Dual 8800GTX's - PSU Options?

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Sunin

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - August 2008
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First Nvidia is recommending an 800w psu, Second the PSU needs to have at least 4 pci-e connectors, I would prefer six or 8, but I guess that can be handled via molex to pci-e converters.

Anyways what are my options. I'm upgrading my Sonata II case for the soon to be release 1950pro, but want a psu that can handle my 9 mos upgrade goal of a Yorkfield Quad Core, and Quad 8800GTX. I assume these will be on two cards with a slight increase in overall watt requirements. So I'd like something in the 1kw range and have at least 4pci-e and have in excess of 60 amps. I've done some searches on various sites, but for an ATX case my option seem very limited. Oh and to note my Antec case is very clean layout wise, so there would be no problem fitting a longer psu in.

Thanks for any options... I lot of people will be upgrading to 8800GTX's in SLI soon so I figured a thread to discuss Nvidia's options was warranted.

Thanks again!
 
I have a PC P&C 850W and am hopeing that will be enough juice for two 8800s. I'll have to get creative to supply two sets of connectors to each card.
PCP&C does make the 1KW version with 4 pci-e connectors. I think that's where the money is if youre starting from scratch.
Let me tell you from experience, you need a case that is at minimum 20" long. I barely squeezed my PCP&C into my Lian-Li 6070. These are a full 10 inches long+ when you factor in the cables out the front of the PSU. And they are taller. You have no air space between the top of the PSU and the top of the case. Good air movement is a must or it will get very hot inside.
 
Almost ready, I just need a few more fuel rods :)

NuclearReactor.jpg


That should work :cool:
 
Well I found a couple that are Quad SLI ready and come with 4 pci-e connectors but also cost near $500, ick...
 
Seriously, the power requirements of these new video cards are ridiculous. They need to work more on efficiency.

"I'm serial !!!!!"
-South Park reference.
 
Sunin said:
Well I found a couple that are Quad SLI ready and come with 4 pci-e connectors but also cost near $500, ick...
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I noticed on PCP&C web site yesterday that they took everything off their performance offerings except the 1KW with 4 PCI-e connectors and 72 amps. Its pricey at 549.
I sent them an email to ask if they thought my 850W could handle 2 8800 GTXs, I'll let you know what they say.
 
I noticed that as well I was surfing there yesterday. I was looking up specs on a couple of their psu's listed on newegg and could not find several of the higher-end items on their website! Wonder if that was a hint toward truly what they feel the next gen cards will need or what is going on?
 
I just bought an MGE XG Duro 900w PSU for this reason. Its awesome. It has 4 dedicated 12v rails. It will be more then enough power to run 10 hard drives and 2 8800GTX's.

Amount of PCI-E connectors really doesnt matter. Molex to PCI-E adapters are pretty cheap, if they dont already come with whatever brand 8800GTX you buy.
 
Astrogiblet said:
I just bought an MGE XG Duro 900w PSU for this reason. Its awesome. It has 4 dedicated 12v rails. It will be more then enough power to run 10 hard drives and 2 8800GTX's.

Amount of PCI-E connectors really doesnt matter. Molex to PCI-E adapters are pretty cheap, if they dont already come with whatever brand 8800GTX you buy.
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The problem with that theory is the potential for the 8800GTX's to go Quad, and I don' tme two gpu's per card, but 4 cards. I read somewhere about the 8800's having dual sli connectors, thus allowing you to connect an unlimited amount of cards in SLI. Thus I would want one with 4 connectors or more to start and if I had to for say the other 4 use molex converters.
 
Simple fact is though, your saying you want quad core and 4 8800GTX's. You are going to need a 2kw PSU, which isnt made yet as far as I know. So get a temporary one for now, and when you drop $3000 on video cards and a quad core in the future, drop another $500 on the PSU that will be out then.

I have been thinking about quad 8800GTX's as well, but they wont come out until the 680a mobo's come out, which arent coming out till amd quad cores, which arent coming out till April I believe.. Triple SLI will be out with the 650i's, though.

The only possible solution right now is to buy dual 1kw PSU's. And I wouldnt do that, because you might need even more power then 2kw.
 
i wouldnt buy anything just yet. the numbers nvidia released are a little inflated so i'd wait til we get some more results.
 
Astrogiblet said:
Simple fact is though, your saying you want quad core and 4 8800GTX's. You are going to need a 2kw PSU, which isnt made yet as far as I know. So get a temporary one for now, and when you drop $3000 on video cards and a quad core in the future, drop another $500 on the PSU that will be out then.

I have been thinking about quad 8800GTX's as well, but they wont come out until the 680a mobo's come out, which arent coming out till amd quad cores, which arent coming out till April I believe.. Triple SLI will be out with the 650i's, though.

The only possible solution right now is to buy dual 1kw PSU's. And I wouldnt do that, because you might need even more power then 2kw.
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Jesus that was depressing, but true. I guess the best thing is to wait. If I have to buy a $100 psu to hold me over for this last upgrade of the AGP variety then so be it consider it wasted money to play games for the next few months. I agree though, waiting until mid 07 might be my best bet, things should be more sorted out by then.
 
Sunin said:
Jesus that was depressing, but true. I guess the best thing is to wait. If I have to buy a $100 psu to hold me over for this last upgrade of the AGP variety then so be it consider it wasted money to play games for the next few months. I agree though, waiting until mid 07 might be my best bet, things should be more sorted out by then.
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you have lots of options under $100. Frys has deals for antec neohe 550 and trio's 550 for 70-80 from time to time.

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-E5150GH

just enough to hold you over.
 
Astrogiblet said:
Simple fact is though, your saying you want quad core and 4 8800GTX's. You are going to need a 2kw PSU, which isnt made yet as far as I know. So get a temporary one for now, and when you drop $3000 on video cards and a quad core in the future, drop another $500 on the PSU that will be out then.

I have been thinking about quad 8800GTX's as well, but they wont come out until the 680a mobo's come out, which arent coming out till amd quad cores, which arent coming out till April I believe.. Triple SLI will be out with the 650i's, though.

The only possible solution right now is to buy dual 1kw PSU's. And I wouldnt do that, because you might need even more power then 2kw.
Click to expand...

I don't think a wall socket will pump out that much wattage... Not sure, but I think we may have to go to 220v plug ins...... Slide the washer and dryer over...
Fortunately... if you mod your case, you can drape your wet clothes over the case and they will dry quickly... omg.... this is getting crazy :)
 
321 watts x 4 = 1284, plus system resources = 1.5kw, so yeah the 2kw psu suggestion very well could be reality.
 
Sunin said:
321 watts x 4 = 1284, plus system resources = 1.5kw, so yeah the 2kw psu suggestion very well could be reality.
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321 is whole system ;)
 
Spectre said:
321 is whole system ;)
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Hmm that puts the wattage at the approximate 200w range then no? So 1kw psu's should fit the bill then. Here's hoping to Octal PCI-E connections down the road. But then again 1kw psu does not future proof yourself much.
 
Ah.. here it is... a 120 volt ;15 amp u.s. wall socket will put out 1.8 KW...I don't think that it is a good idea though...
 
Wow that really points out that GPU / CPU manu's better start getting a helluva lot more efficient! You're talking 6 GPU system would be pushing the limits of the power that can run through a 120v 15amp circuit. Wow... Well as they upgrade to 45nm efficiencies should be had, we all hope! I mean it is pretty insane to think that you will have to a dedicated circuit just for your computer!
 
Sunin said:
Wow that really points out that GPU / CPU manu's better start getting a helluva lot more efficient! You're talking 6 GPU system would be pushing the limits of the power that can run through a 120v 15amp circuit. Wow... Well as they upgrade to 45nm efficiencies should be had, we all hope! I mean it is pretty insane to think that you will have to a dedicated circuit just for your computer!
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one dedicated circuit might not be enough... Another 240 volt circuit (for dryers and such) may be the next alternative... damn.... how about cold fusion?.... that's sounding better now! :eek:
 
Sunin said:
321 watts x 4 = 1284, plus system resources = 1.5kw, so yeah the 2kw psu suggestion very well could be reality.
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You gotta figure we are talking quad cores too. They are going to suck 4 times the juice, plus you can have up to 2 of them on the 680a boards.

So 1284 watts, plus 8 processing cores, plus cd/dvd drive, 2 high end heatsinks with big a** fans to cool those processors, etc.

I'm thinking over 2kw.. Probably have to design custom circuits in your house to run your damn computer. lol.
 
Astrogiblet said:
You gotta figure we are talking quad cores too. They are going to suck 4 times the juice, plus you can have up to 2 of them on the 680a boards.

So 1284 watts, plus 8 processing cores, plus cd/dvd drive, 2 high end heatsinks with big a** fans to cool those processors, etc.

I'm thinking over 2kw.. Probably have to design custom circuits in your house to run your damn computer. lol.
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Unlikely at the best....When dual cores were introduced they fit in the same TDP range as their single core brethern.....so they didn't suck 2x "the juice". Quad core is unlikely to as well especially since Intel has pretty much dropped support for the BTX standard (excpet for OEM's)...so it is doubtful we will see huge TDP increases in the near future from them.

And as I already stated tha 321w was whole system draw.
 
Spectre said:
Unlikely at the best....When dual cores were introduced they fit in the same TDP range as their single core brethern.....so they didn't suck 2x "the juice". Quad core is unlikely to as well especially since Intel has pretty much dropped support for the BTX standard (excpet for OEM's)...so it is doubtful we will see huge TDP increases in the near future from them.

And as I already stated tha 321w was whole system draw.
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The efficiency is one of the things that I am holding out for the 45nm tech, they are reported to be in the 50w range. Hmm dual Quad Cores... Drool! Hmm maybe my future system will cost more then I thought. With a
high-end PSU (400-500)
Dual Quad core (1k-1.5k)
Quad 8800GTX's (1.2k-1.6k) (Hopefully by Q3 of 2007 a new more efficient revision)
Memory at 4gig (500),
Twin Zalman's to air cool the quads (125)
Motherboard ($250)

I can transfer over my DVD drive, floppy, case, and raptor drive

So that puts the new build at 3.5k to 4.5k. Eeek, but honestly I should not have to upgrade anything for 4 years, and if I wanted to start with a single Quad core and dual 8800GTX's then that cuts alot out of it and offers me some upgrades in steps down the road.
 
I think that $1.5k for two decent quad cores is optimistic, high end dual core 2xx opterons still approach $800 each, and they just cut the prices this week. You might be able to swing it if you go bottom of the line. Decent dual socket mobo's consistently run higher than their single socket brethern, too.
 
I like to stick to one rule, which is 1gb of RAM per core. So if you got 8 cores, I'd recommend 8 gigs of RAM or you will probably feel slowed down pretty good.
 
Astrogiblet said:
I like to stick to one rule, which is 1gb of RAM per core. So if you got 8 cores, I'd recommend 8 gigs of RAM or you will probably feel slowed down pretty good.
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Is there any reasoning behind that? I used to run win xp on 512mb and an athlon 1800+ fine, so you could just as well say 512mb per core. It totaly depends on usage.
 
Astrogiblet said:
I like to stick to one rule, which is 1gb of RAM per core. So if you got 8 cores, I'd recommend 8 gigs of RAM or you will probably feel slowed down pretty good.
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Well honestly unless they fix the XP issue with recognizing over 4gig, there is little use for it right now. I would consider twin 2gig sticks to ensure I could move up down the road.
 
My reasoning behind 1 gig per core is so I dont bottlekneck the system. I run a lot of VERY taxing programs, plus I have an instance of folding@home (with all the caps unlocked-- like large WU's), per core running 24/7.
 
Astrogiblet said:
My reasoning behind 1 gig per core is so I dont bottlekneck the system. I run a lot of VERY taxing programs, plus I have an instance of folding@home (with all the caps unlocked-- like large WU's), per core running 24/7.
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So there you go, it depends on what you're doing :) I personally would tend to agree with you, but it does depend on what you're aiming to do with the system.
 
Astrogiblet said:
My reasoning behind 1 gig per core is so I dont bottlekneck the system. I run a lot of VERY taxing programs, plus I have an instance of folding@home (with all the caps unlocked-- like large WU's), per core running 24/7.
Click to expand...

So there you go, it depends on what you're doing :) I personally would tend to agree with you, but it does depend on what you're aiming to do with the system.

I think more importantly, if you're going to have 8 cores make sure to do it on a NUMA enabled motherboard and at the very least have enough ram sticks to run dual channel on each node. Bandwith is a big issue when you've got 4 cores fighting over it.
 
Slartibartfast said:
I think more importantly, if you're going to have 8 cores make sure to do it on a NUMA enabled motherboard and at the very least have enough ram sticks to run dual channel on each node. Bandwith is a big issue when you've got 4 cores fighting over it.
Click to expand...
Agreed. 8 gigs of ram won't help you much if you're accessing it thru one bus.

 
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