Why the huge power supply units?

Aastii

Aastii

VIP Member
the only reason for ever getting a massive PSU is if you have 2 processors and 6 sticks of DDR3 RAM and 4 295GTX graphics cards and a ton of HDD and a ton of DVD drives, blu ray drives, cd drives, card readers and RW drives...but in all seriousness who has that?

I'm on an 850W PSU because i got it for the price of a 500W one because it was B-grade, it didn't have "sufficient packageing"...basically it came in a brown box with bubble wrap with everything still in it unopened instead of everything in a box which says corsair on it unopened...it's silly.

So stupidly powerful (or power hungry) computer or great offer is the only reason to actually get a huge PSU.

Also, remember that alot of people who buy power supplies are system builders, so therefore never buy a full new computer, they just continuously upgrade what they have. If you do that you aren't going to buy a borderline PSU just to then have to buy a slightly larger one when you upgrade something in your rig or add something, you are going to buy one over what you need so you have upgradeing capabilities. That and if you have a PSU that is at 80-90% usage it isn't going to last as long as one under 70% useage because it will start to show the strain
 
Okedokey

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
above is nothing but opinion, not fact and btw what exact psu do you have? Also, why the hell do you have 8gb of ram and sli 8600? Now that's silly.
 
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wilson

wilson

New Member
bigfellla knows what he's talking about, wattage means little.

An example, my gf had a 500W PSU which caused her machine to restart as soon as max load was put on her old Geforce 6800GT. Amps on the +12V rail was to low.

The system in my sig is powered by a 500W PSU as well, but with ±3% regulation and 3x17A rails. By no means overpowered! But it's capable of running my system perfectly stable and i wouldn't want anything less.
 
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K

konsole

Member
the people that run extensive setups and use their computer a decent amount must be spending atleast $30 a month to run their computer. I was doing some calculations and ya it took into account some what if's and other assumptions but it came out to around $30 for people that use their computer a decent amount and have 1000W requirements.
 
Okedokey

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
konsole said:
the people that run extensive setups and use their computer a decent amount must be spending atleast $30 a month to run their computer. I was doing some calculations and ya it took into account some what if's and other assumptions but it came out to around $30 for people that use their computer a decent amount and have 1000W requirements.
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Would you mind explaining how based on your 'calculations' a person could use 250kWh per month (@ $.012 / kWh)? Share your calcs here?
 
K

konsole

Member
bigfellla said:
Would you mind explaining how based on your 'calculations' a person could use 250kWh per month (@ $.012 / kWh)? Share your calcs here?
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well first of all electricity is alot more then .01 cents / kwh

Eh I dont really feel like getting back into the calculations but it was something along the lines of 12 hours per day, 8 hours idle, 4 hours load, 800W load, 500W idle and yada yada yada.
 
Z

zer0_c00l

Active Member
i have a little one to :D you know what they say about guys with 550w or less (we have wives watching our spending ) :D
 
Okedokey

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
Still, never are you getting to 250kWh a month. Yadda Yadda Yadda is all you have said that makes sense really.
 
WeatherMan

WeatherMan

Active Member
I can run my System on a 380w Tagan, I know because I've tested it before at a lan and it ran rock solid. Pulled 347 Watts from the wall. PSU was running overtime and at the top of its range. But it worked. Although If I was to buy a new PSU now, I'd probably go for a 520 / 620 HX from corsair Just so I have room for upgrades.

The reason Why I have a 600W is because at my last lan, my old 450W PSU died from a power spike, and I was out in the cold, Had to drop £100 on a PSU there and then :rolleyes:

NickS on XS has ran 2 8800GTX's multiple drives, and a QX6700 on a 500W Enermax just to prove a point :)
 
Okedokey

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
The only point you are proving is my previous one. Even more so when you blame a 'power spike' lol.

In addition, the enermax 500w only has 32A on the 12V rail and is a POS. Its only a matter or time before 2 x 8800GTX fail under that psu - or as you call it a "power spike". pff
 
F

fmw

New Member
At least there is no downside to having a higher power supply than you need. The only downside is having one that is too weak. I put 650 watts in the I7's, 500 watt in the other quad cores and 430 in the dual cores whether they have high end graphics cards or not, if that helps. The AMD quad cores do fine with 430 watts as well. Those are overkill for their respective purposes. You can add up the power requirements and see for yourself. If you have unusual requirments you might want more PSU power but that would be an unusual machine for sure.

It reminds me a little of the power wars in hi fi. People want hundreds or thousands of watts of power but only use 20 or 30 to actually drive their speakers.

The right answer is to add up the power requirements of the components you are using. Add 10% or 20% to be on the safe side and that's your minimum.
 
WeatherMan

WeatherMan

Active Member
Yes as I was proving mine, which is to do with this thread, the 380W is capable of powering my rig with its somewhat low amperage, but will cope. Id step down to a 520W with 40+a anyday, IIRC my new setup now uses around 400W from the wall

Oh and to the power spike thing, I think that was genuinly down to poor amperage now i think about it , I had no choice back then to buy a some crappy Jeantech 600W, this was back in 2004.. I had no cards' and my best shot was to go down to PCW. :\

500W Enermax has 38a ;)

EDIT: Found that thread on XS, My bad it was only 1 GTX + QX, I haven't been able to find the thread for ages.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=141505&highlight=8800GTX+500W+Enermax+Liberty

Do you know anyone that sells 500W PSU's with over 40a BTW? PCP's 500 pushes out 35, Tagan 40, HX520 40 aswell

I'd think its pretty common, my 600 comes with Quad Rail 48A IIRC.

Anway I agree that its all about amperage & that a 500W -600W PSU, good branded, good amp would be more than enough for pretty much everyones 'high performance' rigs.

Was pretty Ironic really. Back in 2004, when I had this Jeantech Arctic, I had the cash to get a decent PSU, but no way to buy one for not having a bank. Anyway. I bought the best I could get within my limited choice, and when I was at his lan, and my PSU went to hell, my mate pointed out that there was a dude behind us powering this monster of a rig with a 650W Q-Tec lol

If you don't already know how bad they are, just think of a company that doesn't even list their own PSU's voltage outputs on their website. Because there probably about 24A max. lol

______

I've just seen this on their power supply pages.

For this product, no special driver is needed. This is because either the product does not need a driver in order to function properly. . . :D

Right....So I download their manual hoping for a Voltage Chart, first of all they've missnamed the pdf extension so anyone who can't be bothered or doesn't know how to change a file extension (a qtec user) Is basically ferked. Then secondly theres no chart. :rolleyes: Nowhere is it detailed the ouput of these units. The only way to get the chart is to buy one of their supply's I assume. :cool:
 
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Mez

Mez

Active Member
Ha... The only reason why I have a 1000w powersupply is because I won it from a Lan Party, along with my case (I don't know if you guys remember).

I could never afford the case nor the power supply lol.

But I love my PSU, 80A on the 12v rail :D I am not a fan of the "2,3, or 4" 12v in a power supply, it shouhld never have been invented. I prefer having 1 nice big rail running all my hardware.
 
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Mitch?

Mitch?

banned
i usually skimp like hell on it - not brand name, but wattage. my last right (amd 5000+ @ 3.2ghz, same hardware now except my 4850 was a 3870) was on a Rosewill 400w, and even this one was on a 400w for a week while i got a new one.
 
Okedokey

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
Bootup05 said:
500W Enermax has 38a ;)
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The Enermax has 32A http://www.enermaxusa.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=83

Bootup05 said:
Do you know anyone that sells 500W PSU's with over 40a BTW? PCP's 500 pushes out 35, Tagan 40, HX520 40 aswell
Click to expand...

Not likely. Why do you want a 500W? Wattage again means nothing. With the 240VA safety limits, it would be unlikely to get a 500W with more thatn 2 x 20A rails on the 12V. However they may exist, but I would suggest for the price this is better anyway: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005 with 52A on the rail.
 
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