Questions about upgrades

[zero_vertical]

I haven't bought a PSU for a while, and I need a little advice from the [H].

I just picked up a second 7800GT to run SLI (uber cheap, couldn't resist ) and I'm skeptical about my Coolmax 500w PSU. It'd probably do the job, but the cables look like shit, and I want modular, and I want a little protection for when I jump to the 88xx series cards in a year or so.

Here's the rig details:

Foxconn NF4SK8AA-8KRS SLI
A64 X2 4800+ s939 Toledo
AC Freezer64 Pro
Coolmax 500w
2 Gig Patriot Signature
250Gig WD250 16mb cache HDD
evga 7800gt co (soon to be 2)


I'm a huge Enermax fan, as the Liberty series is currently 5 for 5 with me, and they are very high quality PSUs, however there aren't any real Enermax's offferings in the 600-700w range - and the 620 Liberty has lots of burnout reports. The Infiniti 720 is appealing and got a 9 on Johhny guru, but part of this upgrade is aesthetic, and he mentiones the cables are short.

So, I'm looking at the Thermaltake Toughpower 700w.

The specs state there are 4 12v rails rated at 18A each. I'd like to know how the amps are distributed b/w the main power cables and the PCIe connectors (sharing a rail? 1 rail a piece? sharing with other cables? etc)

The problem is Johnny guru has this rated in Tier 4 of gaming worthy PSUs - and I can't find a good review that actually digs in like Johnny does (confirming rails, capacitor review, etc). I want details on the combined amps from the 4 rails (advertised as 56amps - but i no longer trust manufacturer specs on PSUs), or if they're even really 4 rails.

Anyways, this all boils down to 3 questions

1) Are people here comfortable with the Thermaltake 700 TP?
2) Will the 700 allow me to run a single 8800GTX when i upgrade in 18mos? How about 2 of 'em in SLI?
3) Can anyone help me find a third party inspection that is thorough, and not some wannabe h4x0r review?

THANKS!
zv

 

[axan]

the toughpower 700w doesn't have the same quality as the 1kW units (the components are actually different). If you want good modular psu with nice cables you can't do better then corsair 520hx or 620hx I would go with the 520 if you planing on single 88xx card and the 620 if you plan on doing 88xx sli.