9600gt, what power supply?

Hi, I am thinking of getting a Palit 9600gt, e7200 and 2xhdd in raid. most of the calculators suggest that 400w would be enough. would 500w (unbranded) power supply do the job? would you recommend a cheap quiet unit? cheers

Antec EarthWatts 430W or 450W Corsair VX would do.

Don't go unbranded.. It's never a wise move. The above two are great units for £45, the corsair would be my pick (as I have one). It's made my seasonic, super quiet, very efficent and built very well :)

for an extra £5 (against the corsair vx450) you can get one of these:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=618002

400W FSP Blue Storm II PSU is only 35 quid on scan today only!!! What a bargain! >85% efficiency too (apparently)

I've got one of the seasonic S12 500s, very nice unit and as staff mike points out they make a good chunk of corsair's psu range. Can't go wrong either way to behonest with that or the the vx450.

PSU calculators are a load of rubbish, that system would use under 200w at load. Get an Antec EarthWatts, they come in 250w and 380w as I recall and are SeaSonic built.

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Originally Posted by Lourdes

PSU calculators are a load of rubbish, that system would use under 200w at load. Get an Antec EarthWatts, they come in 250w and 380w as I recall and are SeaSonic built.

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I sincerely doubt that, under 200w? Dont think so, maybe under 310w id say, but 200?.. :surprised:

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Originally Posted by Hunain

I sincerely doubt that, under 200w? Dont think so, maybe under 310w id say, but 200?.. :surprised:

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i would'nt risk 200w myself. but my old sn45 shuttle only had a 200w psu with a 6600gt, it ran fine until i sold it. The 9600gt is hardly a power hungry card and only about 10w more than a 6600gt. id say your system will only be about 30w higher than my old shuttle.

the most important thing to look for is the Amps on the 12v rail (dont matter if its 750w if the 12v rail is only 10 amps forget it). <16, and think twice (depending on the rest of your system)

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Originally Posted by Hunain

I sincerely doubt that, under 200w? Dont think so, maybe under 310w id say, but 200?.. :surprised:

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You can doubt it all you like... Few people seem to realise what actual power requirements are, so long as you have enough on the 12v rail for your cards you're almost always good.

A typical 9800GTX based review system draws 230W from the mains. That's with a quad core. People should realise that their computers most likely draw less power than the lightbulbs in their room.