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Does a 1000W PSU worth it ?

Parja said:
Yes, 1000W is overkill for that build.

A quality 850W PSU would be more than enough.
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Talk about some serious overkill. 1000w really? :rolleyes:

hardforummarc,
As some other members that actually have a clue told you, a QUALITY 850w is more than enough for your system.
Here are quality manufacturers to stick to: Seasonic (my personal favorite), Corsair (some units built by SeaSonic some by CWT), PC Power & Cooling (usually built by SeaSonic), Enermax (stay away from the Liberty series), and some Antec's. However, with Antec it's a crapshoot and you don't always get the quality you pay for.

I would NEVER dream of looking at anything other than the companies I have listed.

Just think about it this way. You're about to drop $1200 on video cards alone, yet you'd cheap out on THE HEART of the system by going with a sub-par company. That's a REALLY bad idea my friend. When crap PSU go, they usually take other things with them.

Do yourself a favor and buy a GOOD power supply.
 
OmegaSupreme said:
Enermax (stay away from the Liberty series)
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There's nothing wrong with the Liberty series.
OmegaSupreme said:
However, with Antec it's a crapshoot and you don't always get the quality you pay for.
Click to expand...
Absolutely not true. Outside of a handful of low-end units, all Antec PSUs are very good, and their high-end products are among the best on the market.
OmegaSupreme said:
Just think about it this way. You're about to drop $1200 on video cards alone, yet you'd cheap out on THE HEART of the system by going with a sub-par company. That's a REALLY bad idea my friend. When crap PSU go, they usually take other things with them.

Do yourself a favor and buy a GOOD power supply.
Click to expand...
He's already looking at very good quality PSUs, so I'm not sure what you think you're accomplishing by posting that.
 
OmegaSupreme said:
Talk about some serious overkill. 1000w really? :rolleyes:
Just think about it this way. You're about to drop $1200 on video cards alone, yet you'd cheap out on THE HEART of the system by going with a sub-par company. That's a REALLY bad idea my friend. When crap PSU go, they usually take other things with them.

Do yourself a favor and buy a GOOD power supply.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the brand list advice. However I don't see where I told I'd go for a sub-par bran company ?
 
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I'm sort of in the same boat as you. I have a pretty decent Corsair TX750 (older model) that's about 3 years old, and I've been using a pair of 6950s in crossfire, but I'll be switching to a 7970 crossfire setup soon. I also have much of the same hardware as you, but quite a few more HDs to power, and I agree that 1000w is probably where I want to be. The PSU calculator said I needed 752 watts assuming 90% efficiency, which I'm sure I'm not getting with my current model. It also said it recommended an 850w quality unit, but like you said, going with a 1000w model gives me the peace of mind that I can always switch to a much higher TDP graphics card setup in the future if I want to go that route.

My priorities are pretty much like yours also: quality unit is a must, fully modular is nice to have, partial modular a must, no bling.

I'm leaning toward either the OCZ 1000ZX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341045

or the Silverstone http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256057

I think I'm ultimately going to go for the OCZ on account of price and performance, but OCZ has put a slightly bad taste in my mouth after dealing with more than one RMA on RAM. I also would consider the Corsair HX1050, but it's not fully modular, and it's still more money than either of the other two, so I feel like I'd strictly be paying for the name.

Anyway, thought I'd add my 2c, FWIW
 
Neon01 said:
I'm sort of in the same boat as you. I have a pretty decent Corsair TX750 (older model) that's about 3 years old, and I've been using a pair of 6950s in crossfire, but I'll be switching to a 7970 crossfire setup soon. I also have much of the same hardware as you, but quite a few more HDs to power, and I agree that 1000w is probably where I want to be. The PSU calculator said I needed 752 watts assuming 90% efficiency, which I'm sure I'm not getting with my current model. It also said it recommended an 850w quality unit, but like you said, going with a 1000w model gives me the peace of mind that I can always switch to a much higher TDP graphics card setup in the future if I want to go that route.

My priorities are pretty much like yours also: quality unit is a must, fully modular is nice to have, partial modular a must, no bling.

I'm leaning toward either the OCZ 1000ZX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341045

or the Silverstone http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256057

I think I'm ultimately going to go for the OCZ on account of price and performance, but OCZ has put a slightly bad taste in my mouth after dealing with more than one RMA on RAM. I also would consider the Corsair HX1050, but it's not fully modular, and it's still more money than either of the other two, so I feel like I'd strictly be paying for the name.

Anyway, thought I'd add my 2c, FWIW
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what you think of the SeaSonic X-SERIES X-1050 ?
 
I would recommend the Silverstone Strider series. Although I don't see how you could use 1000W w/ that platform. I ran (3) unlocked 6950s in tri-fire w/ an overclocked 990X and I had plenty of headroom w/ my 850W Strider. You will likely see better power efficiency w/ a PSU that's closer to what you need.
 
artvscommerce said:
You will likely see better power efficiency w/ a PSU that's closer to what you need.
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From what I've read, having a PSU more powerful than what we need is not necessarily penalyzing:

qbanb8582 Limp Gawd, 5.4 Years
I use a 1000W PSU. Wattage wise its overkill but its not like its actually using that amount of power. Its only going to draw the amount needed to power everything. Also I went with 1000W just in case I would enough power for future projects or builds.
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Spare-Flair [H]ardness Supreme, 8.8 Years
Higher wattage PSU means that your system won't be maxing it's load capacity. IIRC, this improves efficiency and reduction of heat
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XacTactX 2[H]4U, 1.1 Years
Yeah, it improves efficiency/heat a little because power supplies are generally most efficient at around 60% load.
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you can never have enough consistant power, quality is best and you never know when your gonna have an urge to power 2 of them 600$ plus gpus a good psu is something to not skimp on
 
hardforummarc said:
From what I've read, having a PSU more powerful than what we need is not necessarily penalyzing:
Click to expand...
It's not bad, but it's not helpful either. The real motivation to get a 1000W PSU instead of an 850W PSU is usually price.
 
I personally woudlnt go a 1000w+ power supply unless you were going to go dual cards in the future. The way I see it, you could spend less on a good quality power supply like a Corsair HX750w (which would be perfect) and maybe use the remaining cash on something else. Maybe a cheap SSD.
 
You should also consider whether the PSU is running on a single rail or multirail. Pay attention to the amps per rail. For example, a multirail PSU that has 20 amps per rail may have trouble powering component that exceed 20 amps. Something to consider. Also, since your in Quebec, (If you live in Montreal or Gatineau, I would recommend going to Canada's Computer. They are the best in terms of choice and price.
 
Zero82z said:
There's nothing wrong with the Liberty series.
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The hell there isn't. Read some JG reviews about them, not to mention all of the units that died on customer reviews, you'll see that the Liberty series is probably Enermax's worst line with the most problems. (Unless they've revamped them over the last year).
Zero82z said:
Absolutely not true. Outside of a handful of low-end units, all Antec PSUs are very good, and their high-end products are among the best on the market.
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I'm talking the mainstream units, not the Gold certified ones --of course those are going to be good.
What I referred to was my personal experience with Antec PSU's. Build quality was decent however, voltage regulation was subpar, and capacitor squeal was unacceptable (+12v rail).
To put in perspective, I replaced an Antec I had with a PC Power & Cooling Silencer (Seasonic built), on the EXACT same setup I was able to OC another 200MHz higher due to the superior VR of the PCP&C unit.

Zero82z said:
He's already looking at very good quality PSUs, so I'm not sure what you think you're accomplishing by posting that.
Click to expand...

Everyone has posted their preferences and of course there's always the Corsair fanboy's. Not that Corsair units are bad, they most definitely are not. However, I was sharing information that even Corsair's are built by SeaSonic.
IMO, SeaSonic is the best brand out on the market as far as PSU's are concerned. They're not as known as Corsair but are just as good in every single way.

And most of the wattage PSU's that have been recommended in this thread are ridiculous. This Seasonic X-750 Gold certified (on Promo for $119.99 shipped with code EMCNJHD24) is more than sufficient for the OP's needs.
One of those could EASILY run 2 580's with room to spare, and quite a bit of room at that. So running two 7970's would be cake.
 
OmegaSupreme said:
The hell there isn't. Read some JG reviews about them, not to mention all of the units that died on customer reviews, you'll see that the Liberty series is probably Enermax's worst line with the most problems.
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Like this one? http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=136

That review is three years old and there's nothing wrong with that PSU at all.
OmegaSupreme said:
I'm talking the mainstream units, not the Gold certified ones --of course those are going to be good.
What I referred to was my personal experience with Antec PSU's. Build quality was decent however, voltage regulation was subpar, and capacitor squeal was unacceptable (+12v rail).
Click to expand...
How do you know the voltage regulation was sub-par? Did you measure it with a multimeter, or did you just use software readings or guess? By the way, it's coil whine, not capacitor squeal, and that is not an indicator of quality at all, as evidenced by the fact that high-end PSUs like the Corsair AX1200, Seasonic X-series, and many others have exhibited the same problem.
OmegaSupreme said:
Everyone has posted their preferences and of course there's always the Corsair fanboy's. Not that Corsair units are bad, they most definitely are not. However, I was sharing information that even Corsair's are built by SeaSonic.
IMO, SeaSonic is the best brand out on the market as far as PSU's are concerned. They're not as known as Corsair but are just as good in every single way.
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Many of Corsair's PSUs are not manufactured by Seasonic.
OmegaSupreme said:
And most of the wattage PSU's that have been recommended in this thread are ridiculous. This Seasonic X-750 Gold certified (on Promo for $119.99 shipped with code EMCNJHD24) is more than sufficient for the OP's needs.
One of those could EASILY run 2 580's with room to spare, and quite a bit of room at that. So running two 7970's would be cake.
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Could it run two GTX 580s? Yes. With quite a bit of room to spare? Not necessarily, and with overclocking, not really. They can draw upwards of 300W per card at load. Combined with an overclocked CPU, that is more than a 750W PSU should be forced to handle.
 
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Those units have long since been discontinued. They had changed something with their Liberty units about a year and a half ago. I was looking at one over at newegg, but after reading all of the reviews where the units were dying after a short period, I decided to go with a SeaSonic instead.
Newegg quickly stopped selling those units.

Granted, a lot of DOA PSU's are due to shipping damage.
 
buttons said:
a 90% efficient 850w can handle 765w
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That is NOT how it works.

A 90% efficient 850w should be able to handle 850w if it is a quality unit. 90% efficiency means it will pull 944.4w at the wall if it has a 850w load on it. ( 850 / 0.9 )
 
cyclone3d said:
That is NOT how it works.

A 90% efficient 850w should be able to handle 850w if it is a quality unit. 90% efficiency means it will pull 944.4w at the wall if it has a 850w load on it. ( 850 / 0.9 )
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Just curious, where did you get this information?
 
Holy shit is there some bad information being posted in this thread.

cyclone3d said:
That is NOT how it works.

A 90% efficient 850w should be able to handle 850w if it is a quality unit. 90% efficiency means it will pull 944.4w at the wall if it has a 850w load on it. ( 850 / 0.9 )
Click to expand...

This needs reiterating. A power supply is rated at the amount of power it can supply, not the amount of power it consumes.
 
Get a 750/850W high end PSU (Seasonic) instead of mid end 1000W for similar price.
 
I'm flabbergasted at all the 1000watt talk. Yes absolutely its overkill for the system stated. Unless you have definitely plans to go tri or quad crossfire later I'd go straight to a Seasonic X750 gold and never look back. On sale at newegg right now PLUS a $40 off promo code through 2/1 = $119 for a top notch supply that is MORE than capable of running the OP's system. That is huge bang for the buck right there.
 
Sorry to threadjack, but I'm switching from a CFX 6950 setup to a CFX 7970 setup very soon, and I thought this may be too much to handle for my approx 2 year old Corsair TX750. I initially thought I would really need at least 850W (I do plan to OC the cfx setup), and would be better off with 1000W just so I never have to worry about it. I do typically keep PSUs for 2+ years and who knows whether I'll want to go tri-fire or for a dual card setup with really high TDP cards.

For my current build eXtreme PSU calculator (http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine) said 750watt minimum (using HD6970 instead of 7970, since those aren't in the calc. yet), 800watt recommended, assuming 90% system load and no capacitor aging. When I bumped the capacitor aging to 20% (which is on the low side of recommended on a system that stays on 24/7 and will be kept for 1+ years, it bumped my numbers to 900W min/950W recommended.

And I don't believe that the calculator is making allowances for OCing video cards, since that's not an option.

So my questions are - and these are topical since the OP seems to have almost an identical setup to mine, maybe with a bit lower OCs planned:

1. Is this calculator just really conservative, or what? It certainly looks like 900-1000w isn't exactly overkill for this type of setup assuming OCing and PSU aging.

2. Despite the calculator, I'd like to know if I can get away with using that Seasonic on sale given my/OPs build (in my case - OC/OV on 2600k+2 GPUs, about 6 HDDs, several large case fans, at least 3-4 USB devices, game controller, Blu-Ray). It certainly seems like smokin deal.
 
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