Psu help

[noexe]

Got my new card but don't have the power to run it gutted!

i7 920 @ 3.6

gigabyte ud3r x58

6 gig

gtx 480

3xhdd's/dvd rom

case = cooler master cm690

my current psu dosen't have the amps needed for the gtx480 42a minimum i think its been a long time since i looked at psu's so im really in the dark they seem to have gone right up in price!(jk)would like to keep it in the £100 zone but i don't think it's possible from what ive seen,modular one would be prefaired but if it would save a few quid i could live without good length on the cable's is a must i don't plan on going sli so i don't need massess of headroom for the future just anuff so im out the danger zone any help/advice would be appreciated thanks

(it's so horrible having a part just sitting there and not being able to use it! haha)

 

[Bocephus]

You didnt list your PSU brand/wattage/age. Without that not much we can do to help I'm afraid.

This no brainer is all I can come up with at the moment...have you checked the load output. The unit could be faulty

 

[Dewinte]

This should sort you out, bit over £100 but good quality... You could go for a lesser one of course . Can't make the link nice and normal, using iPhone atm and the forum decided to be iPhone awfully native >_>.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...sfire+Compliant+Power+Supply+?productId=36021

 

[yggdrasil]

Use this tool to see what is recommended, It will only be Corsair PSU's recommended (its what I'd recommend) but you can look for another brand if you desire at equal or more wattage/amperage of that recommended.

http://www.corsair.com/psufinder/default.aspx

 

[AMDFTW]

them apps are crap fella

i would get the 750w thats been posted you mighrt be ok with the 650

 

[yggdrasil]

them apps are crap fella

i would get the 750w thats been posted you mighrt be ok with the 650

They normally give a good guide with a little head room, I wouldn't say they were crap but there results can some times be questionable.

I find its a good thing to recommend to people when they are unsure, all tho my quick use of corsairs one it seemed they over compensated a fair amount for the hardware.

 

[noexe]

You didnt list your PSU brand/wattage/age. Without that not much we can do to help I'm afraid.

This no brainer is all I can come up with at the moment...have you checked the load output. The unit could be faulty

Not sure what your on about mate i need a PSU for the components listed above anyway thanks for the recommendations i have been put onto the corsair 850 ax what do you think?little bit more than i would have liked to pay but it's not all the time you buy a new psu so i might as well get a good quality one with headroom on it.

thanks again for the replies

 

[alienware]

650/750w Corsairs have 50-60 amps on the 12v rail. More than enough.

I would say the 750w would be more than enough. Simply because if you were even contemplating going SLI you would need 1200w.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-CS&tool=5

Amps per 12v rail - 60.

 

[Dewinte]

You can go 2x580 with OC and OCed CPU on a good 1000w and be fine. Seen a lot of people doing it so 1200w is great and 1000w is fine for it. Some people try get away with even less (using the GPU-Z power bypass), but imo if you could afford SLI on cards like that you can afford not to skimp on a PSU. On the other hand for that set up with a single 480 then 750w is more than enough, with headroom as has been said by AlienALX. If you want to spend the extra on the 850w go for it but it doesn't give you much extra, as you have more headroom but not enough for anything major, and anything minor would be fine on the 750w. So up to you and your money, but if you think you'd go dual 480 then 850w isnt realistic anyway... Good luck!

 

[noexe]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-CS&tool=5 your a star fella i defo wount be going sli and the only thing i will ad is a ssd in due time but if that psu is anuff power for my specs with a oc on the cpu like you said i will get that saves me a good £60 squid thanks very much

 

[Dewinte]

All good, just keep in mind that one isn't modular so you wont be able to cable manage aswell as you'll have some left over, if you're not bothered then all good

. Enjoy!

 

[Bocephus]

Not sure what your on about mate i need a PSU for the components listed above anyway thanks for the recommendations i have been put onto the corsair 850 ax what do you think?little bit more than i would have liked to pay but it's not all the time you buy a new psu so i might as well get a good quality one with headroom on it.

thanks again for the replies

I agree with you...good choice.

Its always better to have some wiggle room than find out later you need to buy another PSU cause you didn't plan properly or listened to bad adviseand get

Lol...I love theese emotacons

 

[alienware]

You can go 2x580 with OC and OCed CPU on a good 1000w and be fine.

You can yes but then you are going against the ground rules of power supplies. It is recommended to run a PSU @ 55-75% of its capacity. This way you don't put any strain on any of the components in it. I know PSUs are rated 80+ etc but they will use far more electricity at those levels even though they are far more efficient at those levels than PSUs of old.

A 580 uses up to 300w with the throttles in place. Without the throttles they go 350w+ on a single card. So you are going to eat at least 600w on those alone. Then add an overclocked CPU that uses say 150w. 750w without taking into consideration the board, ram, optical, ssd, hdd, LEDs, fans, PCI/E devices, USB devices ETC.

So yeah you could get away with a 1000w but tbh at that price range you would be far better off going 1.2kw+

 

[Dewinte]

And then some of those 1200w psus are about as efficient at the level of load as the 1000w is... Tbh as I said if you can afford SLI 580's then you can afford a 1200w+ so irregardless the end point of both statements are the same. All I did was state that "need" isn't quite right. Also without the throttle getting the 580 to 350w+ isn't exactly something you'd be doing a lot, because if it was then you wouldn't be trying to skimp on a psu (benchers aren't going to ask what psu can I get away with). That's all. As there is no point in suggesting a 1200w psu to someone who buys top spec components but never really loads them up and so their power usage is always low, then their better off with a 1000w that'll be fine when they game etc also, and those people hardly move past stock clocks either.

 

[alienware]

And then some of those 1200w psus are about as efficient at the level of load as the 1000w is... Tbh as I said if you can afford SLI 580's then you can afford a 1200w+ so irregardless the end point of both statements are the same. All I did was state that "need" isn't quite right. Also without the throttle getting the 580 to 350w+ isn't exactly something you'd be doing a lot, because if it was then you wouldn't be trying to skimp on a psu (benchers aren't going to ask what psu can I get away with). That's all. As there is no point in suggesting a 1200w psu to someone who buys top spec components but never really loads them up and so their power usage is always low, then their better off with a 1000w that'll be fine when they game etc also, and those people hardly move past stock clocks either.

I find that rather confusing.

You're telling me that people who spend thousands of dollars/pounds putting together machines as extreme as the ones we are talking about here (980x SLI 580) hardly use them?

Those kinds of machines are built for a number of reasons. None of which come under 'hardly use them'.

Benchmarking. A sure fire way to thrash the tits out of your system. Furmark will push a GPU to its thermal and power limits.

Heaven also thrashes the crap out of a machine. As does Vantage. I know because watts = consumption and heat and I can hear what my fans are doing during all of the benchmarks I throw at my GPUs and CPU. My hardware gets as hot as it is going to during those situations.

Another use for a machine of that caliber is folding. It's common knowledge that during this folding you can hear your capacitors onboard your graphics cards whining from the vibration. This is due to the stress load being put onto them.

I completely fail to see why some one would put that kind of money into a machine to simply pat it from time to time and circle the internet looking for phallus increasing praise. Take Chiller for example. Extreme amounts of money, extreme performance, extreme heat and power consumption for extreme circumstances. It's going to be a benchmarking animal.

As for your analogy of a 1000w PSU being as efficient as a 1200w PSU in certain circumstances? Any good PSU worth its salts offers huge efficiency these days. Those considering a 1200w PSU would likely choose it over a 1000w PSU from the same vendor. There aren't too many when you are talking about that level of power, so the 1200w PSU is going to be more efficient and cool than a 1000w PSU.

 

[Dewinte]

I said there would be no point in suggesting one for someone who won't push them. You forget there are people who love buying the best but have no idea what it is. I know some... Own a 980x and don't know what a benchmark even is. It defies the logic of someone such as yourself but just think of the many people who buy a supercar and just have it parked and rarely crawl around in them, happens more than you'd think. As for the 1000w vs 1200w all I meant was if their usage never goes above around 600w in reality then which do you think can be more efficient? Anyway as I said a few times now... If you have the money for a set up that needs a lot of power when pushed you have the money to get an appropriate psu without trying to see what you can get away with. If you can buy dual 580's then you can buy a bigger psu also. Therefore the previous points are irrelevant and just observations.

 

[alienware]

I said there would be no point in suggesting one for someone who won't push them.

I doubt you will find many like that on here. The site is called Overclock 3d.

You forget there are people who love buying the best but have no idea what it is. I know some... Own a 980x and don't know what a benchmark even is.

Yes and they usually buy Alienware.

It defies the logic of someone such as yourself but just think of the many people who buy a supercar and just have it parked and rarely crawl around in them, happens more than you'd think.

It may well but it doesn't happen here. Hence why when we offer advice here we do so honestly and transparently. Simply as the general userbase here want to squeeze as much performance out of their PC as possible. With that in mind it would be foolish to offer bad advice here. And bad advice is "Oh don't bother spending too much on a PSU as it isn't important". The whole philosophy of this site is to wring everything you have and make it go as fast as possible. So telling people to undercut their PSU or that TRIM is not important is crazy.

As for the 1000w vs 1200w all I meant was if their usage never goes above around 600w in reality then which do you think can be more efficient?

And I have already explained that a PSU is most efficient between 50 and 75%. If the person plays Crysis once then there goes your 50%. And that's not taking into account the 980x, the fans, the cards, the motherboard, the optical and hard drives ETC ETC. And I said that (the % thing) because I have worked with electronics for over twenty years.

Anyway as I said a few times now... If you have the money for a set up that needs a lot of power when pushed you have the money to get an appropriate psu without trying to see what you can get away with. If you can buy dual 580's then you can buy a bigger psu also. Therefore the previous points are irrelevant and just observations.

Well that's why I said I was confused. You're making one point in one hand then dismissing it and making another. And, people reading it (being that this is a very busy public website) will also be confused. So it's simpler to stick to one guideline. If you're going to build a PC of that stature do it right.

 

[Dewinte]

Indeed do it right. It was a simple point that need isn't quite the term going through what I've said in the way you have you'd see that my intentions weren't to say to buy an underpowered psu. Also about saying you don't need trim that's not what was said, instead just that if someone wants to raid SSDs they're not up s**t creek, its not ideal but it'll do for them to reduce the effect of degradation.

Anyway I wrote a lot more but that's detracting from the point of the thread. You've simply misinterpreted what I wrote as if it's advice and not a balancing viewpoint. My opinion and advice is the same as yours. It'd be nice if when critiquing it was done correctly, and not in a way that seems oddly defensive and argumentative for the sake of it. I'll leave it there, and won't bother offering further extensions.

 

[alienware]

Indeed do it right. It was a simple point that need isn't quite the term going through what I've said in the way you have you'd see that my intentions weren't to say to buy an underpowered psu. Also about saying you don't need trim that's not what was said, instead just that if someone wants to raid SSDs they're not up s**t creek, its not ideal but it'll do for them to reduce the effect of degradation.

Have you ever actually used an actual SSD without TRIM?

Manus try not to make a big deal of it and say that performance degradation is slow. It may well be, if you copy data onto it and then immediately remove it from the system plugging it in every couple of months. Sorry dude, but you seem to be woefully ill informed about just how terrible an SSD without TRIM is. Read my quote from a recent review. Please take note that I said review meaning the drive was used for a couple of days at best and by the time they were done running benchmarks on it it had degraded to the point that a single Crucial SSD was able to take the lead in peformance.

SSDs have only truly become a way of life (and an acceptable one) since TRIM was introduced. Before that they were only for the die hards who wanted to show off without actually accepting all of the flaws. And those flaws were simply unacceptable.

You can add the Corsair H50/70 to that and any other blatantly pointless piece of hardware throughout history (all in one oil submersion PCs ETC ETC). An SSD without TRIM is like a thoroughbred race horse. Without legs.

Anyway I wrote a lot more but that's detracting from the point of the thread. You've simply misinterpreted what I wrote as if it's advice and not a balancing viewpoint. My opinion and advice is the same as yours. It'd be nice if when critiquing it was done correctly, and not in a way that seems oddly defensive and argumentative for the sake of it. I'll leave it there, and won't bother offering further extensions.

I'm not being argumentative. I am simply pointing out to you that offering conflicting or quite simply (in the case of your views on TRIM) bad advice is, you know? a bad idea.

I urge you to go off and buy one of the older SSD units on Ebay. They can be had for pennies. Get it home, run Diskpart and secure erase it (info if you need it) and then do some testing. Then come back to me and tell me TRIM isn't important.