Corsair 620W SLI question

Allanon

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 31, 2001
Messages
491
I got the Corsair based on some great advice from the forum and after reading the Jonnyguru review. Installed w/o a hitch in my p180B.

Just realized something I wish I would have known.. If I decide to go SLI, I am SOL right? I only count two PCI-E modular power slots in the power supply. SInce each card takes two power connectors, then SLI = 4 right?
 
Allanon said:
I got the Corsair based on some great advice from the forum and after reading the Jonnyguru review. Installed w/o a hitch in my p180B.

Just realized something I wish I would have known.. If I decide to go SLI, I am SOL right? I only count two PCI-E modular power slots in the power supply. SInce each card takes two power connectors, then SLI = 4 right?

Not all SLI requires 4 connectors ;)
 
If you want to go with 2 8800GTX's, you're gonna need more than 620W. Sorry to break the news to you, but as you can see by my sig, I'm in the same boat.
 
Rabid Badger said:
If you want to go with 2 8800GTX's, you're gonna need more than 620W. Sorry to break the news to you, but as you can see by my sig, I'm in the same boat.

That's weird I've been running 2 8800GTXs with an HX620W in the lab for 3 days straight....
 
yeh i just ordered the HX620 because it can combine its rails into 50a. if i need more i'll just get another and have dual psu's.

a question for you Redbeard, do you have any plans on bringing out higher wattage psus in this product line? 720w for example? If yes in the future when i get 2 R600 and i feel the need for more power can i run a higer wattage psu (corair of course :D ) with my HX620 will that be just as good? thanks a bunch.
 
Redbeard said:
That's weird I've been running 2 8800GTXs with an HX620W in the lab for 3 days straight....

how come the HX620W isn't NVIDIA certified for any of the G80 (8800 GTS/GTX) SLI setups?
 
Redbeard said:
That's weird I've been running 2 8800GTXs with an HX620W in the lab for 3 days straight....

I'm just going by what Brent said.

Hard|OCP said:
SLI? I would not even consider anything less than a 700 watt beast that is certified on the “NVIDIA SLI Approved” list.

Also, as more graphics intensive games come out power consumption of these cards is going to increase. Not trying to knock your product, Redbeard, I was this close || to getting one myself. ;)
 
digitalxdna said:
how come the HX620W isn't NVIDIA certified for any of the G80 (8800 GTS/GTX) SLI setups?

For the same reason PSU's that aren't SLI certified have been fine running SLI setups since the SLI certified process came out.....it is mostly a marketing ploy. Seriosuly SLI ready cases :rolleyes:
 
Redbeard said:
That's weird I've been running 2 8800GTXs with an HX620W in the lab for 3 days straight....

I was fixin' to say (yes, I'm a Fl Cracker); who served up the Kool-Aid that convinced all of these people a Corsair HX620W wouldn't be enough for 8800GTX SLI???

Use adapters.

I know people doing the same with less power (Powerstream 520W and Strider ST60F, to be specific.)

Spectre said:
For the same reason PSU's that aren't SLI certified have been fine running SLI setups since the SLI certified process came out.....it is mostly a marketing ploy. Seriosuly SLI ready cases :rolleyes:

Yep... KA-CHING!!!! When I saw the Cooler Master Stacker as an "SLI Certified" case and then heard that they probably paid $2500 for that spot, I let a brown stain on the couch so big that it's going to take Coit a full day to take care of it.
 
digitalxdna said:
how come the HX620W isn't NVIDIA certified for any of the G80 (8800 GTS/GTX) SLI setups?

nVidia has very specific requirements for SLI certification. They require a higher OCP cutoff than we have advertised. We advertise an 18A cutoff for OCP on the +12V rails because at the time we developed the spec, that was the ATX requirement. However, our power supply does not actually hit the OCP point at 18A, because we made the "rails" combinable so that higher-end video cards would work fine with it.


As for a higher-end version of the HX series, we'd be stupid not to be exploring our options. But we don't comment on unannounced products.
 
sliyi6.png


Disclaimer: I like nvidia.
 
Kherozene said:
on my box it has the official Nvidia Sli ready tag

Right. But is it 6600 SLI approved? 6800? 7800? The logo doesn't tell you. The website does.

But again... it doesn't matter.
 
it can share its 12v rails to a max of 50a, so if i need 60a to run 2 r600's or whatever i'll get another which gives me 100a (2x 50a rails)
 
Redbeard, what are the specs on your test system and how much power is it drawing under full load? The [H] review didn't give SLI power draw numbers and I'm curious how much headroom I'd have with my PSU.
 
Rabid Badger said:
Redbeard, what are the specs on your test system and how much power is it drawing under full load? The [H] review didn't give SLI power draw numbers and I'm curious how much headroom I'd have with my PSU.

Test system:
eVGA 680i SLI motherboard
2x 8800GTX reference cards from nVidia
Intel Kentsfield quad-core processor
Raptor X 150GB drive
Generic DVD drive
2GB PC2-8888 DDR2 memory

I haven't done any exact tests to determine how much power the system is drawing at full load, but the fan in the HX620 doesn't spin up to full speed, even under full load for an hour straight. (4 instances of CPU Burn-In in the background of 3DMark06 on loop).

I imagine that system will be drawing, say, anywhere from 38A to 45A on the +12V during full load.

For those wondering, I'm using a couple of customized SLI cables to do this, the PEG connector cables that come with the HX series do not, by default, have two PEG connectors on each cable. I've got a couple here that do.
 
Redbeard said:
For those wondering, I'm using a couple of customized SLI cables to do this, the PEG connector cables that come with the HX series do not, by default, have two PEG connectors on each cable. I've got a couple here that do.

any chances those "customized" PEG connector cables will make it to, say, a future revision of the HX series PSU, let alone a future corsair-branded PSU?
 
digitalxdna said:
any chances those "customized" PEG connector cables will make it to, say, a future revision of the HX series PSU, let alone a future corsair-branded PSU?

The cable will be available at some point, I think we're trying to give people as many options as they need.
 
I'm still not convinced these 8800GTX cards need as much power as people say they do... and this thread kinda confirms that with a quad core and SLI 8800GTX setup running on a 620w. The same held true for me; when a friend brought over his 8800GTX, I combined rails on my Silverstone ST60F 600w and we ran the cards in SLI for hours. Benchmarks, games, and even OC'ing the cards... all fine on my "measly" 600w PS.

Either Silverstone underrated this beast, or the cards just don't draw that much power.

~Aux
 
AuxNuke said:
I'm still not convinced these 8800GTX cards need as much power as people say they do... and this thread kinda confirms that with a quad core and SLI 8800GTX setup running on a 620w. The same held true for me; when a friend brought over his 8800GTX, I combined rails on my Silverstone ST60F 600w and we ran the cards in SLI for hours. Benchmarks, games, and even OC'ing the cards... all fine on my "measly" 600w PS.

Either Silverstone underrated this beast, or the cards just don't draw that much power.

~Aux

nVidia likes to spec on the safe side of things. It makes perfect sense, actually. If they put out a new video card that can use 165W of power (8800GTX), and you can run them in SLI (330W) with a high-end processor (130W) you're talking about 460W of power drawn just from the +12V rail. Add in a hard drive and you're at 40A.

Now, how many 600W PSUs exist? Out of those, how many of them provide stable +12V power of more than 40A? Realistically, nVidia can't say "well, most of the time a 600W supply will work" because then some guy will go buy a $25 '600W' PSU and it will fail horribly.

nVidia's pretty smart in that they're going to say "750W" or something, because they know that any 750W PSU will provide enough power, at least right now. Of course, you don't really need that much power, but again, it's not about watts. It's about amps on the +12V rail and the ability of your power supply to push that.

And keep in mind, combined amps on the +12V rail is not just a combination of the OCP points. If somebody makes a PSU with 5 +12V rails and each one has a 20A OCP point, that doesn't mean it can do 100A. Just like our PSU has three +12V rails and the spec of 18A per rail. Well, that's 54A. Our 520 does 40A and our 620 does 50A. So did we fall short of our spec? No. Our spec originally had the 18A OCP points in because it was in the ATX specifications. It doesn't quite work like that any more, but that's how it was (and is) specced. It will operate considerably out of spec, though.
 
i have to send back the Corsair HX620W powersupply i just bought, none of the modular connecters work, can't power VGA card, HDD's, Opticals.
 
Kherozene said:
i have to send back the Corsair HX620W powersupply i just bought, none of the modular connecters work, can't power VGA card, HDD's, Opticals.

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Ok. You got my attention.

Can you provide more detail?

Is the PSU just "dead" in that there's no voltage at any of the connectors?

Does it POST? Does it boot? Is sentinel software simply reporting that there's not enough power or are none of the drives spinning, etc because they're not getting power?

What's the build? Is it an all new build or was just the PSU upgraded? How did you come to the conclusion that "none of the modular connectors work?" A digital multimeter or just process of elimination?
 
Yeh the is voltage running through the non-modular rails eg. atx 24pin, P4, 8pin (eps12v?) but not through the modular connectors suchs as pcie molexes etc. This is a new build specs in my sig. (i have other ram atm btw). It dosen't POST butit comes up with a message saying i have not plugged in power to my pcie card (X1950XTX). The way i found out the modular connectors didn't work was by both digital ultimeter and elimination aswell as my DVD drives not lighting up and other molex devices not being powered aswell as my hdd's.
 
Wow!

I doubt it's a break between the main PCB and the modular PCB because, if I remember correctly, there is redundancy. Although I doubt there's a short on the modular PCB because then the whole PSU would go into short circuit protection and shut off.

Very strange problem. Can't say I've ever seen that before.
 
ok i got a replacement and it works a treat! the one i had before was not putting out 12v or 3v, thats what the guys who tested it said. same as what came up on my digital multimeter.
 
Kherozene said:
yeh i just ordered the HX620 because it can combine its rails into 50a. if i need more i'll just get another and have dual psu's.

Ok, sorry for the newb question, but what's this whole "dual psu" business? You can dual PSU? How's that work? Are you talking about puting two PSUs in a case? If so, how the heck would you arange that -- where would the second go? Again, sorry for the newbish question here! Any info on this would be greatly apreciated!

While I'm on this topic, anyone got an idea what the chances are of being able to run dual R600 on just one HX620W? If not possible, what about just running one R600?
 
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