Efficiency and "More than Necessary" Supply

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Citizen86

Supreme [H]ardness
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Feb 20, 2007
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I'm sure this has been discussed before... but I went back a few pages and didn't see anything recent.

I have a Corsair TX750M that had it's 8-pin CPU connector melt... not sure if it was the fault of the PSU or Motherboard, or the combination... but anyways, they're both going in for RMA. I didn't want my PC to be down for 4-8 weeks, so I went ahead and purchased new parts.

I decided to go for top quality for the PSU (reasonably), I got the XFX 1000w Platinum. A step up from 750w, especially since I don't think the current FX-8350 + GTX 580 will break the 500w area.

Now, am I wrong in thinking a 1000w is a good fit for my system? I do have about 6 HDD's, and I would like to potentially upgrade in the future to SLI or Crossfire, probably something like 7950's or GTX 760's or 770's.

Another reason, is around the 40%-60% or 70%, it seems like efficiency is at it's max on PSU's. Also, I figure the less stress on the PSU, the longer it will last. I would like to just pay the $210 and keep the PSU for 5+ years than $100-$150 every couple years.

I'm also curious if 'Capacitor aging" is as big a factor as the Thermaltake Calculator leads to believe, like 20% capacitor aging after only one year.
 
I think they overestimate on capacitor aging though some units will obviously degrade faster than others not to mention they want to sell power supplies.

60-70% load is a good place though I'd wager you're buying more than you need.
 
In the case of power supplies, its definitely better to have more than you need than to need more than you have. However, An 8350 with an overclock and a GTX 580 are almost certainly pushing well past 500W. I was able to get my FX 8320 to consume more than 600W by itself with a water-cooled 5.2ghz, and I just recently had a 580 in my 3570k rig which would pull around 550W for the whole machine during games. There are kill-a-watt readings which are to be taken with a grain of salt, they are not the most accurate, but as a ballpark it lets me know where I am.
 
LigTasm said:
In the case of power supplies, its definitely better to have more than you need than to need more than you have. However, An 8350 with an overclock and a GTX 580 are almost certainly pushing well past 500W. I was able to get my FX 8320 to consume more than 600W by itself with a water-cooled 5.2ghz, and I just recently had a 580 in my 3570k rig which would pull around 550W for the whole machine during games. There are kill-a-watt readings which are to be taken with a grain of salt, they are not the most accurate, but as a ballpark it lets me know where I am.
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I don't know about that much... maybe my OC wasn't as high as yours? Well.... you read my other thread, so I'm not 100% sure exactly what it will be capable of, haha.

But It doesn't seem to like more than 1.45v at around 4.6-4.7, and seems to hit a wall after that, where up to 1.5v still wouldn't get it stable. But we'll see what the Crosshair V can accomplish with it.

The point though, is that with the GTX 580 and the OC'd FX-8350 with ~1.45v, my reading on the UPS would hit around 500w with the two LED 21" monitors. So that's why I figured it probably wouldn't break 500w at the moment.

I definitely agree though, that having too much is much better than having too little. Which is why I overshot a bit... or a lot maybe :)
 
With the system you currently have, yes the 1,000 watt is more then you need. Though, you have set yourself up with an excellent unit that will easily handle SLI/Crossfire endeavors and any crazy CPU overclocks, fans, HDDS, you name it for the future. Its made by Seasonic I believe so its a good unit.

I have a hard time trusting those PSU calculators, I understand compensation but sometimes its overboard.
 
Citizen86 said:
I don't know about that much... maybe my OC wasn't as high as yours? Well.... you read my other thread, so I'm not 100% sure exactly what it will be capable of, haha.

But It doesn't seem to like more than 1.45v at around 4.6-4.7, and seems to hit a wall after that, where up to 1.5v still wouldn't get it stable. But we'll see what the Crosshair V can accomplish with it.

The point though, is that with the GTX 580 and the OC'd FX-8350 with ~1.45v, my reading on the UPS would hit around 500w with the two LED 21" monitors. So that's why I figured it probably wouldn't break 500w at the moment.

I definitely agree though, that having too much is much better than having too little. Which is why I overshot a bit... or a lot maybe :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I went under water and pushed past that voltage wall. It took 1.575V for my 8320 to be stable at 5150mhz, and as I'm sure you've seen that CPU watts consumed increases dramatically once you've passed into that area, one thing that will help you a lot if you want to OC further is to put some fans on the NB/VRM section, cooling the socket temps allowed me to gain and extra 300mhz. Anyway, you got a great PSU that will last you for a while and you have expandability options. I just bought a Cooler Master V1000 PSU as well for my 4670k system because I wanted one that will not have any issues with whatever I want to throw at it.
 
I've been wanting to get fans for the NB area! I know how hot it gets, easily passes 60C when under load. I just need to get fans that will fit under the radiator...
 
I got the Seasonic 860 Platinum and love the efficiency. I am always looking for ways to have my system perform while being as energy efficient as possible.
 
Honestly your new unit from xfx should hold you over for the longest time. I suggest selling your old corsair unit and keep the new one for future uses in case you want to Tri SLI.
 
gankernation said:
Honestly your new unit from xfx should hold you over for the longest time. I suggest selling your old corsair unit and keep the new one for future uses in case you want to Tri SLI.
Click to expand...

For sure, I wasn't planning on sticking the Corsair back in. I'm not sure about Tri-SLI, but if I ever do SLI or Crossfire, I'll still be good to go.

On a similar note, I did see my UPS read ~540 watts while doing Prime95 and the Heaven benchmark. The FX-8350 was clocked at 4.5Ghz. I know probably no game will stress the system that much, but it was interesting to see my system pulling that much. I could get another GTX 580 without issue now
 
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