Need PSU for e6600/Asus P5B/Antec P180

soxfandoug

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 10, 2005
Messages
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Hey guys. I read thru the stickied posts above, but I'm still really nervous about buying a PSU. I need a PSU powerful enough to run the following rig:

Asus P5B-Deluxe Mobo
Intel e6600 Conroe CPU
2gb Corsair PC800 DDR2
ATI X850 XT Platinum (will upgrade when DX10 cards come out, so I need it to be able to support the latest and greatest video cards)
4 320gb hard drives in raid 5 array
1 WD Raptor drive (boot drive)
2 DVD drives

This build is going in an Antec P180 case, which houses the PSU at the bottom of the case. So I need a fairly long ATX power connector for the mobo. I would prefer a modular power supply as well.

I have purchased all of the parts but the power supply.

Thanks a bunch in advance!
Doug
 
I am also looking for PSU suggestions for the P180 case and the following components:

DS3 mobo
e6400 cpu
2gb Corsair DDR2 PC800
512mb x1900xtx (I don't plan on actually making the jump to dx10 gaming for a long while, just want to play Oblivion above 12-15fps)
WD 160gb, 250gb, 320gb, 500gb drives - may leave the 500gb in my old rig for recording TV
DVD burner

I pretty much play only Elder Scrolls games and since I record TV with my PC, that means I am constantly transcoding video from mpeg using xvid or x264. My 3.2ghz Prescott can't keep up, currently 125 hours behind and running out of hdd space.
 
soxfandoug: Enermax Liberty 400W
tygirwulf: Enermax Liberty 500W

Just so happens the only PSU that I'm sure will fit in the P180 is the Liberty which comes in both 400 and 500W variations and is modular.
 
I'd reccomend the OCZ GameXstream in any of its variations as well.. ATI and NVIDIA dual gpu certified, something thats actually quite a shortcoming of the Enermax Liberties. Even for single GPUs, the Liberty barely gives the x1900xtx enough wattage (constant rebooting during graphics intensive work); I know from experience.
 
soxfandoug said:
Hmm, that enhance looks pretty appealling. What do you guys think of the newer Corsair Power supplies? Here is the 620w:

https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=373110

I was also looking at the Enermax Liberty line... but I've read tons of reviews about those PSU's dying after only a few months. Scares me a bit, hehe.

And those OCZ PSU's aren't modular, are they?

Thanks for the help guys!

Corsair PSUs are a rebadged Seasonic M12. Very good: but niether of you need 620W. The x850 bearly hits 80W. and the x1900xtx uses 120W at full load. Soo, both of you should do with a 400W supply, maybe the person with the x1900 could use something that it 450W. And libertys are one of Enermaxes best line of PSUs, the best being the galexy which only comes in 850 and 1KW variations. So, the liberty is a great option for both of you.

"Even for single GPUs, the Liberty barely gives the x1900xtx enough wattage (constant rebooting during graphics intensive work); I know from experience."

How is that? The x1900xtx sucks 120W, I don't see how a very high end 400W supply could fail.
 
Well,I ordered my parts with the Enermax Liberty 500w PSU, so thanks for that suggestion. I'll see how it goes.
 
I have an X850 now, but as soon as the DX10 cards come out I'm gonna buy the top of the line model. As it is, I'm very tempted to purchase an 7950GX2, so I need a PSU that can support something like that.
 
dBTelos said:
How is that? The x1900xtx sucks 120W, I don't see how a very high end 400W supply could fail.

It's not just about raw wattage, it's about how the wattage is supplied on a variety of rails. A lot of manufacturers load up the +5V and +3.3V rail with power so they can up the wattage rating of their power supplies, when in reality the most important rail is the +12V these days.

The Liberty is a decent power supply, but I think the power ratings are a bit off. The 620W version has 36A available combined on the two +12V rails, with 60A combined on the 5V and 3.3V.

Our HX620W, rated at the same 620 watts as the Liberty 620, provides 50A on the three +12V rails and 54A combined on the 5V and 3.3V.

So I guess my quesiton is if the Liberty 620W does a total of 96A, only 36 of which are on the +12V rails, and ours does 104A, 50 of which are on the +12V rails, why would you choose the liberty for a high-end system?

Not to bad mouth Enermax, I like a lot of their products and think they're a very reputable company. But if I were a consumer, I'm buying the one that runs my Crossfire or SLI rig and all my hard drives.

I'm biased, of course. :)
 
Couldn't have said it better myself. It's not the wattage, voltage, or amperage. It's how it's split up, and the quality of the supply. That corsair HX620 (which I plan on purchasing soon, maybe) may "only" be 620, but with plenty of amps where it counts, 50a on the +12. Compare that to say.. a PowMax "580w". It appears it's only 40w less than the Corsair, but don't be fooled. 72a on the +3.3 and +5, and 24a on +12. Assuming it can even do as the label says. Which it can't.
 
I make sure all the PSUs I recommend arn't loaded up with all the wattage on their 3.3 and +5V rails. But, I don't have to worry about that so much because I recommend quality manufacturers, one happens to be Enermax, and yes, Corsair is included, but I rarely need to recommend a 520W+ supply.
 
soxfandoug said:
I have an X850 now, but as soon as the DX10 cards come out I'm gonna buy the top of the line model. As it is, I'm very tempted to purchase an 7950GX2, so I need a PSU that can support something like that.

OK a 7950 is rated for worst case peak of 143w. So about 11.9 amps @ 12v
 
Spectre said:
OK a 7950 is rated for worst case peak of 143w. So about 11.9 amps @ 12v

But wait, for the small fee of $500 we could enlongate our e-penis with a PC P&C 1kW. What a deal! I hate people that recommend those things for DX10 and Quad-SLi. As Spectre hinted at, a 520W Corsair HX or 500W Enermax Liberty could both handle Quad-SLi or DX10 cards.
 
Ooh, does a 1kW PSU really elong.... ah, never mind =)

I appreciate all of the help guys... right now I am leaning towards one of the Corsair units, mainly because the Enermax reviews at Newegg have kind of scared me.
 
dBTelos said:
Like on the True power, Smart power PSUs that are made by CWT but have crappy caps. Did they do that to the Trio.

I think you are confusing manufacturers. These are made by Seasonic not CWT.
 
Spectre said:
I think you are confusing manufacturers. These are made by Seasonic not CWT.

Err, I know that the trio is seasonic, now. But from what I hear, the Truepower and Smartpower are both made by CWT but Antec took the CWT PSU and replaced the caps with ones that arn't as good.
 
I very much so doubt that Antec recaps PSU's. They may order CWT supplies with Fuhjyyu caps but recapping them seems unlikely. Fuhjyyu aren't the worst caps out their either......Antec just didn't do the best job of cooling those units....hence the bulging Fuhjyyu's after about a year. Seasonic has used a grab bag of caps Hitachi, United Chemicon, OST, Rubycon, Teapo, etc. I would not expect that to change and would not speculate that it has until I see so. The other item that would make me suspect the Trio will have decent caps is that the Neo He's which Seasonic OEM'd for Antec had Teapo's.
 
Spectre said:
I very much so doubt that Antec recaps PSU's. They may order CWT supplies with Fuhjyyu caps but recapping them seems unlikely. Fuhjyyu aren't the worst caps out their either......Antec just didn't do the best job of cooling those units....hence the bulging Fuhjyyu's after about a year. Seasonic has used a grab bag of caps Hitachi, United Chemicon, OST, Rubycon, Teapo, etc. I would not expect that to change and would not speculate that it has until I see so.

I wasn't sure on how Fuhjyyu caps got on the CWT supplies, I just figured that Antec put them their. But your probably right, thanks.
 
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