Power Supply for high end machine...

[Shmee150]

Ok for a computer that's going to be running 2 graphics cards (prob 7950GX2 & 7600GS - maybe that's 3 ), 5 hard drives, whatever the most extreme core 2 duo that comes out (2.93 I think?) and the usual extras you would expect, what is the quietist high end PSU?

Looking on Scan, the choice of 600W + PSUs is mind boggling, It's for a Silverstone case, so I was thinking the 600W Silverstone Strider ST60F, but is more than this amount of power necessary? £5 more gets the 650W, although it isn't modular.

Thanks for any help!

ShMeE

[ExceededGoku]

600W prob won't cut it :S. But if you're in that range then the Enermax 620W Liberty series is absolutely amazing, otherwise I would be looking upwards of 1000W

[Shmee150]

I'm currently running X2 4800, 3HDDs, 7800GTX, Matrox 32mb card, off a 350W Shuttle PSU and it's been running fantastically. The only problem is that in an upgrade I want the PSU that will be able to handle all of the components, but still run as cool/quiet as possible.

Thanks,

ShMeE

[BUFF]

How about an FSP Epsilon 700W?
after that it's a Tagan 900W ...

[Shmee150]

Any experience of the noise/weight/temps of those?

I like the look of that FSP one though, appropriate connectors all through for my system and initial reading of reviews is good. Thanks! Do you know about the OCZ GameXStream 700W and how that compares? Reviews seem to say it's very quite which is always a good thing!

ShMeE

[BUFF]

I like the look of that FSP one though, appropriate connectors all through for my system and initial reading of reviews is good. Thanks! Do you know about the OCZ GameXStream 700W and how that compares?

it's basically the same PSU - OCZ don't actually make PSUs, their first series were made by Topower & the new ones are FSP.

[Smokey21]

600W prob won't cut it :S. But if you're in that range then the Enermax 620W Liberty series is absolutely amazing, otherwise I would be looking upwards of 1000W

No offense, but thats complete rubbish. he does not need a 1000watt PSU.

A Silverstone 650W, would be great, good PSU's. Id look at over 600W, anything from Silverstone, PCP&C, Enermax, OCZ, Zippy.

[Shmee150]

I think I am going to go with the 700W OCZ one, reviews seem very postive, and it's very very quiet, plus excellent warranty/support from OCZ on it.

Thanks for the help guys!

ShMeE

[ExceededGoku]

none taken smokey, I only say what I believe I wasn't enforcing my will . If i was getting a rig like that I would go for the 1000W just to be sure that power won't be a problem.

[chazt]

don't the 7950gx2 consume less power than normal SLI setups?

also, can you run a 7950gx2 in sli with a 7600gs, i didn't think this was possible?

[Shmee150]

don't the 7950gx2 consume less power than normal SLI setups?

also, can you run a 7950gx2 in sli with a 7600gs, i didn't think this was possible?

That might be a good point. From what I have found out, the 7950GX2 doesn't use SLi though literally, because it certainly is compatible with a number of single 16x PCIe boards, i.e. not SLi. There's a compatibility list on the nVidia website. I assumed by this that it would work on an SLi board not in SLi mode, and therefore the other 16x slot would function seperately as normal.

Anybody able to clarify that either way?

Thanks,

ShMeE

[FatalSaviour]

Haven't really read up on the 7950GX2 that much, as it's not necessary for me to upgrade my graphics setup at the moment, but it was my understanding that it was effectively two 7900GTs in SLI (accomplished by having an SLI chip onboard)?
May well be off the mark on this though

[-ChEM-]

its two 7900xxx cores but downclocked because of heat issues (especially in quad sli)

you do need an sli board i think, essntially due to nvidias marketing department being tight arsed... afterall NF4 Ultra == NF4 SLI with a bit of soldering

what exactly were you planning on doing with the graphics cards anyway? why not get 2x7900gt SLI and you'll have 4xDVI outputs when SLI is off if thats the problem?

as for the original issues, conroe should be less demanding than a highend 939 chip now so its mainly the graphics draining it

i have a ST60F and imo its completely unintrusive... performance wise i think it has bigger rails than the enermax and is a bit more solid even though its rated lower, i did a lot of reading a couple of months ago about it

however im only running at stock at the moment (opteron 170/x800GTO2) so theres not much power being drawn... its certainly quiet enough now (i've slowed the NB fan and its still a lot louder than the PSU one) but the only thing i would recommend is that there are more efficient PSUs around so id check out buffs recommendations if you want something that will stay quiet under load... im running stability tests now and its still nice and quiet but it has gone up a bit so with 2xgraphics it might get a bit noisy in games... i use headphones anyway so i dont really care as long as its quiet when idling or browsing/typing etc

[Shmee150]

It's fact that you do not need an SLi board for the 7950GX2 from what I have now read. The official nvidia webpage lists the compatible motherboards, and it definitely includes some NON-SLi motherboards. See here for official confirmation of this: http://www.nvidia.com/content/geforce_gx2_sbios/us.asp

It is to run a central 30" 2560x1600, do any of the normal 7900 series cards do this while running a 2nd screen at 1600x1200 at the same time? The other graphics card is to run 1600x1200 and 800x600 screens and hence a less expensive, passive cooled card seemed more appropriate.

[skull_00]

Power Supplies: How Much Power Do You Need?

Component[INDENT][INDENT]Requirement
AGP Video Card30W – 50W
PCI Express Video100W – 150W
Average PCI Card5W – 10W
DVD/CD20W – 30W
Hard Drive15W – 30W
Case/CPU Fans3W (ea.)
Motherboard (w/o CPU or RAM) 50W – 100W
RAM15W per 1GB
Pentium III Processor40W
Pentium 4 Processor80W – 120W
AMD Athlon Processor80W – 120W

For overall power supply wattage, add the requirement for each device in your system, then multiply by 1.5. (The multiplier takes into account that today’s systems draw disproportionally on the +12V output. Furthermore, power supplies are more efficient and reliable when loaded to 30% - 70% of maximum capacity.)


I hope this helps!

information is by: http://www.pcpowercooling.com/technology/power_usage/