This made me laugh.

[PhantomFelix]

Despite the marketing hype, many users really have no need for anything beyond a moderate 400W power supply, and perhaps not even that. Consider our results from the GeForce 8800 GT article: with an upper-midrange system, we still topped out at a whopping 327W -- and that's power draw from the wall, not power supply output! Assuming 80% efficiency for the power supply, that particular test system is only using around 260W of power.

Anandtech

Sorry if it's been posted.

 

[Raikiri]

Been saying this for ages, only the most high end of systems (Quad core, 8800 SLi, overclocked, 3+ HDs etc.) need anything over 500-550w... as long as it's a quality PSU.

I ran a pentium D 805 clocked to 3.8ghz at quite high voltage (volt modded board), 3 HDs, 7800gt, 2gb ram, 2 DVD drives etc. on a 430w Seasonic.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Anandtech

Sorry if it's been posted.

Yeah. And look what they use to "stress" the system. THAT is what made me laugh.

If everyone were to take that advice we'd see a lot of blown up PSU's after a years use in temperatures equivalent to an actual PC and not an open air bench-top.

Been saying this for ages, only the most high end of systems (Quad core, 8800 SLi, overclocked, 3+ HDs etc.) need anything over 500-550w... as long as it's a quality PSU.

I ran a pentium D 805 clocked to 3.8ghz at quite high voltage (volt modded board), 3 HDs, 7800gt, 2gb ram, 2 DVD drives etc. on a 430w Seasonic.

Big difference between a single 7800GT and a pair of 8800's. What about the in betweens? 7900? 7950? SLI of either of these?

Fact of the matter is, sure your PSU is more than enough for your build, but I wouldn't use it for even a single 8800 GT. It'll work for a few months, maybe even a year. But it's being run for long periods at these higher loads that's going to eventually kill them.

Do you think "continuous wattage rating" means they lab tested a PSU at operating temperature for months on end?

It seems to me that people that make these claims really have no idea how a power supply acts and reacts to thermals. Your ambients may be only 30 or 40°C, but the temperatures of the components inside the PSU can be twice that and rising exponentially. It's just ludicrous to me to expect a PSU to continuously run at 75% of it's rated capacity, especially when you're using a Kill-A-Watt or some other device to make your claim and not even taking into account other bottlenecks in the system that can easily unleash power consumption across the board on the next upgrade, applications other than 3DM'06 to "stress" a CPU and/or GPU or transient spikes in power consumption.

 

[PhantomFelix]

I'm sorry jonny

 

[Borgschulze]

Isn't there a way to design a power supply to just use more power from the wall? Instead of using transformers that are limited... I'm not even sure how the insides of a PSU work.. but hopefully someone on this forum does.

There has to be something out there?

 

[jonnyGURU]

Isn't there a way to design a power supply to just use more power from the wall? Instead of using transformers that are limited... I'm not even sure how the insides of a PSU work.. but hopefully someone on this forum does.

There has to be something out there?

1. The power has to be converted from AC to DC. That's why we have power supplies. Not just to step up or step down AC voltage.

2. I could make bigger, cheaper power supplies if I could just suck more juice from the wall, but that defeats the whole "efficiency initiative" everyone is going for.

PSU Basics: http://www.jonnyguru.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3264

How a PSU Works: http://www.jonnyguru.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3265

 

[Borgschulze]

1. The power has to be converted from AC to DC. That's why we have power supplies. Not just to step up or step down AC voltage.

2. I could make bigger, cheaper power supplies if I could just suck more juice from the wall, but that defeats the whole "efficiency initiative" everyone is going for.

PSU Basics: http://www.jonnyguru.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3264

How a PSU Works: http://www.jonnyguru.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3265

Ah, right, I forgot about the whole conversion thing...

 

[Mike Clements]

Nvidia and ATI do not have any vested interest that I know of to sell high end PSUs. Take a look over these lists and tell me who you would rather rely on:

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/buildyourown2.html

Sounds like another member of the 100w club.

 

[wjogert]

Despite the marketing hype, many users really have no need for anything beyond a moderate 400W power supply, and perhaps not even that.

This is absoutely true for the majority of PC users. Not necessarily applicable to a [H] community of PC enthusiasts, gamers, and o'cers.

Most users run stock CPU speed, stock voltages, onboard video or a mid-range card at best, one HDD, one disc drive, and one or two fans total. Look at the majority of commercial PC's, and you'll find that most of them come with less than 400W. Heck, most of them come with less than 300W!

At my shops, we rarely ever see PS failures. When we do, it's usually a DIY PC with a <$30 generic PS. (Well, except for the rash of Dell's that liked to melt the 4-pin connector, but that's a different story.)

BTW, I love all these ultra-cheap, overseas, generic PS's that boast 500 - 800W... and weigh almost nothing. I see tons of them shipped in new PC cases. They're junk! The power rating is NOT continuous, the internal components are under-rated, and they do blowup frequently. Sadly, though, most of those owners are instructed by misinformed "experts" that the reason it blew is that it's too small, and to get an even bigger PS.

 

[endfro]

In all my days and time, I have seen one single failed power supply. It was an Apevia I believe, and more than likely it seemed like it died due to dust, maybe heat. But to begin with it wasnt the nicest of supplies, we were using a 20 to 24pin converter, etc. So it was a bad setup from the beginning.

I myself have; Opteron 165 @ 2.6ghz - 1.425V
2x1gb Mushkin Enhanced DDR PC3200 (Running at DDR481)
DFI Infinity NF4 SLI
1x EVGA 8800GTS 640mb
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
(Internal)
- 1x 120gb IDE ATA100 7200rpm
- 1x 320gb SATA II 7200rpm
- 1x 500gb SATA II 7200rpm
(External)
- 1x 120gb IDE ATA100 7200rpm
- 1x 80gb IDE ATA100 7200rpm
- 1x 320gb IDE ATA100 7200rpm
2x Silverstone FM121 120mm fans
2x Silverstone (dont remember model) 80mm fans

All powered by.. an Antec Smartpower 2.0 500W.

According to Antecs PSU calculator ( i dont have a way to calculate what im really using myself) I am using 592watts. Whoops, looks like its time for that new power supply!


Anyway, my point is, that although it always pays to have the capabilities for more power than you currently need. A well made PSU (I think this one is well made) will hold its own when you start to put too much power on it. But dont get the wrong idea, I want a new supply, and infact my bday is next week and that Silverstone DA750 sure looks pretty enticing if anyone feels like giving a gift. =]

 

[jonnyGURU]

In all my days and time, I have seen one single failed power supply. It was an Apevia I believe, and more than likely it seemed like it died due to dust, maybe heat. But to begin with it wasnt the nicest of supplies, we were using a 20 to 24pin converter, etc. So it was a bad setup from the beginning.

I myself have; Opteron 165 @ 2.6ghz - 1.425V
2x1gb Mushkin Enhanced DDR PC3200 (Running at DDR481)
DFI Infinity NF4 SLI
1x EVGA 8800GTS 640mb
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
(Internal)
- 1x 120gb IDE ATA100 7200rpm
- 1x 320gb SATA II 7200rpm
- 1x 500gb SATA II 7200rpm
(External)
- 1x 120gb IDE ATA100 7200rpm
- 1x 80gb IDE ATA100 7200rpm
- 1x 320gb IDE ATA100 7200rpm
2x Silverstone FM121 120mm fans
2x Silverstone (dont remember model) 80mm fans

All powered by.. an Antec Smartpower 2.0 500W.

Again, not a stretch. A single 8800GTS only really needs a 500W power supply. My comments are more towards those who suggest a 380W is all you need for a G80 card.

The argunent isn't "500W isn't enough for a G80 card." If you can come into this thread and tell me that you've been running an 8800 Ultra or a pair of 7900 GTX cards in SLI for over a year on a 380W power supply, then I'll say "hmm.... THAT is impressive."

Although I'm surprised you're still using a SmartPower today as most of those units have gone the way of the swollen capacitor. You must have your PC in a very well ventillated area with ample cool air.

And if you overload a PSU, the immediate result is not sudden death. The PSU may shut down frequently well before it "blows up." That's usually when you see users say, "Hmm.... I'm having problems. Let's try another PSU. Solved." Of course, if you're blind to this, eventually you will suffer failure.

 

[Redbeard]

The 8800GTS draws between 100-120W by itself, in my experience. It can change drastically by clock speed and such, but that's about normal.

This is more than the majority of CPUs on the market. For example, all Core 2 Duos run less than 70W, but again, that number can be drastically increased through overclocking/overvolting.

Core 2 Quads and Core 2 Extreme (quad-core) processors can use up to about 130W, and the 8800GTX is about 160-180W depending on a variety of factors.

To give you an idea, I built the following system:
Core 2 Extreme Q6850 @ 3.6 GHz
Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard
4GB DDR3 @ 1800C7
2x ATI HD 2900XTs (overclocked, in crossfire mode)
Raptor 150GB SATA
X-Fi
DVDRW
5x 120mm case fans

That's a pretty hefty system right there, 20% overclock across the board, dual 2900s in crossfire, etc. It drew 610W from the wall when fully loaded.

Multiply by ~80% efficiency, that means it was using about 490W of real power.

Does that mean that you could run that on a 500W PSU? Probably. But why would you? The fan would be going full blast, the internals would be near max capacity, the lifespan of the thing would be shortened significantly.

Ideally you'd buy a 650-750, that way even under max load, you'd be around 65-75% of max at max load. At idle, that system drew about 175W.

 

[Oh4Sh0]

The antec sp2 500's were junk. I had to RMA mine as well.
But I've been aware of how ridiculous psus have really gotten and really have wondered why so many people buy into the hype and spend $100-$150 to get a ~700 watt psu when in 90% of scenarios they'd be fine spending $50-$60 for a decent 500w psu.

As an example in redbeard's post, I can understand if you have dual 2900s to purchase a 600w psu. They are power monsters. But the majority of people who have anything over a 500w psu usually have single card solutions... which just makes it a little ridiculous.

 

[RamonGTP]

Well to those who think it's "funny" or untrue, it isn't... Fact of the matter is that MOST people don't need anything over 400watts.

Most does not mean ALL... It just means most, as in, majority.

I've seen people recomend high-end 500+ watt PSU's for an Athlon XP based system with a 6600GT video card when that system can easily get by on half that power.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Well to those who think it's "funny" or untrue, it isn't... Fact of the matter is that MOST people don't need anything over 400watts.

Most does not mean ALL... It just means most, as in, majority.

I've seen people recomend high-end 500+ watt PSU's for an Athlon XP based system with a 6600GT video card when that system can easily get by on half that power.

But we're not talking about "most" because you're right.... MOST people don't have an 8800GT. We're talking about Anandtech suggesting that all you need is a 400W PSU for a computer with an 8800GT just because his computer didn't suck more than 327W from the wall while running 3DM.

We're not talking about my wife's eMachine (which has a 400W V-Series and a 6800GT, FWIW.)

We're not talking about a 500W Antec powering a 7800GT.

We're not talking about an Aspire blowing up because it's clogged with dust bunnies.

We're talking about suggesting a 400W power supply for an 8800GT without taking into consideration margin of error in power consumption readings, transient loads, real-world thermals and the potential de-rating curve or long term use with the PSU running at > 75% capability. Never mind, as Red pointed out, the fan running at it's top speed because you're running the PSU at it's upper most capability.

 

[RamonGTP]

For a computer with a single hard drive, single optical drive, dual core CPU and an 8800GT 400watts is more than enough IF it's a quality brand that can actually put out 400 continuous watts. I didn't read the entire article so I don't know if they qualified that, if they did, I see nothing wrong with their statement.

I gaurantee that you will not draw anywhere near 400 watts with the above configuration. Again their machine drew 327 watts from the wall, the power supply was only providing 260watts, say 270 or even 280 just for arguments sake, that is still well under 75% of the PSU's capacity, even then, the PC isn't going to be going full bore 100% of the time... I don't know about you, but I hardly consider 260-280 watts at the upper most capability of a 400 watt PSU, especially considering that's a maximum load which will only be seen a fraction of the time.

 

[rbanzai]

Jonny is there an easy way to figure out how much PSU one really needs before beginning to shop for something that meets the spec? You mention variables like heat and I have no idea how to take that into account.

I don't build anything very [H] like, not much OC'ing, no SLI, no quad but I really want to be better informed. Especially after that crap about my Thermaltake 430.

P.S. I still don't know why it's a bad PSU but I will take your word for it.

 

[eXpSbK]

lol

 

[Nenu]

Again their machine drew 327 watts from the wall, the power supply was only providing 260watts, say 270 or even 280 just for arguments sake, that is still well under 75% of the PSU's capacity, even then, the PC isn't going to be going full bore 100% of the time... I don't know about you, but I hardly consider 260-280 watts at the upper most capability of a 400 watt PSU, especially considering that's a maximum load which will only be seen a fraction of the time.

Wrong.
A 400W PSU cannot provide 400W of power on the 12V lines as is required for CPU's and GPU's. The other voltage rails have a rated max power which helps add up to the max 400W.

Lets be generous and say that 80% of the power is available on 12V giving an absolute max of 320W.
In your scenario, a power draw of 260W is 81% of the PSU max output and thats using best case figures, in reality that will be nearer 90% of max output.

As you push a PSU near its operating limit, the efficiency drops so even less power is available.
Then take into account that as a PSU ages, its efficiency may drop and its max power output will drop. Couple that with high operating temperatures and suddenly you dont have 320W max output after 1/2 a year of hard use, but more like 250W.
Pushing it as hard now will be using 100% of its max output, further decreasing its efficiency and you substantially increase the risk of an explosion which can take out your other hardware with it!

If you are drawing 320W from a 400W PSU, your PSU is only going to last days or months and you risk a catastrophic explosion!!

 

[Nenu]

Jonny is there an easy way to figure out how much PSU one really needs before beginning to shop for something that meets the spec? You mention variables like heat and I have no idea how to take that into account.

I don't build anything very [H] like, not much OC'ing, no SLI, no quad but I really want to be better informed. Especially after that crap about my Thermaltake 430.

P.S. I still don't know why it's a bad PSU but I will take your word for it.

Read [H]'s PSU reviews

 

[Met-AL]

My rig in my sig uses ~225 watts while in a game such as COD4 or 2142.

I have a power meter built into my PSU, while not perfectly accurate, but it does give a good indication of what the power draw at the outlet is.


From the Silent PC Review of my PSU

The "Human Computer Interface" power meter really is little more than a selling gimmick, but it tells something. Just keep in mind that it reads AC input wattage, always a bit too high. The DC power consumed by your components is at least 30% less.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article205-page3.html

 

[RamonGTP]

Wrong.
A 400W PSU cannot provide 400W of power on the 12V lines as is required for CPU's and GPU's. The other voltage rails have a rated max power which helps add up to the max 400W.

Lets be generous and say that 80% of the power is available on 12V giving an absolute max of 320W.
In your scenario, a power draw of 260W is 81% of the PSU max output and thats using best case figures, in reality that will be nearer 90% of max output.

As you push a PSU near its operating limit, the efficiency drops so even less power is available.
Then take into account that as a PSU ages, its efficiency may drop and its max power output will drop. Couple that with high operating temperatures and suddenly you dont have 320W max output after 1/2 a year of hard use, but more like 250W.
Pushing it as hard now will be using 100% of its max output, further decreasing its efficiency and you substantially increase the risk of an explosion which can take out your other hardware with it!

If you are drawing 320W from a 400W PSU, your PSU is only going to last days or months and you risk a catastrophic explosion!!

First off, I'm not wrong about anything. Please show me where I said that all 400watts are on the 12 volt rail... While you're at it, I want you to show me where in anand's article it mentioned that all 260watts were drawn off the 12v rail as well.

If your PSU loses 22% of it's power output in 6 months, you bought yourself a POS PSU, Period.

It is plainly obvious that everything you said is based on fantasy and speculation.

 

[Nenu]

First off, I'm not wrong about anything. Please show me where I said that all 400watts are on the 12 volt rail... While you're at it, I want you to show me where in anand's article it mentioned that all 260watts were drawn off the 12v rail as well.

If your PSU loses 22% of it's power output in 6 months, you bought yourself a POS PSU, Period.

It is plainly obvious that everything you said is based on fantasy and speculation.

Well I'll refresh your memory, you said
"but I hardly consider 260-280 watts at the upper most capability of a 400 watt PSU"
A 400w is being pushed very near its max output when consuming 260W and is even worse at 280W.

I have years of experience building and repairing PSU's.
Where did you get your experience, the Forums?

I'm done explaining to you, believe what you will, its your hardware.
But dont post BS that others might take as true or I will correct you.

 

[Redbeard]

To be fair, this whole argument can be settled by common sense. Under maximum "nightmare" load, your PSU should never be stressed beyond 75% of its maximum output. Since most high end systems only use about 1/3 their max load at idle, and most computers run at idle or close to it for the majority of the time they're in operation, you can judge that way.

And Jonny, one thing I would ask is that I didn't understand this quote:

Lets be generous and say that 80% of the power is available on 12V giving an absolute max of 320W.

I'd say on any decent modern PSU, 90% of the total output capacity is on the 12V.

Just using the Corsair products as examples (since I'm most familiar with them):

VX450 - 88% on the +12V
VX550 - 89% on the +12V
HX520 - 92% on the +12V
HX620 - 96% on the +12V
TX650 - 96% on the +12V
TX750 - 96% on the +12V

Granted, that's max capacity, but any "400W" PSU with only 320W available on the +12V rail would only have what, 26A available on that rail? That's pretty low these days. Maybe 2-3 years ago that would be average, but I'd say it seems kind of low now.

I think you're right, though. You don't want to be near max capacity for any length of time, ideally you want to hit only 2/3 max capacity at any time, but 3/4 is acceptable for most people.

The problem gets into whether its more morally wrong to recommend a less expensive PSU with lower wattage, knowing it will fail in time and that it'll be louder and hotter, or to recommend a more expensive PSU with higher wattage, knowing that the guy won't need it really, but it'll have a longer lifespan, run cooler and quieter (in general).

I can't think of a situation right now for a desktop user where I'd recommend anything over 750W unless he had some kind of dual quad-core processor system with dual or triple video cards and a huge number of hard drives.

Like if somebody had an AMD Quadfather setup with HD 2900XTs in Crosssfire, all of it overclocked, and 16 hard drives, then yeah, I could see recommending 850W+ on the PSU to him.

It's a delicate balance, and nobody should be silly enough to think that just because their system is only drawing 350W they only need a 350W PSU, but on the other hand, nobody should recommend a 1000W PSU to somebody when a 450-550W PSU would do just as well for their system.

 

[jonnyGURU]

7900GT's in SLI consuming almost 300W and preventing two well known 400W units to fail to boot:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/513-skymtls-budget-psu-roundup.html

Burn baby burn!! Both the Nmedia and the SPI units failed to even boot with SLI enabled which right away points out their +12V output numbers are a complete lie. Well, not a lie, but a stretching of the truth. At least SPI admits on their label that the +12V rails combine for a MAX output of 348W but the sustained output is probably alot below that.

I think we can agree that at least the Sparkle 400W is something we would typically call a "decent" 400W.

Transient loads recorded by Oscope, but not by power meter at wall:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQxNSw3LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Fact of the matter is, none of the meters can record data fast enough to pick up transient loads. Even the best Fluke refreshes every 40ms.

Meters are often "tricked" by active power factor correction circuits (captured on video):

http://www.jonnyguru.net/forums/showpost.php?p=29345&postcount=8

http://www.jonnyguru.net/forums/showpost.php?p=29409&postcount=15

http://www.jonnyguru.net/forums/showpost.php?p=29520&postcount=21

http://www.jonnyguru.net/forums/showpost.php?p=30688&postcount=28

Test report showing how much hotter than ambient PSU components run; 23.7°C ambient vs. 40.1°C, 115V input vs. 230V input:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/images/MT8 Temp test.pdf

I don't know what else I can provide as proof that this is all non-sense other than my own experience with power supplies failing after long term usage under high loads/high temperatures (before I was a product manager I was a repair tech, lead tech support and RMA/RTV manager.)

Good luck. Hope not to have to say I told you so a year from now.

 

[RamonGTP]

Well I'll refresh your memory, you said
"but I hardly consider 260-280 watts at the upper most capability of a 400 watt PSU"
A 400w is being pushed very near its max output when consuming 260W and is even worse at 280W.

I have years of experience building and repairing PSU's.
Where did you get your experience, the Forums?

I'm done explaining to you, believe what you will, its your hardware.
But dont post BS that others might take as true or I will correct you.

The only BS I see is you running off at the mouth and twisting my words around. 260-280 watts from a good quality 400watt is not anywhere near it's maximum output. No one said 260-280 from the 12v rail alone which only you seem to be stuck on. I didn't say it, anand didn't say it, the only person assuming this is YOU. By YOU I mean not anyone else. I hope I'm clear now, I'm not sure how much simpler I can make it to understand.
My experience isn't from the forums, it's from personal experience.

My memory does not need to be refreshed because I know what I said. You on the other hand seem to think that the entire 260watts is being run purely off the 12v rail. Someone who has so much experience fixing PSU's should know that isn't the case.

Obviously if you're going to use a 420watt raidmax which is rated for absolute peak numbers, 260watts will be pushing it. Based on one of your previous post claiming a 22% loss in 6 months time, I can only assume you're experience is limited to crappy PSU's.

 

[Redbeard]

the entire 260watts is being run purely off the 12v rail.

In a modern system, between 80-85% of the power draw will be from the +12V rail.

 

[jonnyGURU]

I'd say on any decent modern PSU, 90% of the total output capacity is on the 12V.

Just using the Corsair products as examples (since I'm most familiar with them)....

Corsair is the exception, not the rule, with most of it's power being available on the +12V rail. Have a look around at some of the other brands and do the math. Just using RamonGTP's Enermax as an example, "only" 79% of it's total output is on the +12V (not that there's anything wrong with that. Just making a point.)

To Corsair's credit, you guys sell "620W" PSU's where others would be trying to sell a 650W or 700W.

It's a delicate balance, and nobody should be silly enough to think that just because their system is only drawing 350W they only need a 350W PSU, but on the other hand, nobody should recommend a 1000W PSU to somebody when a 450-550W PSU would do just as well for their system.

No argument there. I myself have suggested only 550W for 8800GT SLI, or even GTX SLI in a single proc platform. But these notions of suggesting a 400W PSU for G80 cards or SLI is just silly.

Another thing to acknowledge is that some power supplies simply aren't available in lower wattage simply because there's no cost savings in doing so. Are you going to turn your nose up at Joe Blow brand 600W because you only need 450W? Why isn't there a Corsair 350W? There was never an Ultra X-Pro/X3 500W because the BOM cost was only $3 less than the 600W. I could go on and on really.

In a modern system, between 80-85% of the power draw will be from the +12V rail.

eehh... That might be a little high. Maybe for an SLI machine. Agreed?

 

[jonnyGURU]

I was also going to bring up the point again about de-rating curve and use the very "decent" Noisetaker PSU as an example, but couldn't find at what temperature Enermax rates the unit at or what the de-rating curve. I did notice that the operating temperature is only 10 to 40°C and that MTBF is only performed at 70% load with 230V input (lower current) at no specified temperature.

Not to pick on Enermax. My first "real" PSU was an Enermax back in 1999 or so. But to make the point that you don't always know what you're getting when it comes to continuous output capability at actual operating temperature.

 

[Redbeard]

eehh... That might be a little high. Maybe for an SLI machine. Agreed?

Yeah, maybe not SLI but definitely a machine with top-level gaming card. Even a machine with a single 8800GT will probably have most of its power requirements on the +12V.

Hell, say it this way. If your video card doesn't require a separate PCI-E power connector, you will almost never need more than 450W of power.

All of us PSU manufacturer's have nVidia and ATI to thank for the the 6800 Ultra and the ATI 9800 Pro. Without these, most people would still be using whatever came with their cases! (if the capacitors didn't leak everywhere and blow everything to bits)

 

[Jiggaman2576]

I can attest to PSU's needing to be bigger then what Anantech is stating here. I tried to run my rig with a OCZ 700 and it wouldn't power up for more then a few seconds. Had to use 2 PSU's to power it a 700 and a 600. I decided it was time to upgrade. So now I power this:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AndrewJamesStudios/ComputerMods/photo#5048081460122577858

With this:
[IMGhttp://www.ultraproducts.com/images/skuimages/ULT40070/ULT40070_LR_6.jpg[/IMG]

All is wonderful and I don't think I will ever have another PSU issue again! (I guess you cannot link pictures directly from google )

Also the pics of my PC are WAY out of date, but I haven't taken new ones yet so what can I do.

 

[wjogert]

DEAR LORD!! Like that system exemplifies the "average" user!!
(which IS what we started out debating...)

Impressive rig, though. Awesome pics. Especially liked the chicas.

 

[[Spectre]]

I can attest to PSU's needing to be bigger then what Anantech is stating here. I tried to run my rig with a OCZ 700 and it wouldn't power up for more then a few seconds. Had to use 2 PSU's to power it a 700 and a 600. I decided it was time to upgrade. So now I power this:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AndrewJamesStudios/ComputerMods/photo#5048081460122577858

With this:
[IMGhttp://www.ultraproducts.com/images/skuimages/ULT40070/ULT40070_LR_6.jpg[/IMG]

All is wonderful and I don't think I will ever have another PSU issue again! (I guess you cannot link pictures directly from google )

Also the pics of my PC are WAY out of date, but I haven't taken new ones yet so what can I do.

Or from Ultra you have to host them yourself.

 

[CRXican]

I guess I should send my HX620 back for the 520 to save some money. I'm only running a E6750, 8800GT, and two hard drives. I always seem to buy more than I need.

 

[RamonGTP]

In a modern system, between 80-85% of the power draw will be from the +12V rail.

And in a modern good quality PSU, between 80-85% of the total power will be dedicated to the 12v rail.

I will agree that a 400watter, even a good quality one is not enough if you're going SLI or CF