Current PSU suffient for my new build?

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macrospect

[H]ard|Gawd
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Nov 22, 2004
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I will be upgrading my current system to accompany the new PCI-E slot type. TO boil things down I own a OCZ 600 Watt PowerStream PSU (the green one if that is important). Up until this point it seems to have had no problem powering the following (all of the rails are still within spec):
Asus P4C800-E
P4 3.4C (OCed to 3.7)
6800 Ultra
WinTV Card
Creative X-FI Platinum Card
4 sticks of PC-3200
4 Seagate 7200 SATA Drives
2 DVD/RW Drives
and 5 case fans

Basically I will be upgrading everything on the motherboard, so that my new specs will include the following:
Asus P5B Deluxe Board
8800 GTS
2 Sticks of DDR2-800
WinTV Card
Creative X-FI Platinum Card
4 Seagate 7200 SATA Drives
2 DVD/RW Drives
and 5 case fans

Would that be considered pushing it for a 600 watt PSU? I thought this PSU was a great brand (reliability wise), until I read some disappointing posts saying otherwise.

Any input would be helpful. Thanks.
 
Unless you've had problems with the OCZ, the only way to find out is to try it. Keep in mind that those 8800s can pull 18.75 amps. It definitely wouldn't handle two. The best PSUs for the new DX10 cards are going to be Single Rail/ high amp units, such as PC POWER COOLING.
 
Dr.Squeege said:
Unless you've had problems with the OCZ, the only way to find out is to try it. Keep in mind that those 8800s can pull 18.75 amps. It definitely wouldn't handle two. The best PSUs for the new DX10 cards are going to be Single Rail/ high amp units, such as PC POWER COOLING.
Click to expand...


Why Pc Power & Cooling ??,they are a little over priced,he can get away with spending less and still snag a 5 year warrenty/Excellent build quality/Rock solid rails with a Corsair.
 
Holy crap I didn't know that a GTS drew that much power!

Luckily I don't have SLI capabilities, so I will not be adding another GTS anywhere in the near future. I have a feeling that my current PSU will be sufficent (since I have had 0 problems up until this point). Since this is a dual 12V rail PSU I made sure to evenly distribute devices onto both rails. The only thing I do not know is what the SATA rails are tied into (12V1 or 12V2). There are only 2 drives on that either way and HDD's dont really draw a lot of amps (after startup). I just wish my new board suppored staggered spin-up. :( It would ease the strain on the PSU while the system first powers up.

Thanks for the replies. Cant wait til christmas! I hope everyone has a good holiday. :)
 
Dr.Squeege said:
Unless you've had problems with the OCZ, the only way to find out is to try it. Keep in mind that those 8800s can pull 18.75 amps. It definitely wouldn't handle two. The best PSUs for the new DX10 cards are going to be Single Rail/ high amp units, such as PC POWER COOLING.
Click to expand...

Really? A single 8800 pulls 225 watts. Can you provide a link because that would be a first since none of the power consumption numbers have been close to that.
 
DaRkF0g said:
Spectre can you provide some rough consumption amounts (for the GTS)?

EDIT: http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/bfg8800gts/10.html

Thats more than 225 too!
Click to expand...

That link is whole system power consumption.........

As for actual it should be around 160watts given the delta between the x1900xtx (120 watts) and the 8800GTX of around 40 watts. I have yet to see one of the few places that actual measures individual card draw (like Xbit) do an 8800GTX or GTS yet....but it is pretty easy to extrapolate from the whole system data nad the known values for other cards.
 
So the GTS alone should normally be drawing around ~160 watts (or ~40 more watts than the x1900xtx which draws ~120 watts)?

The reason I want to know is I am trying to figure out the rough wattages for the draw on the 12V rail. That should tell me if I am close to 600W. I am still trying to figure out PCI draws and such though.

Thanks for the reply too.
 
DaRkF0g said:
So the GTS alone should normally be drawing around ~160 watts (or ~40 more watts than the x1900xtx which draws ~120 watts)?
Click to expand...

I was being kind of lazy (christmas is coming up!) and I used the GTX. But 160 watts ought to be a safe bet on the GTS.
 
do what i did lol... i HAD an ANTEC 550watts TruePower 2.0 power supply dual rail...

i had a bfg 7800gtx 512mb .. with 6 hardrives... (2) raptors and (4) 300gb maxtors.. with 4 sicks of 512mb ram ... amd x2 4200+... all overclocked my 550watts handled it well..

BUT ... Wheni upgraded to two 7900GTO 's in SLI... my comp under load when gaming kept shutting off.... only when 10 minutes of playing my comp would shut off...

i had to get the enermax galaxy 1,000 watt psu.. which was around $330

but i believe your 600watts should be good!!
 
Ok, thanks.

Looks like I have these figures so far (they are really starting to get close to 600W too :( ):

12A- 4 SATA HDD's
3A- 2 DVD Burners
14A- 8800GTS
13A- Intel E6400
--------------------------------------------
~516 Watts

Maybe I will get a little 300-400 watt PSU just for the GTS. I have a CM Stacker so I have the ability to add another PSU. That or I will just but a 750 watt later down the road. Hopefully my 600 watter wont burn out by then.
 
DaRkF0g said:
Ok, thanks.

Looks like I have these figures so far (they are really starting to get close to 600W too :( ):

12A- 4 SATA HDD's
Click to expand...

The only time those hardrives should come clsoe to 3 amps is spin up....and even then very few hardrives hit 3 amps.......and the seek/read/write power is going to be much lower. And while they are hitting their peak your processor and videocard aren't going to be hitting peak.

13A- Intel E6400
Click to expand...

The e6400 is a 156 watt part? I thought it was lower than that........by a lot.
 
Hold on I half-assed some of those figures. I am trying to find the figures for the E6400. That 156 was for one of Intel's Core 2 Extreme cpu's.

EDIT: 13W is the average for seagate drives (per drive). That means I will be drawing ~52W operational.

Ok I was WAY off with the 156. The TDP on the 6400's is 64, but I'l say 90 oced to play it safe.

EDIT2:

I think these figures are pretty accurate. I was way off before:
52W- 4 SATA HDD's
24W- 2 DVD Burners
160W- 8800GTS
80W-Intel E6400
-------------------------------------------
316W

So maybe ~400 for the 12V rails. Thats much better! Only thing that is bugging me is what the heck my sata power cable (which has 2 connectors on it) are tied to. That is, is it my first 12V rail or the 2nd one. Not sure how I could figure that one out (without taking the PSU apart).
 
You are going to be just fine with your PSU until you want to add another GTS to the system.
 
just remember two cards equals.. better ugprade that nice power supply.... since those two cards will be pulling alot!! and if you overclock those cards you will pull even more!
 
DaRkF0g said:
Only thing that is bugging me is what the heck my sata power cable (which has 2 connectors on it) are tied to. That is, is it my first 12V rail or the 2nd one. Not sure how I could figure that one out (without taking the PSU apart).
Click to expand...

On a spec compliant ATX12v2.0 PSU the cpu should be all alone on 12v2 with all other devices on 12v1.
 
Thanks Spectre. I am not sure if the second series of molex plugs (for devices) is tied into the 12V2 or not. from what I understand up to 8 devices can be run off of 12V1 and the other 8 on 12V2. I could be wrong though. Maybe I can find some pics of the inside of my PSU to give me a hint.
 
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