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Thread: PSU advice!

  1. #1
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    PSU advice!

    My old PSU ( Tagan 580 watt ) failed in a spectacular way after plugging in a second 8800GT into my rig a few weeks ago so I am on the hunter for a new PSU. After looking around the Corsairs seem to be getting great reviews, I'd be looking at the Corsair 850TX just for a bit of security as ill be upgrading again within the year.

    My current setup is :

    4400+ AMD Cpu
    A8N32SLI Deluxe Motherboard
    2gigs DDR Corsair performance ram
    3 HDs ( 1TB,1 250gig, 1 74gig Raptor )
    2 x 8800GT
    7 x 80mm case fans ( could probably cut this to 3 if it helps)
    1 DVDRW drive

    Is the Corair 850XT a decent buy ? (I know its overkill for my current system but like i said, id rather buy a crazy PSU now and use it in my upgraded system in 12 months time).

    Cheers for the advice,

    Sean,

  2. #2
    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    Re: PSU advice!

    What do you imagine will be in your upgraded system to warrant 850W though, power consumption is generally on the way down and with efficency on the way up there is very little need for anything over 600W realistically.

    I'd get a 700W if you are thinking about doing something crazy but I wouldn't go further than that.

    Corsairs are a good buy generally but I'd probably consider be quiet! or enermax for higher output PSU's, seasonic based corsairs run out at 650W at which point I would be on unfamiliar ground.. and I don't like unfamiliar ground when it comes to PSU's.

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    Efficiently lazy shadowmaster's Avatar
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    Re: PSU advice!

    staffsMike is correct, a good quality 600watt+ psu will quite easily handle your spec. Something like this should do you fine.

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/625W-...uard-SafeGuard

    Other brands such as Corsair, Seasonic, FSP, OCZ, etc will also do, but Blitzen never stops talking about the enermax's so hence the recommendation.

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    Lover & Fighter Blitzen's Avatar
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    Re: PSU advice!

    Blitzen never stops talking about the enermax's so hence the recommendation
    I like the BE Quiet units aswell (just not as much). For their price, they are great. I am actually goingt o buy one this week

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    Re: PSU advice!

    I actually have an old OCZ Stealth 600 watt PSU in at the moment and I get odd black screen hangs when I plug in the second 8800GT. After searching around it looks like its caused by a lack of power which is why i thought just going all out might be a better way ( spending an extra £40 and not having to upgrade for 5 years would be nice =P ).
    Last edited by poonsies; 14-04-2009 at 02:07 PM.

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    Re: PSU advice!

    Quote Originally Posted by poonsies View Post
    I actually have an old OCZ Stealth 600 watt PSU in at the moment and I get odd black screen hangs when I plug in the second 8800GT. After searching around it looks like its caused by a lack of power which is why i thought just going all out might be a better way ( spending an extra £40 and not having to upgrade for 5 years would be nice =P ).
    I would imagine in terms of watts an 8800gt sli with your spec would consume about 350/400watts max at load. So unless the psu is somewhat faulty, I would have thought an OCZ StealthXtreme 600watt should be able to handle your spec? They are good solid units.

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    Re: PSU advice!

    I think along with 3 HDs ( 1 raptor ) 2 optical drivers, 7 case fans etc it all adds up and the 600watt OCZ is just lacking in muscle.

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    Re: PSU advice!

    My old setup was :-

    AMD 3500+ newcastle core
    MSI K8N neo2
    Nvidia GeForce4ti4600
    2GB pc 3200 RAM
    4 HDD's (2 raptors,a Samsung F1 and WD 250GB)
    2x DVD RW
    TV card
    fan controller and 3 case fans.

    and I ran that on an Antec Neopower 480w for 5 years without ever having a power problem. (ok not always with the Samsung F1 before someone points out they were not available 5 years ago. )

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    Re: PSU advice!

    That is not a power hungry system though by any stretch.

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    Re: PSU advice!

    I would recommend my Xigamatek NRP 650W

    I have a GTX 260 in a heavily overclocked system and that works fine. Its a modular PSU and looks awesome.

    However the price seems to have shot up.. I managed to get it for £60 some time ago.
    "The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
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    Re: PSU advice!

    Quote Originally Posted by Blitzen View Post
    That is not a power hungry system though by any stretch.
    Agreed but, I don't think the OP is going to need a huge PSU for the system he listed.

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    Re: PSU advice!

    850W is huge. For two 8800GTs it's unnecessary. I would stick with Corsair and use a 650W TX (which is still a Seasonic). The other Corsairs out there are CWT units, which is all fine, but they do start getting noisy beyond that point. I tried an HX1000 out once, and it was LOUD. I was also very unimpressed with an 850W BeQuiet, not only was it very noisy (considering the name), but it was also very underpowered and couldn't run my system, which the Zalman unit (also 850W) does perfectly.

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    Re: PSU advice!

    I've used corsairs, enermax's - 620W liberty one blew after three years but I'm more than happy with the hiper 580w M series I use at the moment.

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    Re: PSU advice!

    600-700W Corsair ought to do the job.

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    Re: PSU advice!

    I've seen a lot of Enermaxes go bad in my time. I've never owned one, but the experience of others has made me a bit wary. The Galaxy in particular is terrible.

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