Looking for A Power Supply

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ComputerGeek

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
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Hello Guys, I'm new here and I just had a couple questions

I am looking for a Power Supply It needs to at least 850 watt's, but I'm looking in the 1000 watt and up range. What Power Supplies can you suggest. Also, a list of the better companies would be good.

I was looking at these;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159101
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182188
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817611009

Second, how many watts do graphics cards usually use. Looking at a gtx 470 for Premiere CS5 specifically but I want some expansion.

Also, I am interested if anyone has a used one, provided its in good working condition, and Is not half dead. :);): I can not post a WTB on the other part of the forum till I get 50 posts so.

I would appreciate any input! Thanks!

BTW, how do you like my username I lucked out, on it.
 
What's the whole system we're talking about here? CPU, approximate OC, graphics card(s), approximate OC, number of harddrives, approximate number of fans. It sounds like you're probably buying way more PSU than you need -- a GTX 470 in a system with, say, a moderately OCed i7 quad, will only need a quality 500 watt PSU, and you could get by with less in a pinch if it's a well built unit. If you start pushing the OC, especially if you start pushing the graphics card OC, or if you start considering multiple GPUs in the same box, that's when you need to start looking at 1kw PSUs.
 
Those three PSUs range from mediocre to downright bad. If you want that much power, you're going to have to be willing to spend some more cash. However, like silent-circuit said, it's quite unlikely that you will actually need that much power, so you could probably get away with a quality 500-600W unit for under $100.
 
Didn't even check the links. As Zero said, good PSUs cost, and it's not somewhere you should skimp. Coolmax, Rosewill, and Tuniq are not good brands for PSUs. Look at Corsair, Seasonic, Antec, Zippy, Etasis, Enermax, and Silverstone. There are others as well, but pretty much anything from those brands is going to be a good unit.
 
I've owned OCZ, Corsair, Antec, Enermax, Thermaltake and Silverstone PSU. I preferred Antec and Silverstone. Corsair make good PSU as well, but are a bit pricier than the other two.

I would not cheap out on a PSU. Save on the memory and cpu if you have to, but not the PSU,

Shameless plug: I'm selling my Antec Quattro 850W Modular PSU here on [H] for 100$ since I went fully modular for my new build. Sale thread is here if you're interested: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1572645
 
saying corsair too.. got an hx1000 watt currently in my system after going with an offbrand that failed after a year.
 
Sorry I did not put more info down.

My motherboard recommends a 850 watt power supply, that is the only reason my I was looking in that range.

I have the Tyan S4985 Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151085

I have 4 opteron 1207 8354 Cpus

Probably 5 hard drives, a DVD, and a BluRay Drive

I have 4 dynatron heatsinks

I am looking at the haf 932 case, so that has 4 fans

I am hoping to get a gtx 470 sli configuration at some point.

Also what about this power supply I was leaning to more watts but maybe I don't need as much as I think.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139013

Thanks!
 
Okay, four Opteron quads is not a typical configuration by any stretch. Everything I said previously about needing 500, 600 watts does not apply to you.

If you're considering SLI in the future you should be looking at quality 1000w and 1200w units, maybe even higher just to be safe. 850w would be pushing it to the extreme even with a single GTX 470.
 
silent-circuit said:
Okay, four Opteron quads is not a typical configuration by any stretch. Everything I said previously about needing 500, 600 watts does not apply to you.

If you're considering SLI in the future you should be looking at quality 1000w and 1200w units, maybe even higher just to be safe. 850w would be pushing it to the extreme even with a single GTX 470.
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Thats what I was figuring so do you have any recommendations in that range. The prices for a power supply seem to soar when you get up to 1200 watts.

Also how many watts does each processor use this is what it said for specs.

Average CPU Power (W) 75
Thermal Design Power (W) ? 115 (According to final ACP white paper)
95 (According to press presentation)

How many watts will a gtx 470 use? I can only seem to find a recommend wattage for a system.
 
Assuming 115w per CPU to be safe (TDP is usually equivalent to the power used at full load, give or take) that's 115x4 = 460w for CPUs alone. Add another 50 or so to cover the board / northbridge / southbridge / etc you're looking at 500w baseline. Assume 200w per GPU. That might be a little high, but not that much, and breathing room is a good thing where power is concerned. 900w with CPUs and GPUs and the board.

Then you need some more breathing room to cover harddrives. Spin-up power on a harddrive can be as high as 25w, but the good news there is they draw less during normal usage and everything else isn't drawing a lot of power at startup when they are spinning up, generally. Assume 10-20w per drive to be safe. We'll say 50w for the harddrives, another 50w to cover optical, fans, etc.

So, 1000w theoretical max draw. To be fair you are unlikely to ever see that draw at the wall, but 800, 900 watts is possible during stress testing, certainly.

I would not consider anything less than a 1200w unit for you, especially if you intend to keep this setup for any serious length of time (more than 2 years or so) as PSUs tend to de-rate slowly over time.

EDIT: After looking around a little more it might be closer to 225w per GTX 470 at full load, so yeah, definately nothing less than a high quality 1200w unit. You're something of a special case; lots of people come in here thinking they need a 1kw PSU to power a quad core and a couple higher end GPUs and they're wrong. You're powering 4 quad cores, it changes the game entirely.
 
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silent-circuit said:
Assuming 115w per CPU to be safe (TDP is usually equivalent to the power used at full load, give or take) that's 115x4 = 460w for CPUs alone. Add another 50 or so to cover the board / northbridge / southbridge / etc you're looking at 500w baseline. Assume 200w per GPU. That might be a little high, but not that much, and breathing room is a good thing where power is concerned. 900w with CPUs and GPUs and the board.

Then you need some more breathing room to cover harddrives. Spin-up power on a harddrive can be as high as 25w, but the good news there is they draw less during normal usage and everything else isn't drawing a lot of power at startup when they are spinning up, generally. Assume 10-20w per drive to be safe. We'll say 50w for the harddrives, another 50w to cover optical, fans, etc.

So, 1000w theoretical max draw. To be fair you are unlikely to ever see that draw at the wall, but 800, 900 watts is possible during stress testing, certainly.

I would not consider anything less than a 1200w unit for you, especially if you intend to keep this setup for any serious length of time (more than 2 years or so) as PSUs tend to de-rate slowly over time.

EDIT: After looking around a little more it might be closer to 225w per GTX 470 at full load, so yeah, definately nothing less than a high quality 1200w unit. You're something of a special case; lots of people come in here thinking they need a 1kw PSU to power a quad core and a couple higher end GPUs and they're wrong. You're powering 4 quad cores, it changes the game entirely.
Click to expand...

I'm a special case alright I'm not sure I did the right thing buying that motherboard now.
Passmark says its a little faster than the Intel Core i7 980X @ 3.33GHz
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=[Quad+CPU]+Quad-Core+AMD+Opteron+8356

But I have been getting good deals;
Motherboard $180
Opteron 8354 3X = $75
8GB Registered ECC Memory = $75

Anyway, I know what you mean about people buy huge power supplies. Someone wanted a 1kw for a P4 system, I felt like telling him "yeah that will work fine," just so he would have to buy the more expensive one.

THanks!
 
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Buy used here on [H]. You need 50 posts, but then there should be a few good options. And really, for a quality 1200w PSU, $300 is not at all unreasonable. Trouble is you've been so lucky with all other purchases so far for this build that you have an unrealistic idea of what the hardware really costs. ;)
 
silent-circuit said:
Buy used here on [H]. You need 50 posts, but then there should be a few good options. And really, for a quality 1200w PSU, $300 is not at all unreasonable. Trouble is you've been so lucky with all other purchases so far for this build that you have an unrealistic idea of what the hardware really costs. ;)
Click to expand...

I Know I lucked out on that, and my Username

But I'm only 17 and I only get money occasionally.

Do you think that I should have went with an i7 system instead.

Also, how many watts would I need for a single gtx 470 in this system.
 
Wouldn't have been any cheaper; even a used i7 920 is ~$200, a board, $150 or so, RAM would run you $80 for a similar amount.

Certainly more power efficient, though.
 
silent-circuit said:
Wouldn't have been any cheaper; even a used i7 920 is ~$200, a board, $150 or so, RAM would run you $80 for a similar amount.

Certainly more power efficient, though.
Click to expand...

What about benchmarks

Passmark says its a little faster than the Intel Core i7 980X @ 3.33GHz
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=[Quad+CPU]+Quad-Core+AMD+Opteron+8356

Do you think thats true, it only has ddr2 memory though, so that will make a dent.

How big does my power supply need to be for only one gtx 470
 
In some cases, a good bit faster. In many (gaming for example) substantially slower because games simply don't thread out that well. Even the best rarely make good use of 4 cores, nevermind 16. 3/4ths or more of those CPUs are going to sit idle all the time if all you do is game. Now, if you do 3D rendering, or heavy math, or other well threaded CPU-intensive things, then yes, it's a good bit faster than an i7. If all you're going to do is game...

Clock for clock, an i7 is a hell of a lot faster than those Opterons. There are just a lot more of them. 6 i7 cores, 16 Opteron cores, and the 16 barely wins out. Also, an i7 can be OCed to ~4Ghz pretty easily, so the performance numbers at 3.33Ghz aren't really indicative of what you'd be able to get out of that chip. Granted, any i7 you'll be able to afford on the current budget is going to be a quad, not a hexacore like the 980x, but even with 4 cores, after you OC an i7 920 or 950 to ~4Ghz it'll be in the same ballpark performance-wise as the 16 core Opteron setup, and it'll be much more consistent because apps that can't make use of but 1, 2, 3 cores effectively will be running on much faster individual cores.

If you're having second thoughts, sell it all, wait a month or so, and build a Sandy Bridge based machine or pick up cheap used LGA 1366 parts when people start jumping ship for Sandy Bridge.
 
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silent-circuit said:
In some cases, a good bit faster. In many (gaming for example) substantially slower because games simply don't thread out that well. Even the best rarely make good use of 4 cores, nevermind 16. 3/4ths or more of those CPUs are going to sit idle all the time if all you do is game. Now, if you do 3D rendering, or heavy math, or other well threaded CPU-intensive things, then yes, it's a good bit faster than an i7. If all you're going to do is game...

Clock for clock, an i7 is a hell of a lot faster than those Opterons. There are just a lot more of them.

If you're having second thoughts, sell it all, wait a month or so, and build a Sandy Bridge based machine or pick up cheap used LGA 1366 parts when people start jumping ship for Sandy Bridge.
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I'll have to look in to a Sandy Bridge system.

Is this power supply any good?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ULTRA-X4-1200W-M...#ht_630wt_1011

I heard some bad reviews on it though however part of it was about the price
 
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Made a pretty substantial edit above. The Ultra X4 is pretty good from what I remember, though I generally stay away from Ultra on principle. Also, the listing you linked to isn't there anymore.
 
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If you could get it for $100 or so, yeah, that'd be a great deal. At ~$150, okay deal. I wouldn't pay any more. It's a less efficient older design, but it is capable and reliable.
 
silent-circuit said:
If you could get it for $100 or so, yeah, that'd be a great deal. At ~$150, okay deal. I wouldn't pay any more. It's a less efficient older design, but it is capable and reliable.
Click to expand...

OK Thanks!

One thing the sandy bridge looks to be less powerful than a higher end i7.
 
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ComputerGeek said:
OK Thanks!

One thing the sandy bridge looks to be less powerful than a higher end i7.
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Not really. Than a dual socket setup, sure, but that's also more than 2x, sometimes 3x+ the price. Than a hexacore chip, sure, but again, 2x the price. Sandy Bridge is going to be faster clock for clock than the current i7s, though, and the quad cores will OC to ~5Ghz on average with a 2500k or 2600k from what we've seen so far, as opposed to most current i7s topping out around 4Ghz. That should put them substantially faster than anything anywhere near their price range (~$260-300 a chip) right now.

If you compare a chip that'll currently cost you ~$600 to a ~$300 Sandy Bridge chip, the results are actually pretty favorable for Sandy Bridge. And that's impressive.
 
silent-circuit said:
Not really. Than a dual socket setup, sure, but that's also more than 2x, sometimes 3x+ the price. Than a hexacore chip, sure, but again, 2x the price. Sandy Bridge is going to be faster clock for clock than the current i7s, though, and the quad cores will OC to ~5Ghz on average with a 2500k or 2600k from what we've seen so far, as opposed to most current i7s topping out around 4Ghz. That should put them substantially faster than anything anywhere near their price range (~$260-300 a chip) right now.

If you compare a chip that'll currently cost you ~$600 to a ~$300 Sandy Bridge chip, the results are actually pretty favorable for Sandy Bridge. And that's impressive.
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Interesting I'll have to think that over.

How much will one of the sandy bridge systems run?

How big does my power supply need to be for only one gtx 470?
 
Sandy Bridge, from what we know so far, $150-250 depending on features for a board, $250-350 for a nice chip (unlocked quad), $100 or so for 8 GB of DDR3 (as of today) plus all the normal stuff -- GPUs, HDDs, etc. No hard numbers until it's available in a couple weeks.

For your current setup and a single GTX 470? ~850-900 watts. For an i7 or Sandy Bridge setup and a single 470? ~550-650 watts.
 
silent-circuit said:
Sandy Bridge, from what we know so far, $150-250 depending on features for a board, $250-350 for a nice chip (unlocked quad), $100 or so for 8 GB of DDR3 (as of today) plus all the normal stuff -- GPUs, HDDs, etc. No hard numbers until it's available in a couple weeks.

For your current setup and a single GTX 470? ~850-900 watts. For an i7 or Sandy Bridge setup and a single 470? ~550-650 watts.
Click to expand...

So can I get by with a 1000 watt If I only go with a single gtx 470
 
4x quad opterons? Yeah, I missed that in the thread.

Yeah, he'll need more than 850W if he ever goes SLI.
 
ComputerGeek said:
Sorry I did not put more info down.

My motherboard recommends a 850 watt power supply, that is the only reason my I was looking in that range.

I have the Tyan S4985 Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151085

I have 4 opteron 1207 8354 Cpus

Probably 5 hard drives, a DVD, and a BluRay Drive

I have 4 dynatron heatsinks

I am looking at the haf 932 case, so that has 4 fans

I am hoping to get a gtx 470 sli configuration at some point.

Also what about this power supply I was leaning to more watts but maybe I don't need as much as I think.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139013

Thanks!
Click to expand...


Ok yeah 1000w or more would be good. I would stick with Corsair or PC Power and Cooling
 
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