Replacing A Chinese Firecracker :D

[laywill]

I have been using my wonderful *cough* Arctic Cooling PSU for a few years now and all has been hunky dory
I've been trying to do a test of whether I think SLI is worth it before I start to upgrade my system over the coming months (if I find myself some money) by buying for £30 off eBay a second 9800GTX+.

HOWEVER! Every time I try and run a graphics intensive program in SLI the system crashes from what seems to be a lack of power Issues leading me to that conclusion are in a thread here: http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...li-issues.html
NB: untill I installed the "new" 9800GTX+ the system had run stable for years. I have stress tested the new GTX+ and its stable even when Overclocked.

Soooo... looking at a new power supply which will be SLI capable and future proof.

My current setup:

• CPU: AMD Phenom II 940 (Stock: 3000MHz 1.2V, running@ 3515MHz 1.49V)
• RAM: Crucial Ballistix DDR2 (Stock: 800MHz 2.1V, running@ 1066MHz 1.2V)
• GFX: 2 x nVidia 9800GTX+ (Stock (core, memory, shader): 730, 1100, 1836 running@ 810,1175, 1875)
• Mobo: ASUS Crosshair II Formula
• PSU: Arctic Cooling "750W"
• Fans: 4x120mm AKASA Silence, 1x 80mm AKASA Silence
• HDD: 1x 1Tb Toshiba (soon to be joined by 1x 120Gb SSD)
• Soundcard: Soundblaster something or other
• ODD: 1x DVD-RAM read/write
• Lighting: 2x LED strips

So... Corsair and OCZ power supplies seem to be liked by a lot of people so I was going to go for either http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...eps-12v-quiet- or http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...-year-warranty

Thoughts and advice???

Cheers

laywill

[dave87]

Any of the Seasonic built units get a thumbs up from me - I've got/used a number of their own branded units and ones they manufacture for others, and they've all been top notch. Well worth their cost

[ghost_florian]

Honestly, I don't think you need 750W to power this system. 600W would be more than enough.

For 600-650W: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-...2v-quiet-fan-a or http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-...eps-12v-fan-at

Both of them are very good units. I personally think XFX looks cooler

If 700 or 750W gives you more peace of mind, you can try the ones you mentioned or this one: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...eps-12v-fan-at

Again, you honestly don't need 750W A Core 2 extreme system with two 9800GTX+ consumes 387W from the wall. And that's with a pretty old PSU (source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2555/2 ).

[andy572]

Nice descriptive name in the title there!

I'll second Dave. I've got one of each here - a Seasonic S12 that's run flawlessly for years and a Seasonic-built Corsair that's put the same sterling work in for two years now. When it was the main system, the former PC ran 24-7 all year round for all but a few days and the second system has replaced that for the last two years, running to the same extent. There may be good alternatives, but I wouldn't look anywhere else.

If you're swayed, XFX's Pro Series are apparently built by Seasonic and from what I've read, carry the quality that I'd expect. That should give you a good third option.

During checking my post, I noticed g_f has added a note on the capacity of the supply. I'll second that too! There's no need to get carried away and as that link illustrates, the 'lesser' supplies will be more than capable.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I had an idea.

Get lower power psu for cheaper, sell 9800gtx+, put pennies together and buy newer card which uses much less power and will prob give better perf.

[laywill]

THANK YOU ALL!!!

I think Corsair TX650 is the way forward

Can I ask people's thoughts on whether its worth the extra £15 for the modular TX650M? To my eyes it doesn't seem a lot of extra cable management for £15...

[dave87]

Yes.


S12 I've got is a fantastic unit, but modular cables would be a godsend....

[andy572]

I had the same initial reaction as Domestic_Ginger. I don't know how well cards of that era pair up performance-wise but the question of power requirement and what a new card might be capable of certainly came to mind - unless it's a 'because I can' thing, when I then fully understand your persistence!

I've never been fussed about the idea of modular and I like the simplicity of fixed cabling (one less thing to go wrong). Perhaps the leads have just suited my cases, but I've never found it a problem. It's always been about whether there were enough cables and how they'd reach, rather than having too many in the case. It's always possible to tidy cables or if you have the right case for it, store them to one side.

Is that 1-1, then?

[csgohan4]

Sell your radiators 9800 GTX , you only need them in winter. I had two of those babies and boy, my room got very hot.