is not the lowest of power demand chips a good 400w is still all you should need.
one usefull link The Truth About Graphics Power Requirements V2 - Graphic Hardware - Forums - www.atomicmpc.com.au the true power usage of graphics cards
And most PC's with single graphics cards will not pull more than 250-300w from the wall socket, so while in theory a 300w PSU should be able to power most PC's, most 300w PSUs don't supply enough on the +12v and may not be able to take surges in power consumption that a PC can generate, so 400w generally gives you both the required power and enough head room to cover things like ageing and possible additional equipment. (extra fan hard drives and such)

[HSK]

can someone explain multi-rail & single rail etc? i have no idea about PSU's.

i want to get hold of a 8800GT also, my PSU is a earthwatts 380 (one that comes with the ANTEC NSK 4480 case).

[bigbloke]

can someone explain multi-rail & single rail etc? i have no idea about PSU's.

i want to get hold of a 8800GT also, my PSU is a earthwatts 380 (one that comes with the ANTEC NSK 4480 case).

This site is an excellent resource, everything you need to know about psu's can be found here

JonnyGURU.com - Power Supply Reviews and more! - News