How much is enough and how much is overkill?

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JCNiest5

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Okay, so for single video card user, like 1366 950 (X58 system) or Sandy Bridge 2600K (P67 system) with GTX480 or GTX5xx series, is 800W enough? Is 1000W overkill? Is 1250W way!!!!! overkill?

Is Sparkle a good PSU company? I see a 1000W and 1250W at MC for half of their regular price but can't decide if I should jump the gun or not.

So, your expert advice/opinion is greatly appreciated.

TIA
 
A 800w psu is fine. What I running in my sig with a 850 oc on the 480. If your going dual gpus and thinking about ocing them then I get a 1000w. I only pull around 500 -530w from the wall.
 
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800 watts is overkill for a single GTX 580. 1000 and 1200 are definite WAY!!!! overkill.

You'll be fine with a 550 or 650 watt power supply. GTX 580 uses at most 300 watts (with overclocking), overclocked Sandy Bridge probably uses 150 watts overclocked. i7 950 probably uses 150-200 watts overclocked. You'll be fine with a good quality 550 watt or 650 watt power supply. I'm not familiar with the build quality of Sparkle, care to list the prices at MC?

I would recommend an AX650, or a Seasonic X-650.
 
Tsumi said:
800 watts is overkill for a single GTX 580. 1000 and 1200 are definite WAY!!!! overkill.

You'll be fine with a 550 or 650 watt power supply. GTX 580 uses at most 300 watts (with overclocking), overclocked Sandy Bridge probably uses 150 watts overclocked. i7 950 probably uses 150-200 watts overclocked. You'll be fine with a good quality 550 watt or 650 watt power supply. I'm not familiar with the build quality of Sparkle, care to list the prices at MC?

I would recommend an AX650, or a Seasonic X-650.
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http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0335251

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0335250

Comparing to how much Newegg sells these for, this is a good excuse to grab one.
 
Can't find any good reviews on those units, but 1000 watts is more than enough for SLI 580. You can probably even pull off tri-SLI 580's on a 1000 watt, although it may be pushing the limits a tad bit. 1250 is definitely enough for tri-SLI 580.

Honestly, I would go with a brand name 650 watt if you never plan to SLI. Seasonic (or any manufacturer that uses the Seasonic platform) or Corsair. The Silverstone Strider Gold units are also pretty good.
 
The 1000W model is a sweet deal. I'd go with that if you can afford it. Even if you don't need the extra power, it's still worth it.
 
600W is more than enough for pretty much any single card system.
 
Generally for a single video card system, anything 500w and up is plenty. Anything 700w+ is definitely majorly overkill.
 
merliwolf said:
Anything 700w+ is definitely majorly overkill.
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Actually with an x58 & overclocking, and a 570, 650-700w is the minimum you would want.

Any good PSU 650+ is good. If you plan on adding a second card grab the 1000watt sweet deal.
 
it should be noted that these units are not made by sparkle/fortron. this is a different company.
 
Uh what kinda whack overclocking are you talking about? A x58 + 570 should be generally be around 350-450w.
 
^you want to tack on 20-30% more for capacitor aging, plus have room for additional components, drives, etc.

Also 3.6 on the cpu is a very minor voltage bump, if any.
 
rive22 said:
^you want to tack on 20-30% more for capacitor aging, plus have room for additional components, drives, etc.
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Capacitor aging is pretty much nonsense. The PSU will certainly not degrade in output by 20-30%. If anything, it will be around 1-2%.
 
Based on the example stated above, it's pretty clearly around 450w from the psu itself WITH overclocked components. I don't see where you need 700w+.
Also capacitor aging is totally bs for any good quality psu. Most of the high quality psus can easily draw over their maximum limit without issue, of course you want to stick within the actual rated wattage, but I doubt any of them would fall under rated wattage for over 5 years easily.
 
If you're worried about aging, go with one of the Corsair units that have 7 year warranty. Run it on components that will run the power supply near its limits 24/7, for 7 years, and see which parts last longer. It is very unlikely the power supply will fail in the 7 year time frame. More likely is a hard drive, or the motherboard, or the graphics card.
 
I'm with the others...cap aging is total crap for any decent quality PSU. Look at the facts...a single GTX580 system will not be drawing more then 600w, no matter how overclocked the system is, and that's on the high side. In reality for normal use, a 550w PSU would be plenty. So unless there are a bunch of extra drives or accessories in the system, anything 800w and over is complete overkill.
 
Well, I jumped the gun and bought a Sparkle 1000W 80 Plus Gold, semi modular. I just couldn't pass it up because of the price, plus I have a coupon sent by MicroCenter HQ for additional 10% any PSU, so I got more discount. I haven't test the PSU yet, but it feels very quality, heavy and sturdy unlike cheap PSUs I've handled before that might not even weigh a pound. While there, I also took home a Zotac GTX570 for $339.99 minus 10% as well. It was a worthwhile purchase as far as I'm concerned.
 
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Actually I've seen a few high end builds with those Sparkle PSU's. Can't blame yea as I just pick up an Corsair AX1200 myself. I'm about to do a serious overhaul (thinking tri-sli or tri-fire) in the coming months and just got that piece out the way due to a deal. Let me know how that PSU works out for you. I just may recommend for some future builds.
 
Btw unless your drain is somewere in the 40%~70% range off the psu its not a good deal .40%~70% is more or less the sweet spot.
with out sufficient power drain off the psu the psu can end up over voting if its not loaded up as well it messes with the efficiency of the psu.
Its just the way a switching power supply works really.

and yes imho 1000+ watts = overkill for what your trying to setup.
 
War Zone said:
Btw unless your drain is somewere in the 40%~70% range off the psu its not a good deal .40%~70% is more or less the sweet spot.
with out sufficient power drain off the psu the psu can end up over voting if its not loaded up as well it messes with the efficiency of the psu.
Its just the way a switching power supply works really.

and yes imho 1000+ watts = overkill for what your trying to setup.
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The PSU will not over-volt the connected hardware if it is lightly loaded. That is just complete nonsense.
 
As a rule of thumb I usually go with total maximum System Wattage with a 20% Overhead. I usually arrive at that figure by comparing the results of a few of the online Power Supply calculators i.e. Antec, Corsair etc.. to get me in the ball park. However once in a while I may exceed the Overhead figure depending on available pricing of PSU's in the range at the time, funds available etc..

Right, Wrong I don't know but I've never run into problems with this approach so I've stuck with it
 
Zero82z:The PSU will not over-volt the connected hardware if it is lightly loaded. That is just complete nonsense.
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v6t9hd.jpg
13zzf36.jpg

less load {idle}1.376v {12v} 12.175v.............................................................. ................................................load 1.360v{12v}12.1112v

Really it depends on the psu .some don't change much others do deepening on this that and the other thing that i don't feel like getting in to seeing as my coffee is more interesting atm.:D

Then theirs how line ripple changes under load.But whatever think whatever you want.

And agreed Snarl though my self i go for more to leave the door open for future upgrade options.
 
Yeah, the voltage changes with different amounts of load, but it will not go above or below the limits of the ATX specification if you're using a quality PSU. And if you knew the first thing about PSUs, you'd also know that software voltage measurements are almost always very inaccurate.
 
I did this online power calculator to help me choose the right PSU and it states that I need a 960W PSU to power my over clocked i7-930 and GTX 470.
http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

I have been running my system for a few months like this and most recently my Corsair TX650W appears to be failing. I bought the TX650 in 2008. System crashes during intense gaming and fan on PSU spins fast and loud and hot air can be felt coming out of the PSU exhaust.

I've read that some people say you need to double the PSU load capacity to efficiently operate a 100% system load at 50% of PSU load capacity.


I've also read people say that running full load capacity of a PSU is fine.

I just want to have a PSU that will work.

Problem is that alot of people think 650W is enough power to run my system. The power calculator states I need 960W.




Confusing.
 
War Zone said:
v6t9hd.jpg
13zzf36.jpg

less load {idle}1.376v {12v} 12.175v.............................................................. ................................................load 1.360v{12v}12.1112v

.
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With my Corsair TX650 my vcore in CPU-Z increases about .2v under load versus idle.

Strange. Apparently my cpu needs the power to operate stable. Could be my MB increases voltage... Not sure.
 
Your 650 watt should be more than enough to power that system. Either you got a bad apple (it happens) or your overclock is screwing up your computer. Based on the fast spinning fan, you might have a faulty power supply.
 
Tsumi said:
Your 650 watt should be more than enough to power that system. Either you got a bad apple (it happens) or your overclock is screwing up your computer. Based on the fast spinning fan, you might have a faulty power supply.
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I push my system all the time. I think the PSU is just getting old and didn't last it's anticipated life span. The TX650 has been a great PSU but if I replace it I want to replace it with a better one.

Tsumi do you think the Kingwin LZP-550 550W would be the "sweet spot" load rating for my system? Will it push my system beyond what the TX650 is capable of while being more efficient?

I need another PSU fast. I would like to wait to see what Seasonic and Corsair have to offer in the platinum rating but I don't want to wait that long. I also like the AX750/850 but those are not platinum rated and they may be overkill for my power needs. The Seasonic X760 looks good as well.... Your help is appreciated. I'm going to have to make a decision soon.
 
The "sweet spot" for your system would be a PSU with a capacity of 500-600W. The 550W Lazer Platinum meets that criterion, as do many other PSUs.
 
Zero82z said:
The "sweet spot" for your system would be a PSU with a capacity of 500-600W. The 550W Lazer Platinum meets that criterion, as do many other PSUs.
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Thanks for you help. I really like the KW 550W Lazer Platinum. I have made my choice and I bought a Seasonic X760. I love doing extreme benchmarks on GPU and CPU and memory so I went with a PSU that will give me a little more head room for over clocking and for future upgrades with single GPU or Xfire/SLI.
 
good choice but 760 wattss for sli 480/580 is a bit on the lean side
 
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Obsidian86 said:
good choice but 760 wattss for sli 480/580 is a bit on the lean side
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I have GTX 470 right now. Should be plenty for my current system.

If I go Xfire/SLI in the next year it will have to be with a much better 28nm GPU.

I'll probably upgrade GPU when NVIDIA Kepler comes out. Kepler should be much more leaner on power than Fermi.
 
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