overpowering a psu

[PC eye]

Try a 700w OCZ supply in use here. I could still be running a 480w model but matched the supply to the board. Supply sees 6 sata power connectors to match the 6 sata ports on the board. Simple formula. The amps are more then adequate.

As far as the 350w manufacturer's minimum that is a little outdated since that was seen for the earlier atx boards to start with. Socket A, Celeron, etc. for both Intel and AMD. Prebuilds coming out at this time are now seeing only 220w supplies. And what were you saying now about 350w?

It's still going to boil down to the build. For the basics having board, lower model cpu, low to mid range card, onboard sound if no expansion is added there someone will get by with a 380w supply.

For someone ocing and wanting high end video card or simply having additional drives and a faster cpu and more memory you then have to total that to find out what a supply has to see. A supply seeing 600w and 24a on the rails means nothing if it lacks any good regulation while the next supply would see only 450w and 18a and kick butt, take names being a work horse.

 

[StrangleHold]

This is getting better by ever post. We are getting close to the Mississippi river.

 

[PC eye]

This is getting better by ever post. We are getting close to the Mississippi river.

Don't fall in while you are there! Or better yet take a dive!

 

[Okedokey]

Since I doubt the OP will actually ever return to this thread and it is becoming quite rediculous, we should end this now. But before we do, PC Eye can you do a couple of things for me, can you show me a 380W PSU that will provide sufficient power (e.g. 24A or so) on the 12V rail for a mid range card such as the 8600GT? (this is actually a lower end card now).

Can you also please back up your "regulation" comment with the actual specs you attribute to this?

A supply seeing 600w and 24a on the rails means nothing if it lacks any good regulation while the next supply would see only 450w and 18a and kick butt, take names being a work horse.

 

[jdbennet]

my dell 305w PSU in my e510 has 2x 12v rails, at 18a each

runs my XFX 8600GT 256mb (PCI Express) just fine.

so u fail

 

[ceewi1]

nVidia's official recommendations for an 8600GT is 300W/18A. Realistically, these cards draw very little power so what other hardware is in the system can be quite important. Companies like Dell know exactly how much power their systems require and (I'll probably get flamed for this ) use reasonably good quality units. They don't give you much upgrade headroom, though.

As for 380W units with +12V@24A, that's only 75% of the unit's power available on the +12V rail, so I'd be a bit disappointed if a good quality 380W couldn't provide that. Antec's EA380 provides +12V@27A, for example. For the sake of upgrade headroom, though, I'd rather recommend something a little bigger where the budget will stretch.

To the OP, I think it's been said a number of times now, but a high powered e.g. 1000W PSU will run a basic system without issues, and will certainly not result in the system drawing 1000W. The power draw will likely be slightly higher than it would with a smaller unit, as PSUs are somewhat less efficient at very low loads, but that will be all.

 

[dave_w]

Companies like Dell know exactly how much power their systems require and (I'll probably get flamed for this ) use reasonably good quality units.

Although my personal favorite was opening my dad's "American-made" (not his words) desktop, and finding a 250W PSU featuring an astounding 16A on the 12V and a whole lot of funny Chinese letters.

To the original poster: I ran a 1000W power supply in my rig for maybe 6 months before using even 50% of it. Everything worked fine, except for that sinking feeling that the extra hundred bucks I had spent on it could've gotten me some really nice, shiny stuff. Also, it's the size of a freakin` house.

My advice is to post your proposed rig, and as a way of apologizing for hijacking the hell out of your original post, we'll send you some links to pretty little PSUs that will do the job and handle reasonable upgrades and additions. Some of these links may actually work.

So, in short, the downside to buying a big honkin' PSU:

-You will never, ever friggin need 1000W. If you can actually use that much juice, you probably know you do.

-1KW PSUs are big. 500W PSUs are not.

-Money spent on 1KW PSU can be better spent on nicer components, or possibly crack.

-If you ever find a way to get your computer to suck down 1000W and roughly 75A, your house will be toasty warm in the winter, and hot as hell in the summer.

 

[houseofbugs]

1KW PSU's are not a waste. I needed that much on the 12V for my 2 8800GTX's, Pump, Hard drives, CPU, etc. My 700Watt OCZ shut off with all that. Also you forgot to mention that if you run a 1KW with a 700 watt load you will have higher efficiency.

~Tim

 

[gamerman4]

I really think a lot of you are overestimating how much power drain computer components have...

I'm running this:
overclocked Q6600 @ 3.1Ghz
2GB RAM
5 Hard Drives
Overclocked 8800GT
DVD drive
water cooling pump
3 120mm fans

All that and my PSU only has 25A combined on both 12V rails and the voltages are nice and stable, but it is an Antec PSU, they are very high quality, a cheaper 400W PSU would most likely have issues.

 

[houseofbugs]

The only problem with saying that is us people with the older components that draw higher amounts of power DO need insane PSU's. I bet you are probably someone who will spend a few bucks more on a case if it comes with a 'decent' PSU. FYI 25A is not even enough for ONE of my cards.

~Tim

 

[gamerman4]

The only problem with saying that is us people with the older components that draw higher amounts of power DO need insane PSU's. I bet you are probably someone who will spend a few bucks more on a case if it comes with a 'decent' PSU. FYI 25A is not even enough for ONE of my cards.

~Tim

Actually i spent $120 on a case that did not even come with a PSU and then spent $70 on my PSU because I knew that it was a good brand.

25A is more than enough to run one 8800GTX considering a card can only draw a maximum of 75W from the pci-e slot plus another 75W for each 6-pin power cord. Thus the maximum a single card can drain is about 225 watts if it has 2 6-pin power cords attached.
225 watts / 12V = 18.75A
18.75 < 25
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_power_supply

 

[PC eye]

Again ceewi1 hit the mark about supplies. I love the paragraph seen under the "False Advertising" heading at the link there at wikipedia which goes as:

"
The DIY boom has led to power supply manufacturers marketing their products directly to end-users, often with grossly inflated specifications. Some of the main tricks employed are...[8]

• Advertising the peak power, rather than the continuous power.
• Determining the continuous output power capability at unrealistically low temperatures (at room temperature as opposed to 40°C).
• Advertising total power as a measure of capacity, when modern systems are almost totally reliant on the number of amps on the 12 volt line(s).

So if...

• PSU A has a peak rating of 500 watts at 25°C, with 25 amps (300 W) on the 12 volt line, and
• PSU B has a continuous rating of 500 watts at 40°C, with 33 amps (400 W) on the 12 volt line,

and those ratings are accurate, then PSU B would have to be considered a vastly superior unit. PSU A may only be capable of delivering a fraction of its rated power under real world conditions.
This tendency has led in turn to greatly overspecified power supply recommendations, and a shortage of high-quality power supplies with reasonable capacities. Very few computers require more than 300–350 watts maximum.[8] Higher end computers such as servers and gaming machines with multiple high power GPUs are among the few exceptions."