![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
athenian200
Gawd
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2012
- Messages
- 837
Read only the bold text if you don't want to be bored with details that aren't directly related to my PSU question.
Well, I've found myself in a really interesting situation, due to trying to save money and always finding that the results weren't satisfactory after the fact.
I started out with an overclocked Q6600 with a P5N-E SLI, and an EVGA 8800 GTS w/320MB. I wanted to play games like Assassin's Creed Revelations and Minecraft on a 1920x1200 monitor, not really expecting to play high-end titles like Oblivion or Skyrim. Since it was already a quad-core, I thought I could get away with just a graphics card upgrade.
I wanted to avoid a PSU upgrade (I only had a 550W Unit of generic origin), so I went with a 2GB 560 Ti (MSI Twin Frozr II) hoping the PSU would be able to take it since that was 50 watts over what nVidia set as a minimum requirement. It didn't work out... I got constant restarts every time I pushed the card even a little, and ended up buying an Antec Earthwatts EA-650, which has served me pretty well so far.
After that, the 560 Ti did perform a little better than my old 8800 GTS, but I found over time that the system was no longer stable with the 3.0GHz overclock I had somehow managed on the Q6600 up to that point. So I had to revert to the stock speed of 2.4GHz, and that made the performance drop back almost to where it was before the upgrade, so that it was only a 20% improvement over the old card.
I was unhappy with how my CPU was limiting my performance, so I decided to upgrade my motherboard, CPU, and RAM as well. I got a 2600k, an ASUS Maximus IV Extreme (overkill because I wasn't planning to overclock my 2600k for a year or two, but I was pissed off at how my previous motherboard had limited my overclocking headroom due to lousy power regulators or something.), and some RAM. I installed all this in my old case, since it had mounting holes for EATX motherboards, though it was a really tight fit.
I could not get the stock fan mounted properly at all, and the CPU kept overheating/shutting down. I panicked about frying my new expensive components, and took the machine in to have it professionally assembled the rest of the way, which really just meant hooking up the Power button and installing a better fan at that point, since it was already half-done. Paid about $70 for this.
When I got it home, it worked fine, though the 2600k runs at 46C idle with the side ON the case, and 35C idle with the side OFF the case, making me wish I'd gotten something with better airflow instead of using my old one. Because of this, I really don't feel comfortable overclocking it.
Anyway, my performance in non-gaming applications is now so amazing that my CPU usage on Task Manager now says 0% most of the time.
But the extra performance on my 560 Ti is somewhat lackluster in games, only about 10% more than I was getting with my old CPU. It is stable now, however. But I can't help but want a little more after all I paid. To add insult to injury, I looked over some benchmarks and found that I could have avoided a lot of this if I had simply upgraded my PSU to something decent in the first place, and purchased a second 8800 GTS to run in SLI. I would have gotten better performance doing that, than replacing that 8800 GTS with a single 560 Ti.
So now, I'm thinking of purchasing a second 560Ti of the same model to run in SLI, and I'm once again wondering if my Antec Earthwatts EA-650 will be sufficient for this. After all, I picked out my current one planning to run a single 560Ti on a Q6600 system. I have no idea if it could handle two of them in SLI on a 2600k system.
Also, I have so many old components discarded that I have almost enough to make a whole other machine, all I need is a case and PSU. So I got an Antec Nine Hundred Two for really cheap because it was scuffed on the outside or something, to rebuild my old computer in (I feel like I can do that, because I don't really care as much if I screw it up, it's WAY less money at stake). And I can get that second 8800 GTS fairly cheap on eBay. So I'm thinking of swapping the Earthwatts unit over to the old computer I'm rebuilding, if it doesn't prove sufficient for running the two 560 Ti's in SLI.
So, what kind of power supply do I need in order to run SLI on each of these systems? I've never run SLI before, and I have no idea what to expect. Plus, my computer being unstable due to me overtaxing a PSU is still fresh in my mind, so I don't know what to trust.
Well, I've found myself in a really interesting situation, due to trying to save money and always finding that the results weren't satisfactory after the fact.
I started out with an overclocked Q6600 with a P5N-E SLI, and an EVGA 8800 GTS w/320MB. I wanted to play games like Assassin's Creed Revelations and Minecraft on a 1920x1200 monitor, not really expecting to play high-end titles like Oblivion or Skyrim. Since it was already a quad-core, I thought I could get away with just a graphics card upgrade.
I wanted to avoid a PSU upgrade (I only had a 550W Unit of generic origin), so I went with a 2GB 560 Ti (MSI Twin Frozr II) hoping the PSU would be able to take it since that was 50 watts over what nVidia set as a minimum requirement. It didn't work out... I got constant restarts every time I pushed the card even a little, and ended up buying an Antec Earthwatts EA-650, which has served me pretty well so far.
After that, the 560 Ti did perform a little better than my old 8800 GTS, but I found over time that the system was no longer stable with the 3.0GHz overclock I had somehow managed on the Q6600 up to that point. So I had to revert to the stock speed of 2.4GHz, and that made the performance drop back almost to where it was before the upgrade, so that it was only a 20% improvement over the old card.
I was unhappy with how my CPU was limiting my performance, so I decided to upgrade my motherboard, CPU, and RAM as well. I got a 2600k, an ASUS Maximus IV Extreme (overkill because I wasn't planning to overclock my 2600k for a year or two, but I was pissed off at how my previous motherboard had limited my overclocking headroom due to lousy power regulators or something.), and some RAM. I installed all this in my old case, since it had mounting holes for EATX motherboards, though it was a really tight fit.
I could not get the stock fan mounted properly at all, and the CPU kept overheating/shutting down. I panicked about frying my new expensive components, and took the machine in to have it professionally assembled the rest of the way, which really just meant hooking up the Power button and installing a better fan at that point, since it was already half-done. Paid about $70 for this.
When I got it home, it worked fine, though the 2600k runs at 46C idle with the side ON the case, and 35C idle with the side OFF the case, making me wish I'd gotten something with better airflow instead of using my old one. Because of this, I really don't feel comfortable overclocking it.
Anyway, my performance in non-gaming applications is now so amazing that my CPU usage on Task Manager now says 0% most of the time.
But the extra performance on my 560 Ti is somewhat lackluster in games, only about 10% more than I was getting with my old CPU. It is stable now, however. But I can't help but want a little more after all I paid. To add insult to injury, I looked over some benchmarks and found that I could have avoided a lot of this if I had simply upgraded my PSU to something decent in the first place, and purchased a second 8800 GTS to run in SLI. I would have gotten better performance doing that, than replacing that 8800 GTS with a single 560 Ti.
So now, I'm thinking of purchasing a second 560Ti of the same model to run in SLI, and I'm once again wondering if my Antec Earthwatts EA-650 will be sufficient for this. After all, I picked out my current one planning to run a single 560Ti on a Q6600 system. I have no idea if it could handle two of them in SLI on a 2600k system.
Also, I have so many old components discarded that I have almost enough to make a whole other machine, all I need is a case and PSU. So I got an Antec Nine Hundred Two for really cheap because it was scuffed on the outside or something, to rebuild my old computer in (I feel like I can do that, because I don't really care as much if I screw it up, it's WAY less money at stake). And I can get that second 8800 GTS fairly cheap on eBay. So I'm thinking of swapping the Earthwatts unit over to the old computer I'm rebuilding, if it doesn't prove sufficient for running the two 560 Ti's in SLI.
So, what kind of power supply do I need in order to run SLI on each of these systems? I've never run SLI before, and I have no idea what to expect. Plus, my computer being unstable due to me overtaxing a PSU is still fresh in my mind, so I don't know what to trust.
