Power supply

[fastmike]

I am about to add two Nvidia GTS8800 550 mbt Graphics cards to my PC .
At the moment I,m useing a Enermax 500 watt power supply . Will this power supply be man enough ?
If not any suggestions please ?

[moogle]

Yes an Enermax one at 500w should be enough to power those cards and that setup you have. Assuming your my system is up to date.

[mac124]

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Give that a go, will give you a rough idea anyway.

[moogle]

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Give that a go, will give you a rough idea anyway.

OTT that is. Recommended me an 888w PSU when my system struggles to use 400w with 3DMark06 + Prime95..

[mac124]

Hmm seems about right to me, when i put my specs through it, stock phenom 9750 with 3870, 3hdd, few fans dvdrw usual gubbins etc it came out at approx 400w which is believable for full load i guess.

No offence but surely a quad based system with a 280gtx is going to pull more than 400w under full load? Granted 888w seems a bit much.

Edit, stuck my gaming pc through which is similar to yours but q6600@ 3600mhz / 260gtx watercooled and that came out a shade over 500w, again believable.

Did you alter any other settings in the calculator? As in the capacitor aging bit at the end which can greatly affect the result.

[moogle]

No offence but surely a quad based system with a 280gtx is going to pull more than 400w under full load? Granted 888w seems a bit much.

My mistake. My old system, haven't tested this one yet. It still recommends 608w with 10% capacitor aging and 809w with 50% capacitor aging. 608w seems a good choice on what power supply to get I suppose, but not my system load.

EDIT - Just changed the drives from IDE -> Sata. 694w, still quite far away from it. I've kept to 10% capacitor aging as I think good quality power supplies would be at that level.

[Seaweasel]

I'de say go for a lreast a 1000 watt PSU as you will most likely be wanting to add more storage and other stuff, I would also highly recommend getting your self at least a 100vac APC UPS to pro tect you investment.

[Blaineoliver]

A 1000w power supply is a useless investment, it will be incredibly innefficient running a system with about half the power requirements of what the psu can deliver, meaning that your wasting energy. The 1kw supplies are expensive too, an unnecisary cost when you consider a decent 600w is more than enough. Also, if you dont give a 1kw power supply enough load, they dont even boot.

[PeterStoba]

I'de say go for a lreast a 1000 watt PSU as you will most likely be wanting to add more storage and other stuff, I would also highly recommend getting your self at least a 100vac APC UPS to pro tect you investment.

[GoNz0]

+1

[shadowmaster]

+1

+2 A 1000watt is overkill, the vast majority of gaming systems would be fine with a quality 400w-600w psu. Only a few very top end sli or crossfire rigs would require 800watts or so. The only system I imagine that would use a 1000watts would be something like tri sli with a gtx 280.

[Blaineoliver]

+2 A 1000watt is overkill, the vast majority of gaming systems would be fine with a quality 400w-600w psu. Only a few very top end sli or crossfire rigs would require 800watts or so. The only system I imagine that would use a 1000watts would be something like tri sli with a gtx 280.

Pretty Much summed up the topic completely.

[Blitzen]

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Give that a go, will give you a rough idea anyway.

These PSU calcs never even give a ballpark figure.
Its like sticking a pin in a map.

I'de say go for a lreast a 1000 watt PSU as you will most likely be wanting to add more storage and other stuff, I would also highly recommend getting your self at least a 100vac APC UPS to pro tect you investment.

I really hope that amazingly poor piece of advice was a joke.

[moogle]

I'de say go for a lreast a 1000 watt PSU as you will most likely be wanting to add more storage and other stuff, I would also highly recommend getting your self at least a 100vac APC UPS to pro tect you investment.

That's even worse advice than the PSU calculator

[mac124]

Cheers, i was only trying to help and i did say it will only give a rough idea.

[matty-hodgson]

Cheers, i was only trying to help and i did say it will only give a rough idea.

*censored*