New PSU Calculator

[gregnash]

Doing a quick google search I was able to come up with a number of different PSU calculators. I took the time to go through a few and this one seemed to be the most effective and easiest to use. So have fun people since I know the Takaman Calc has been having problems as of yet.

http://extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

 

[[Spectre]]

Doing a quick google search I was able to come up with a number of different PSU calculators. I took the time to go through a few and this one seemed to be the most effective and easiest to use. So have fun people since I know the Takaman Calc has been having problems as of yet.

http://extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

It is actual a rather old one that has been posted many times. Same problems as all the other clac's (excluding takaman) not amp break down.

 

[Nirad9er]

if you select everything on the psu calculator youd need like a 3200w power supply

 

[On the Lam]

300W for 100% Capacity for my system...thanks!

 

[jonnyGURU]

It's amazing. Isn't it?

What's funny is if someone came out with a quality 200W or 300W power supply that actually put all of the power exactly where you needed it for your particular build, it would be a marketing bomb.

Because everyone needs a "500W power supply" for the "overhead."

Run right out and buy yourself a 500W... with 50A on the 5V rail... and see how well that works with your pair o' 7800's.

 

[Jonjolt]

According to that I need a 800watt psu or 2 400 watt psu's and a paperclip

 

[Warrior]

its dosnt really have SATA 10.000 RPM.. it just has SATA HDD... that would account for power signifantly...

 

[mnemonik23]

its dosnt really have SATA 10.000 RPM.. it just has SATA HDD... that would account for power signifantly...

WD Raptor 10,000 rpm consumes 13W so it just listed under SATA HDD

 

[madmat]

At least it does say something about the rail amperages:

The total Watts is important but the Total Amperage Available on the +12V Rail(s) is the most important, followed by the +5V amperage and then the +3.3V amperage. Because of the increased power consumption of the new high-power video cards the recommended minimum for +12V is 24A, for SLI 35A.

Most of the others I've seen don't even mention anything about amperages.

 

[jcll2002]

damn, its saying ill go over my 535 watt enermax. What do you guys think?

x2 4400+ (will oc)
2gb gskill pc4000 (2x 1gb, will oc)
x1900xt (will flash to xtx and oc)
74 gig raptor
7.2k rpm sata 2
asus a8n-e mobo
like 5 of 80mm + 120mm fans (x-discovery comes w/ 1x 120mm + 1x 80 mm fan, do i need the extra ones?)
dvdr+-w

This is the psu Enermax EG565P 535 Watt Power Supply

Thanks,
jcll2002

 

[jonnyGURU]

damn, its saying ill go over my 535 watt enermax. What do you guys think?

x1900xt (will flash to xtx and oc)

I'm sure that X1900 is why.

 

[Tazzman]

thanx new toy

 

[madmat]

I did your posted system with the CPU at 2600MHz and 1.5 Vcore and everything listed and it shows 353W @ 80% and 411W @ 100%

That's with the X1900 as an XTX BTW.

You had to have left something out of your list.

x2 4400+ (will oc)
2gb gskill pc4000 (2x 1gb, will oc)
x1900xt (will flash to xtx and oc)
74 gig raptor
7.2k rpm sata 2
asus a8n-e mobo
like 5 of 80mm + 120mm fans (x-discovery comes w/ 1x 120mm + 1x 80 mm fan, do i need the extra ones?)
dvdr+-w

System Type: Single Processor
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2200 MHz 1.40v -(110 Watts)
Overclocked: 149 Watts (2600 MHz, 1.5 V)


RAM: 2 Sticks DDR SDRAM
Video Card: ATI Radeon X1900 XTX

SATA HDD: 2 HDDs

DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive: Yes

Fans
Regular: 5 Fans 80mm; 1 Fan 120mm;

Motherboard, keyboard and mouse: 43 Watts

PSU Utilization: 80% (default)

Total: 353 Watts

 

[jcll2002]

I'm sure that X1900 is why.

Yeah lol I knew that but do you think i need to up the psu or am i being overly paranoid.

Also, can someone answer my qs about the fans?

 

[jcll2002]

I did your posted system with the CPU at 2600MHz and 1.5 Vcore and everything listed and it shows 353W @ 80% and 411W @ 100%

That's with the X1900 as an XTX BTW.

You had to have left something out of your list.

oh, I think its because i did dual processor, when i thought it meant dual core.

doesnt the raptor take up more wattage also?

I got 385 watts

4400+ at 2600mhz 1.5
2 sata drives
dvd rw
4 usb ports (thats about avg for me)
all items on "other items" (Fan Controller
Front Bay Card Reader
Front Bay LCD Display....theyre all on my case)
3 LED 80mm fans
1 LED 120mm fan

385w @ 80%

 

[madmat]

From everything I've seen the Raptors use the same wattage as a 7200 RPM drive.

 

[Warrior]

thats interesting.....

 

[madmat]

According to the specs from WD's site for the 74Gig Rapty it's actually less that 13W under read/write.

Current Requirements
12 VDC
Read/Write 349 mA
Idle 338 mA
Standby 15.9 mA
Sleep 16 mA
5 VDC
Read/Write 706 mA
Idle 770 mA
Standby 314 mA
Sleep 184 mA
Power Dissipation
Read/Write 8.40 Watts
Idle 7.90 Watts
Standby 1.76 Watts
Sleep 1.11 Watts

 

[MetalX]

damn, its saying ill go over my 535 watt enermax. What do you guys think?

x2 4400+ (will oc)
2gb gskill pc4000 (2x 1gb, will oc)
x1900xt (will flash to xtx and oc)
74 gig raptor
7.2k rpm sata 2
asus a8n-e mobo
like 5 of 80mm + 120mm fans (x-discovery comes w/ 1x 120mm + 1x 80 mm fan, do i need the extra ones?)
dvdr+-w

This is the psu Enermax EG565P 535 Watt Power Supply

Thanks,
jcll2002

It says you'll exceed it with 100% utilization or 80%? 100% load is next to impossible in a real world situation. That PSU is plenty IMO.

 

[jcll2002]

im an idiot and i put dual processor because i thought it meant dual core lol. That increased my wattage by about 200w. My revised results are 385 @ 80%.

The enermax is plenty, right?

 

[Jonjolt]

With the big price drop on 2XX series dual cores, I don't even wanna know how much power I would need.

 

[Ice Czar]

http://users.erols.com/chare/elec.htm

Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (2.2GHz - 2x 1MB) thermal design power of 110W
all of which will be on the +12V rail, in a compliant ATX12V v2.03 supply the +12V1 rail
expressed in +12V amps its 9.1A
actual consumption being somewhat less than that

which brings me to the total uslessness of that calculator
its no more than a placebo feel good device
lacking any amp information, watts dont mean @#@!@!#$$

while its unfortunate that Takaman's is now offline
I will see what I can do to compile power consumption figures so people can actually workup their configs by rail and determine if a supply is up to it.

in the meantime to address the additive nature of a calculator vs figuring a real world runtime draw from either spinup\startup or worsecase post startup, refer to the old thread

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=844691


since the previous hints seemed to bounce off everyone head lets do an example shall we?

the calculator:
dual Opteron 2600Mhz
PCI IDE RAID controller
Quadro FX 1400
4 sticks of SDRAM
DVD/CDRW
10 IDE HDDs

559W

so
Silverstone ST60F 600W

only there is a slight problem, its an EPS12V split plane compliant supply, just what we want for dual CPU but what's this +12V4 has 8A?
but wait thats whats powering the HDDs and to spin those suckers up takes 20A

and I didnt even add fans

lets revisit this senerio

It's amazing. Isn't it?

What's funny is if someone came out with a quality 200W or 300W power supply that actually put all of the power exactly where you needed it for your particular build, it would be a marketing bomb.

Because everyone needs a "500W power supply" for the "overhead."

Run right out and buy yourself a 500W... with 50A on the 5V rail... and see how well that works with your pair o' 7800's.

 

[madmat]

Unless you go with an EPS common plane supply with a very healthy third rail such as a PC P&C 850 or 1KW you'd want to stagger the spin up on all those drives anyways. Even a dual rail supply with 2 larger rails will be pushed to supply 20A to the drives and the motherboard and everything else pulling on that rail. Good point though.

 

[Ice Czar]

Ive powered damn near the same thing with my 510W PCP&C


one less HDD, 240 Opterons, a buttload of 120mm & 80mm rackmount fans, Quadro FX3000
with no staggered spinup
at spinup you don't get much of a concurrent draw from the mobo\CPUs
they arent anywhere near full load

there are several senerios that come to mind where that calculator runs afoul
I just employed a worsecase one
what I object to is its underlying assumptions
and the fact it impedes understanding of the real information that enthusiasts need to know inorder to select a supply

the mission of this forum

and why Takaman's was such a good tool, it did the opposite illuminating the amp requirements
Id just wish it came in spec versions (ATX, ATX12V v1.3, v1.3hybrid, v2.0, EPS12V old, common, split)
now that its offline I need to compile a new power consumption table as opposed to relying on a few links and his calc

 

[Ice Czar]

as of right now....

jonnyGURU's pseudo calculator

blatantly ripped off below

First; do you have a Socket A CPU? If so, does it have a 2x2 12V connector? If not, you can stop reading after a few as the bulk of this text simply does not pertain to you. Your CPU’s core voltage is regulated off of the power supply's 5V rail and you’re putting as much as a 15A load on the 5V rail just for your CPU. This means you should rule out a few things when looking for a power supply:

Socket A board without a 2x2 12V connector:

* Do not use a dual 12V rail power supply. One of the two rails on a dual 12V rail power supply is for the 2x2 connector, so your power supply will have a rail you're not even capable of using!

* Do not get a power supply with a higher amperage on the 12V rail than on the 5V rail. I know future-proofing is a usually a good thing to do, but typically when a power supply with a high 12V capability is hit with a heavy 5V load, even when it's within spec, there's a thing called "crossloading" that happens. Essentially, your 5V dips below tolerance and your 12V shoots above. Side effects include lock up or even system shut downs due to over or under volt protection!

Now for the rest of you... You have a 2x2 12V connector on your motherboard, which means your CPU regulates it's core voltage from your power supply's 12V rail.

This is where I prove to you why you shouldn't go by the wattage of a power supply...

Let's start with a base system of an Athlon XP 3200+ and a high end AGP video card without an auxillary power connector (like an nVidia 6600.) Even if all you have is a single hard drive and a single optical drive.

* You're going to need a power supply with at least 17A on the 12V rail.


This number is pretty low because AGP cards get a lot of it's juice from the 3.3V rail via the AGP slot. But the AGP slot is only capable of supplying so much voltage. So what if you want a more powerful video card?

Let's say you have an AGP video card with an auxillary power connector (like a 6800.) The power connector supplies up to an additional 6.25A of 12V to the video card. So now we should look for a power supply that has more juice on the 12V than our initial build.

* You're going to need a power supply with at least 24A on the 12V rail.


Adds up quick, doesn't it?

Now let's say you have a Pentium 4 and an AGP card instead of an Athlon XP. Or that you have more drives, PCI cards and some fans other than the CPU fan.

* Add 2.8A to the 12V rail for Pentium 4 processors. Add 3.4A to the 12V rail if the Pentium 4 is a Prescott.

* Add 1.5A to the 12V rail for each additional hard drive.

* Add 1.5A to the 12V rail for each additional optical drive.

* Add .5A for each fan in your system.

* Add .5A for each PCI card in your system.


Now let's do some builds with PCI express video cards.

Since Socket A chipsets don't support PCI express video cards, we're going to switch the CPU in our base build to an Athlon64. That has a 7.4A requirement on the 12V rail instead of the 6.4A of the Socket A CPU. The PCI express slot can handle more juice and the PCI express card gets most of it's juice from the 12V rail. So our numbers change a little bit.



* 18A is enough juice on the 12V rail if you have a single PCI express video card without an additional power connector.

* 24A is enough juice on the 12V rail if you have a single PCI express video card with a connector for additional power.

* Add 1.75A if your Athlon64 CPU is an X2 model

* Add 1.8A to the 12V rail for Pentium 4 processors. Add 2.4A to the 12V rail if the Pentium 4 is a Prescott.

* Add 3.4A if your Intel CPU is a dual core Pentium D

* Add 1.5A to the 12V rail for each additional hard drive.

* Add 1.5A to the 12V rail for each additional optical drive.

* Add .5A for each fan (other than the CPU fan) in your system.

* Add .5A for each PCI card in your system.


Now we get into dual PCI express video cards. Let's say you're using SLI or ATI's Crossfire. One would think that two video card means twice the power requirement, but that's actually not true for the same reason as your performance not doubling when you have two video cards. The additional power requirement for the second video card is still fairly significant, though.



* Add 4A if you have a pair of video cards and neither of them have their own power connector.

* Add 6A if you have a pair of video cards with a power connector for each.


Now, these numbers are VERY liberal. You may find that if you have a Prescott and a pair of 6800's with four hard drives, two optical drives and three fans that you may need 490.8W on the 12V alone (40.9A!) Such a power supply may be difficult to find, so keep in mind that's going to be a worst case scenario power requirement. All of the numbers listed are an average (since different brand drives, etc. have different power requirements) of the peak power requirements for each device. So to add all of the numbers up, you would theoretically be looking at the power requirement for your entire PC if every single component was running at maximum capability. That's CPU at 100%, all hard drive spinning, all optical drives spinning, all fans blowing and both video cards pushing as much FPS as they're capable of. Likely? No. So here's what we want to do now:

* Feel free to take your total number and multiply by 95% if you had to add to the 18A and 24A base numbers for your CPU (but NOT if you only had to add to the base because you have two video cards.)

* Multiply your number by 90% if you had to add on due to additional drives, fans, PCI cards, etc.

This will account for the unlikelyhood that everything in your machine will be running at full capability. For example, if we had an Athlon64 with a pair of 6800's, we'd still want to look for something with at least 30A on the 12V rail. But if we had a Prescott, we don't need to make that power supply one with 34A on the 12V rail. 30A should still do fine.

And if we added a second hard drive, optical drive and a couple fans to our build, we don't need 38A. 32A should do the trick.

 

[jonnyGURU]

I don't mind being blatently ripped off.

In fact, it might be a good thing. With my ADD, high blood pressure and incredibly short temper, you'll never know when I may decide to just rm -rf my whole website.

 

[[Spectre]]

I don't mind being blatently ripped off.

In fact, it might be a good thing. With my ADD, high blood pressure and incredibly short temper, you'll never know when I may decide to just rm -rf my whole website.

Funny you don't strike me as a UNIX guy