Peoples PSU size.

[oolon]

Many people are purchasing rather large PSU, and infact its rather difficult to buy a small one (particularly modular ones), 80%+ PSUs only have to be tested with a 20% minimum load, So I thought I would test my current setup again. to see how over the top it was. (Also we have not had a power usage thread for a while.)

Corsair HX 850 Idle 157w, loaded 300w... 20% level of PSU 160w ... oops. Well it did come in a velvet bag!

So how over the top are the rest of you.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I am powering a Core i3 2100T,H67 mini ITX motherboard,4GB of DDR3 and an HD5670 GDDR5 off an HX520W. However,this was because the HX520W was lying around and acts as a system exhaust too.

My Shuttle SD37P2 has a 450W SFF PSU and it runs a Q6600,4GB of DDR2,two hard disks,an optical drive and an HD5850 1GB.

[stevie lee]

well after reading many a HEXUS review of various things, with the power usage charts on them, I opted for a 425w enermax, that powers a PhenomII 920, 8 gb ram, radeon 4870, 4 hard drives, 2 dvd rdives, 4 fans.

It should only be doing about 280W under load, about 120W idle. I need to check that sometime though.

i knew i didnt need anything bigger so i got that one, even with the degredation and wattage drop off of older PSUs it should last then 7-8 years before I upgrade again.

[mrt9888]

I'm using a 500w to power a Core i3, 4gb RAM, 4 hard drives and gtx 460, I got it on Scan today only so it was the same price as a ~ 400w it won't draw over that. There aren't many decent 400w and lower psus, most only have 1 six pin pcie cable.

[kalniel]

Many people are purchasing rather large PSU, and infact its rather difficult to buy a small one (particularly modular ones), 80%+ PSUs only have to be tested with a 20% minimum load, So I thought I would test my current setup again. to see how over the top it was. (Also we have not had a power usage thread for a while.)

Corsair HX 850 Idle 157w, loaded 300w... 20% level of PSU 160w ... oops. Well it did come in a velvet bag!

So how over the top are the rest of you.

Don't forget wall testers are different from PSU output ratings - if your wall test is 300W load, that's only 240W draw from components assuming 80% efficiency, while your 850 is rated to cope with a draw from components of 850W (1062.5W @ wall @80% eff.)

[Zak33]

well after reading many a HEXUS review of various things, with the power usage charts on them, I opted for a 425w enermax, that powers a PhenomII 920, 8 gb ram, radeon 4870, 4 hard drives, 2 dvd rdives, 4 fans.

It should only be doing about 280W under load, about 120W idle. I need to check that sometime though.

i knew i didnt need anything bigger so i got that one, even with the degredation and wattage drop off of older PSUs it should last then 7-8 years before I upgrade again.

the Phenom is very good at low current draw, but the 4870 will be creaming the volts out of your PSU... I'd be very suprised if you weren't pulling over 300w on thatsyste, wioth that card and 4 drives and all that ram

However, the PSU is easily man enough for that job

[jim]

HX620 running a Q9550 and a 5870. I'm an idiot.

[oolon]

While your 850 is rated to cope with a draw from components of 850W (1062.5W @ wall @80% eff.)

Your right! Oh dear its even worse a picture than I painted. But but a velvet bag!

[stevie lee]

the Phenom is very good at low current draw, but the 4870 will be creaming the volts out of your PSU... I'd be very suprised if you weren't pulling over 300w on thatsyste, wioth that card and 4 drives and all that ram

However, the PSU is easily man enough for that job

im going to have to borrow the fancy Clamp Meter thing from work to test it arent i?


just dont tell my mum if it is above 300w, shes alreaddyl going bananas at the leccy im using. especially because Ive got the computer hooked up to a NAD T761, B&W 600 series and a 150W subwoof, but were not taking those into account for system usage are we? (at least i hope not)

[Sputnik]

I'm using a 600w Enermax but, I had it already so I was reluctant to buy another new one just to save a bit of electric.

A bit of overkill for a Phenom 720

[Biscuit]

750W Antec Truepower powering overclocked Q6600, 4GB DDR3 and an HD5870... i did intend on going crossfire though so it didn't seem so wacky at the time.

[Skulltrail]

As per left - I reckon it pulls 450W or so all full load (which is quite often as I leave it folding except when doing heavy stuff). That said, my rational was dB - at 50-60% load it's at ~22dB rather than the 30+ a 500W would make at equilivent speeds.

This concept is somewhat undermined by the noise the GPU coolers make though.

[dfour]

I have a HX750 powering a phenom 2 965 overclocked, 6 gig ram, 6950 flashed to 6970, 1 ssd and 3 hard drives and my custom watercooling rig. So prob 400 watts when gaming. When I buy a better monitor I will go Xfire so its not to overkill.

[Phage]

I thought my Antec 750w Truepower was about right for my CF rig on the left.

[kalniel]

I thought my Antec 750w Truepower was about right for my CF rig on the left.

Massively overkill.

If you were SLIing 2x 580s then it'd be about right.

[scaryjim]

Kali, in current form, pulls ~ 160W from the wall idle and 370W at unrealistic loads. Once I drop the second 8800GTX in there and overclock everything, however, that load figure should go north of 600W. The current PSU is a 650W Antec TruePower Trio, which will be replaced with a Corsair TX 750W when I've finished the upgrade. So I'm looking at running my current PSU between 20% and 50%, and that will go up when the upgrade's finished which should put me right in the middle of the efficiency band.

My HTPC, on the other hand, is currently powered by a 250W 80+ Bronze FSP 1U FlexATX PSU, and pulls between 30W and 55W from the wall.

So yeah, at full load my HTPC probably doesn't make 20% of the PSU capacity. How's that for efficiency