4870x2 PSU and Future Proof for Crossfire

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cdnbum88

Gawd
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Oct 15, 2008
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I am looking to get a 4870x2 in the next week or two and you can see in my sig the current Corsair PSU I have.

I believe this will run one card ok.

But I am still under 30 days at Fry's and if I see a sale on a bigger one, I was wondering what would be more then enough for crossfire with a couple of 4870x2 if I ever get there?

I know you can say get 1000+ watts and you will be good :p But I want to be somewhat practical as well.

LMK
 
a 4870x2 cf rig isn't going to eat up 1000w of power, so technically you could get away with a high quality 750w or 800w psu. unfortunately with either of those lower wattage parts, a 4870x2 cf build will use nearly all of those psu's capacity and they tend not to last very long running at or near capacity.
 
Other then space, do many folks have two PSU's if you have a full tower case and no issues with heat?

Never thought about a second PSU idea.

Thoughts?
 
heard 4870x2 crossfire takes up around 800watts. When I bought the Silverstone TJ07 it came with a relay switch for 2 PSU -. It was an interesting idea.. but my there's nothing in my rig which consumes more than my PSU at the moment so used the space for watercooling :p
 
a single 4870X2 in a moderate system will pull 350 to 375 watts under load. more or less depending on other hardware. your HX620 is fine for one. If for some reason you want to run two of them then your looking at 600 to 625 watts. A corsair 750XT would do it though at that point I would be getting the larger PSU just to stay in the sweet spot.

BTW a lot of people are quoting reading from sites and giving numbers like 750 to 800 watts, these numbers are for power at the wall, not the system load. most PSU are only around 80% efficient, that means to find the actual system load you need to multiple the "at wall" number by the efficiency of the PSU.

you don't need a second PSU,
 
Thanks...I figured the massive PSU's would be overkill but at some point necessary.

My gaming system will be barebones for the most part.

I am really putting the cart ahead of the horse on talking about the second card, but my PSU is still within the 30 days and was thinking for ~$50 more, should I get higher now.

I am thinking I willl stay with what I have since I will not be buying the 2nd card for awhile.

This machine was suppose to be my MAME machine, at this point....I think not :)
 
cdnbum88 said:
Thanks...I figured the massive PSU's would be overkill but at some point necessary.

My gaming system will be barebones for the most part.

I am really putting the cart ahead of the horse on talking about the second card, but my PSU is still within the 30 days and was thinking for ~$50 more, should I get higher now.

I am thinking I willl stay with what I have since I will not be buying the 2nd card for awhile.

This machine was suppose to be my MAME machine, at this point....I think not :)
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I really do like the corsair 750XT. you could get it, save a lot of money over the 1kw, and still be able to put a second card in if you wanted to. Buy.com has one for 80 shipped AR right now. hard to beat that. but unless ATI gets their crossfire X scaling fixed there just is little to no reason to get a second card.
 
Valset said:
I really do like the corsair 750XT. you could get it, save a lot of money over the 1kw, and still be able to put a second card in if you wanted to. Buy.com has one for 80 shipped AR right now. hard to beat that. but unless ATI gets their crossfire X scaling fixed there just is little to no reason to get a second card.
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That is a sweet deal....may have to look into that.
 
Shawnasee said:
So if I wanted to add a 2nd 4870x2 to my rig below, would I need to get a 1000w PSU?
Click to expand...

no, I am guessing that you would be pulling 650 or so. Still good to go though I would not want that running 24/7 full load.
 
My former OCZ 450w power supply didn't have enough juice for my 4870x2. I had to grab a corsair 750w in order to power it.
 
620HX will run a single x2 w/ out any issues...pending on how soon you will add a 2nd x2, I would opt for the 1000HX, it's a breeze to work w/, plenty of "future" proofing for those that don't upgrade every 1/4

yes I am biased, but if [H] gave it the Gold Award and I would guess-timate that those of us w/ high end hardware, that a good majority uses the 1000HX
 
I'm kinda in a situation about whether or not to upgrade my psu or not.

My current rig right now sports a E7200, I will be getting a Q6600 shortly from a buddy of mine that ran it at 3.6GHz. In addition to that, I'll be adding a VRaptor 300GB (already have it), another storage drive, 4GB of ram and will be watercooling the CPU and video.

Question is will my 620HX be enough or will I need to upgrade to a 750TX?

PS: Didn't mean to thread jack, its just I didn't want to make another thread on it since we're talking about an x2 which I have one :p
 
aiya said:
I'm kinda in a situation about whether or not to upgrade my psu or not.

My current rig right now sports a E7200, I will be getting a Q6600 shortly from a buddy of mine that ran it at 3.6GHz. In addition to that, I'll be adding a VRaptor 300GB (already have it), another storage drive, 4GB of ram and will be watercooling the CPU and video.

Question is will my 620HX be enough or will I need to upgrade to a 750TX?

PS: Didn't mean to thread jack, its just I didn't want to make another thread on it since we're talking about an x2 which I have one :p
Click to expand...

Based on what I am reading here I think you would be fine with what you have.
 
aiya said:
I'm kinda in a situation about whether or not to upgrade my psu or not.

My current rig right now sports a E7200, I will be getting a Q6600 shortly from a buddy of mine that ran it at 3.6GHz. In addition to that, I'll be adding a VRaptor 300GB (already have it), another storage drive, 4GB of ram and will be watercooling the CPU and video.

Question is will my 620HX be enough or will I need to upgrade to a 750TX?

PS: Didn't mean to thread jack, its just I didn't want to make another thread on it since we're talking about an x2 which I have one :p
Click to expand...

yes, you will have np, I used a single 620HX for a 280gtx FtW, and after wards a single x2
 
my 4870x2 cf machine has a [email protected], 4gb@1033, 150gb raptors raid0, cpu/nb liquid cooling, and five 12cm case fans. i know it pulls better than 800w from the wall, which in the best possible circumstances with a psu efficiency rate of 80% my components are drawing 640w from my psu. so i stand by my previous statement that a 750 to 800w psu will technically work, but with it pushing nearly its maximum load, i wouldn't leave it to chance.
 
Valset said:
a single 4870X2 in a moderate system will pull 350 to 375 watts under load. more or less depending on other hardware. your HX620 is fine for one. If for some reason you want to run two of them then your looking at 600 to 625 watts. A corsair 750XT would do it though at that point I would be getting the larger PSU just to stay in the sweet spot.

BTW a lot of people are quoting reading from sites and giving numbers like 750 to 800 watts, these numbers are for power at the wall, not the system load. most PSU are only around 80% efficient, that means to find the actual system load you need to multiple the "at wall" number by the efficiency of the PSU.

you don't need a second PSU,
Click to expand...

I use quite a bit of power on my system and I push into the upper 400s at load on my hx620 with a single 4870x2, an e8400 @ 4.2, 4x2 GB of RAM, a velociraptor, 2 other SATA hard drives, a DVD burner, and 6 120x25mm and 2 120x38mm fans.
 
zerodeefex said:
I use quite a bit of power on my system and I push into the upper 400s at load on my hx620 with a single 4870x2, an e8400 @ 4.2, 4x2 GB of RAM, a velociraptor, 2 other SATA hard drives, a DVD burner, and 6 120x25mm and 2 120x38mm fans.
Click to expand...

More personal confirmation that my HX620W will be fine for what I have at this point.

Will re eval later as I add more stuff.
 
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