Corsair PSU Finder Beta - please give feedback in this thread

Redbeard

Redbeard

Official Corsair Rep.
Joined
Nov 3, 2005
Messages
1,859
Hey guys. I notice one of the most common threads in this forum and others is usually something like "is this <insert link to PSU here> enough to power my system? Specs below!" and I know that in my head, when I see those posts, my thoughts immediately go to a few things, like the power required for their video card(s), their CPU, the number of hard drives, etc.

Since those are the three most obvious power draws, we put together a Corsair PSU Finder.

Here's a LINK


The idea here isn't to give a wattage output, it's to select the PSU you'd need to run the system you configure. Stuff that doesn't add significant power draw, like fans, optical drives, amount of RAM, etc, is combined and added on as a baseline.

I think it's pretty accurate, but I would like your guys' feedback. Please be civil and offer constructive criticism or comments, we want this to be useful to people.

The point of this is NOT to give you a "how many watts will my system use!?" result. There are plenty of those out there of varying quality.

We just want to give people the tools to choose the right Corsair power supply for themselves.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you.


CLICK HERE TO TEST THE CORSAIR PSU FINDER
 
IMO this is better than the wattage result calculator.

One thing this system needs is the ability to add more hardware, to be a bit more detailed, and to allow more drives as an option.
 
Ockie said:
IMO this is better than the wattage result calculator.

One thing this system needs is the ability to add more hardware, to be a bit more detailed, and to allow more drives as an option.
Click to expand...

More than 10 drives?

Also, what other hardware would you add? Things like fans, sound cards, etc, don't really add much to the power requirements unless you have some highly specific piece of hardware...
 
I wouldn't over complicate it with additional hardware.

Obviously, the end result is based on power needs on the +12V rail, so additional cards, RAM, etc. simply do not effect the outcome.

Because water cooling folks with 12VDC pumps or perhaps folks with TEC coolers may have additional power demands, you may want to add a couple check boxes for those.
 
Works fine for me. States for my current rig I could use a VX450, VX550 or HX520. Considering I have an HX620 I guess I'm good... :D
 
Eh. Not bad at all... But, my quad is almost 70% overclocked, which sucks down a bit more wattage than the "30%" oc category.

Maybe allow users to input OC information, and figure out wattage that way?
 
Agreed on the fields for more overclocking for certain users, and also for other cooling forms like water cooling.
 
My 450vx should arrive with my ABIT IP35 Pro and Superclocked 8800 GT from EVGA.

According to the PSU finder I should have no problem.

Suggestion:
Make the "New Search"/recalculate button stand out more on the page.
 
Not to be anal or anything, but the graphics card drop box might need to be a little wider to fit all the text in, I'm seeing a few letters clipped off the right side.

Looking good sofar, I'm sure I can speak for the rest of us when I say thanks for doing this!
 
Like to tool and I have a properly size PSU for my rig

Thanks for another great tool Corsair
 
Thanks for the feedback, guys! I'll put the most important ones in the update.

Hopefully none of it will give our web guy a migraine. He's Canadian, though, so he's pretty easy going.

Keep 'em coming. Great stuff so far.
 
I think I would like to see more options for CPU's and CPU settings. For example, I run an Opteron 165 OC'd. There isnt an option box for an Opteron CPU at all, so I have to select Athlon 64 X2. I dont think that the list needs to be as comprehensive as a list like antecs power calculator. But I think just a few more options would spruce things up nicely.

Maybe something like.. 2 seperate CPU/RAM related sections. One for the average user who doesnt really know much about their hardware. And another for people who know their hardware inside and out (I'm talking about being able to input voltages, multipliers, bus frequencies, etc). Just more to make the site have more content but not so much content that it becomes over bearing or hard to use.

I think the main reason I would like to see more options in this is because the site is telling me that I can use anything from a VX450 to a VX550. I know that none of these PSU's would power my system as I just had to dump a 500W antec supply due to it not being able to deliver enough power. (I am talking, I tried to install a 2nd DVD Burner and could not get enough power to boot the system, as soon as the new DVD burner was unplugged it powered up, for reference, I unplugged the old burner and replaced it with the new one to verify that it was indeed power and not a broken dvd burner. Now that I have a new supply I am able to run both.)
 
Wow, this is really cool. I was wondering how much of a PSU I'll need to get my brother when he upgrades, so that helps a lot!


Like the guy above me said, though, it would be nice to have Opterons as an option since I have a 165. Also, how much of a factor is the number of optical drives?
 
Overall a clean and simple UI. This could help a lot of people needing a simple "bar" to gauge what PSU they need.

Make the buttons visually stand out more. Light grey on white backgrounds doesn't necessarily jump out as "click me". ;)
Perhaps adding an optional checkbox for indicating a second processor would help, albeit this would be for a smaller percentage of all the users.

Good work nonetheless!
 
If you got a 140 Watts penryn or 130 watts it is, which is released in not too long the QX9770, wont be a mainstream product at all, some rich folx prolly buy it lol.

well, while lotsa cpu's are at 65 watts, including the amd x2, but some are 89 watt, uhm, and 939 4400+ and 4800+ with 2mb cache are 110 watts, so should be a option to select more detailed cpu.

But else than that, good good corsair, doesnt like corsair that good, they bring products for the mainstream, but not for me.

I choose Corsair for many systems i build, this can actually help my work on non high performance systems, i still reccon any user to select a higher model than ur calculations provide, maxing a psu result in less lifespan and so on, louder etc. and what if u upgrade, you have to change the whole thing.

This system helps a user to not use a underperformed psu at their systems, and not wasting money on a 750 watt with a 65 watts cpu and 1 hdd, with a 3850, 3870 or 8800 gt /gts just to point out a ridicilous situation :p.

Good go corsair.

I BET corsair notice this on their emails, what kinda psu do i need for this system blalbal, some people havnt heard of forums, and most users havnt heard of simple "+" math which you learn in first grade.
 
bobharp said:
My 450vx should arrive with my ABIT IP35 Pro and Superclocked 8800 GT from EVGA.

According to the PSU finder I should have no problem.

Suggestion:
Make the "New Search"/recalculate button stand out more on the page.
Click to expand...

Er, yeah, what he said.
 
I like it a lot. One thing that may be helpful is displaying the wattage you are selecting when you select each option. For example, Athlon 64 FX (XX watts). Radeon 2900 (XXX watts), so that way if your CPU/vid card isn't on the list, you can pick something at a comparable wattage, or a "worst case."
 
Redbeard said:
Thanks for the feedback, guys! I'll put the most important ones in the update.

Hopefully none of it will give our web guy a migraine. He's Canadian, though, so he's pretty easy going.

Keep 'em coming. Great stuff so far.
Click to expand...

Don't the S939 and AM2 processor use a different amount of power? Do PCI-e and AGP video cards use a different amount of power as well? I honestly don't know, hence why I am asking.
 
Nice tool :), looks like I'm sitting great with my PSU until I grab a quad and SLI :)
 
Redbeard said:
Ockie said:
IMO this is better than the wattage result calculator.

One thing this system needs is the ability to add more hardware, to be a bit more detailed, and to allow more drives as an option.
Click to expand...
More than 10 drives?

Also, what other hardware would you add? Things like fans, sound cards, etc, don't really add much to the power requirements unless you have some highly specific piece of hardware...
Click to expand...
Redbeard -
You have to understand that Ockie is a bit of a special case around here. :p I quoted a post from his current pet project below, and highlighted a couple specific images for you. He is in the process of filling up those 30 HDD bays with WD's 1TB green drives. Give a peek through the side window in the first pic, there, and you'll have a pretty good idea why he's asking. As I'm sure you can imagine, he is very interested in maximizing efficiency, as it allows him to squeeze more "space" out of a given PSU.

Ockie said:
Updates :)

OP1000 Mounted, RaptorX mounted and cloned from the original raptor, Two expansion units mounted, wiring redone, cleaned a bit.

[IG]http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/5838/dsc06144ir6.jpg[/IMG]

[IG]http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/1705/dsc06145ii9.jpg[/IMG]

[IG]http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/2150/dsc06146uv3.jpg[/IMG]

[IG]http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/8283/dsc06147cd3.jpg[/IMG]

[IG]http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/69/dsc06148qd5.jpg[/IMG]



[IG]http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/3264/dsc06150wi7.jpg[/IMG]

[IG]http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/1236/dsc06151vc2.jpg[/IMG]

[IG]http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/4350/dsc06152rt5.jpg[/IMG]




Now I just need to place that order for 6 x 1TB green drives and I'll be all set for a little bit :) This system is running like a champ... oh and the PSU isn't as bad (loud) as I thought it once was... so I am estatic about this new setup :)
Click to expand...

 
uzor said:
Redbeard -
You have to understand that Ockie is a bit of a special case around here.

Click to expand...

I must be a special case too as I have a system with 11 drives, and I want to expand a 9 drive system to 20. :p
 
protias said:
Don't the S939 and AM2 processor use a different amount of power? Do PCI-e and AGP video cards use a different amount of power as well? I honestly don't know, hence why I am asking.
Click to expand...

The S939 and AM2 versions of the AMD processors do use different amounts of power occasionally, but they're all within a pretty close range. The difference between, say, 75W and 89W isn't significant, really, so I used the high side, assuming most of the processors used ~90W.

The difference between a Core 2 Duo and a Core 2 Extreme (quad core), though, is 65W and 130W, which is much more significant.

As for displaying the wattage output, because these are estimates, we won't be doing that. If you want to know how much power your processor or GPU uses, there are a lot of resources for that out there, and we're not about to re-state manufacturer's specifications. We use the TDP of each processor from the manufacturer's spec pages, and this data can easily be found on Wikipedia or Intel or AMD's site.

For video cards, it's a bit trickier, and we just ballparked the maximum power draw possible from each card. We have to change a bit, actually, for example the 8800GTXs need to be bumped up a bit, as I just saw it recommend a 550W PSU, and I wouldn't really recommend that to anybody with two 8800GTXs, regardless of the rest of their hardware...so like I said, good feedback, I'm documenting all the comments and will give them to our guy tonight for the first change.
 
It's nice and simple w/o a whole lot of useless stuff like # of fans ect..
I like it!
 
Redbeard said:
The S939 and AM2 versions of the AMD processors do use different amounts of power occasionally, but they're all within a pretty close range. The difference between, say, 75W and 89W isn't significant, really, so I used the high side, assuming most of the processors used ~90W.

The difference between a Core 2 Duo and a Core 2 Extreme (quad core), though, is 65W and 130W, which is much more significant.

As for displaying the wattage output, because these are estimates, we won't be doing that. If you want to know how much power your processor or GPU uses, there are a lot of resources for that out there, and we're not about to re-state manufacturer's specifications. We use the TDP of each processor from the manufacturer's spec pages, and this data can easily be found on Wikipedia or Intel or AMD's site.

For video cards, it's a bit trickier, and we just ballparked the maximum power draw possible from each card. We have to change a bit, actually, for example the 8800GTXs need to be bumped up a bit, as I just saw it recommend a 550W PSU, and I wouldn't really recommend that to anybody with two 8800GTXs, regardless of the rest of their hardware...so like I said, good feedback, I'm documenting all the comments and will give them to our guy tonight for the first change.
Click to expand...

Ok, this is good to know Redbeard. I didn't know the power requirements for each item. I'm glad you explained all that so I (and everyone else) know why you are doing things they way you are. :)
 
bobharp said:
My 450vx should arrive with my ABIT IP35 Pro and Superclocked 8800 GT from EVGA.

According to the PSU finder I should have no problem.

Suggestion:
Make the "New Search"/recalculate button stand out more on the page.
Click to expand...

Maybe it should say "Start Over" or Reconfigure" with a back arrow.

I didn't notice the button at first. I just reloaded the page. B/c I didn't realize what it was.
 
bobharp said:
Suggestion: Make the "New Search"/recalculate button stand out more on the page.
Click to expand...

Seconded. I reloaded it several times before I noticed it was there.

Looks like the HX520 I ordered a few days ago was a good choice for now and still gives me some room to grow. Cool.
 
Thanks Corsair!

Quick, easy, and the results match what I figured they would be! ;)

A nice confirmation that I was headed in the right direction.
 
I'm with Ockie - more than 10 drives, please.

I have more than one socket! You guys have no consideration for us or what? Not even a mention of Opteron or Xeon? Your numbers are going to be way off, and way ugly if you just say 'extremely overclocked,' obviously. Thankfully, I can do the math in my head.

REALLY needs options for additional cards. A PCIe8x can pull down 25W by itself. Yeah. I have those in there too. Kind of necessary to run high end SCSI cards.

Yeah. The TX750 is seriously that level of mean. I moved my H8DCE based monster under one. Had to fab an adapter for the 24+8+4 setup, but definitely worth it.
 
AreEss said:
Yeah. The TX750 is seriously that level of mean. I moved my H8DCE based monster under one. Had to fab an adapter for the 24+8+4 setup, but definitely worth it.
Click to expand...

Haha, just you wait....
 
Thanks for the good feedback guys, I just posted an update to the application (yes, I'm the corsair web guy/db programmer). I added a "refine search" button that will stick your original search options beside the "new search" button which will clear them.

Coming soon (thursday night, likely) is a new set of buttons that stand out a bit more and a slightly modified layout for the search results (pic left/text right alternating to text left pic right) to make it a bit easier on the eyes.

And for you crazy folks with 20 hard drives, I also bumped that drop down up to 20 with the appropriate wattage increases. I may bump it to 30 depending on feedback from Redbeard.

More to come, please keep the feedback flowing. This database tool is for you guys to use, so if it works the way you want and expect, that's fantastic.

Mitch
 
endfro said:
I think the main reason I would like to see more options in this is because the site is telling me that I can use anything from a VX450 to a VX550. I know that none of these PSU's would power my system as I just had to dump a 500W antec supply due to it not being able to deliver enough power. (I am talking, I tried to install a 2nd DVD Burner and could not get enough power to boot the system, as soon as the new DVD burner was unplugged it powered up, for reference, I unplugged the old burner and replaced it with the new one to verify that it was indeed power and not a broken dvd burner. Now that I have a new supply I am able to run both.)
Click to expand...

Remember that wattage doesn't mean as much these days. What matters most is where those watts are being delivered. For current rigs, it's all about how much amps are on the +12V rail since most PC parts draw their power from there. You determine the amperage on the +12V rails by first finding out what's the total combined wattage set aside for the +12V rails alone. So for example, the Corsair 450VX has 396W on the +12V rail. Divide that total wattage for the +12V by 12 and you get how much amps the PSU has on the +12V rail. In this case, 396W divided by 12 is 33A. So the Corsair 450VX PSU has 33A on the +12V Rail.

For comparison, I'm going to assume you use to have a Antec Smartpower 2.0 500W. That had 26A available on the +12V Rail if my math is right. But just in case thats the wrong Antec 500W PSU you're talking about, here's are the other Antec 500W PSU:
- Neopower 500W has 38A on the +12V Rail
- Earthwatts 500W has 34A on the +12V Rail
- Phantom 500W has 35A on the +12V Rail
- Basiq 500W has 29A on the +12V Rail

As for the Corsair PSUs:
- Corsair 550VX has 41A on the +12V Rail
- Corsair 520HX has 40A on the +12V Rail.

So while the Corsair 520HX 520W PSU only has 20W extra over the all the Antec 500W PSUs, it still offers more power where you need it. The Corsair 450X offers more power than three of the Antec PSUs despite having 50W less.

Anyway, great work on the finder, Mitchell_ and Redbeard! This is why I like Corsair so much!
 
Neat little utility here! According the the results, the HX-620 I have is a little overkill for my current system (recommended the 520W - 550W flavors). Definitely a valuable reference for future uses.
 
I like it. Pretty clean and it is nice to see some recommendations on sizing.
 
Well, it recommended the VX450 for both my machines, which is good... because I have 350-ish watt power supplies on both :p (working fine, too)

Nice tool, I like the layout, works well and is very straightforward.
 
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