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Would an 850w Cut it?

K

KleeziE

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 7, 2009
Messages
210
Hello all,

First time poster here but I have been reading these forums over the past year and I have come to value most your opinions on tech. What I am looking to do this year is build an i7 setup on a miniATX setup and wanted to ask your opinions about getting a PSU that will do me good but not having me eat top ramen:p

Here is my desired rig that I will be putting together piece by piece:

-Antec p180 mini white (gonna paint it up and make it look betta:) )
-i7 920 hopefully OC'd to 3.8 or 4ghz (im not too picky as long as it can hang:) )
-DFI's Lan Party JR or ASUS's Rampage II gene
-6GB of Gskill 1600
-1 WD sata HD to start out with and maybe another down the road for a raid
-Either a EVGA GTX260 or GTX285 (havnt decided, kinda waiting on a good deal to sway me)
-I have a 26in LG LCD so my resolution would be at 1920x1600

I guess what my question boils down to is I was wondering how much power I will really need for a setup like this. I know I am looking at a 850w or 1000w power supply but I was wondering if I really needed 1k watts. I know it really depends on what my gpu setup is going to be and if I would want SLI in the future. I was wondering if I 850 would be enough to sun SLI in this type of setup with an i7 OC'd. Also ... not sure if I really need SLI with the current games out right now but I guess I like to buy stuff that is easily upgradable in the future (ie...adding SLI without having to buy a new PSU).

Thank you for any advice or experience you can share with me so I can figure out the last piece of the puzzle.

Cheers!
 
I ran you're setup through a bunch of PSU Calculators with an OC'ed 920, 2 7200RPM HDD's and 4 120mm fans and the most it would spit out was 450W.

Pick up a nice 650W Corsair/PCP&C/Seasonic and call it a day. 850W is not needed at all, not to mention 1kW.
 
criccio said:
I ran you're setup through a bunch of PSU Calculators with an OC'ed 920, 2 7200RPM HDD's and 4 120mm fans and the most it would spit out was 450W.

Pick up a nice 650W Corsair/PCP&C/Seasonic and call it a day. 850W is not needed at all, not to mention 1kW.
Click to expand...

d50man said:
A quality 650 will run it no problem.
Click to expand...

Agreed. A 650w PSU would suffice. But since you are going with a smaller case, I would get a modular PSU for less cable clutter. Something like the Corsair HX620 ($100after $30 MIR) or the Silversone DA650 which is $120 after $30 MIR. A good 550 watt would even work, but a 650w would leave room to add more components :D
 
450 seems a bit low for (2) 260s or (2) 285s .... i mean just in case I want to run SLI next year when I can pick up a second card for 100 or less bux.

Not saying your wrong just curious of those PSU calcs you are using cause I tried using Antec's PSU calc and maxing out everything with a SLI setup seemed to push me quite close to the 850 limit and I didnt know if that meant I should step it up a bit or not.

I appreciate your replies though.

PS: I was reading comments on some of the PSUs I was looking at like the Corsair 850w and they were saying that a single 12v rail was important for high end graphics. Should I be that concerned with the rails or not really?
 
If you spend a little time in this forum, mainly the video card section you will find out that planning to go SLI later down the line is a horrible idea, especially a whole year later. By then a single card solution will be much more powerful then both of you're year old cards.

BTW, you never said anything about SLI in you're OP.
 
Dont look too far into the 12v rails. Most high end PSU's have more than 1 12v rail these days anyhow. PCP&C is one of the few that uses a single rail design , but it is not necessary. And a fully loaded quad core with a GTX 285 wont load over 400w (total system power), so like I said, a good 550w PSU that is 80%+ efficient would work.
Those PSU calculators are bogus too, they always recommend way too high. For 285's in SLI, total system load would be around 550 w, so a good 750w PSU would make do or 850w if you plan to add more. I used to have an Ultra X3 800 which is an awesome PSU and fully modular. It goes for $160 at Tiger Direct and the 850w version is $170 (shipping is only $1.99 and no tax :D).
 
KleeziE said:
I was wondering if I 850 would be enough to sun SLI in this type of setup with an i7 OC'd. Also ... not sure if I really need SLI with the current games out right now but I guess I like to buy stuff that is easily upgradable in the future (ie...adding SLI without having to buy a new PSU).
Click to expand...

I tried to mention the SLI idea but I guess I worded it poorly. Anyhoo thanks for all of the advice you guys and I will tone down my thoughts on the amount of wattage I will need. I guess the higher wattage PSUs are for water cooled and big raid setups for a computer then. Ya'll probably saved me 50-100 bux:D
 
Welcome to the [H], KleeziE!

Corsair HX520W will power your whole rig no problem.

With PSUs, always go with well-known brands, such as Corsair, SeaSonic, PCP&C, BFG, Antec (only some - check at PSU forum), and a few others. There are huge amounts of junk PSUs with bad specs on the market - some can even kill your hardware very quickly - apevia, aspire to name a few.

Check on this website for PSU reviews: http://jonnyguru.com
 
AVT said:
Corsair HX520W will power your whole rig no problem.
Click to expand...
Maybe with a single video card, but it would be pushing it a little. And forget about going SLI.

I would personally suggest something that is at least 650-700W if you want the ability to go with an SLI or Crossfire setup in the future.
 
Ya i think I will go with a 700 watt for breathing room.

I am looking at this OCZ OCZ700MXSP 700W it has fairly decent reviews on it 4 eggs and most of the people are knocking it down 1 egg because of cable length which shouldnt be a problem for me since I am going with such a small form factor/case. I have liked OCZ's ram a bunch and I guess I hope they carry over that reliability to their PSU and well... newegg has a good combo for the 6gb ocz kit and this PSU so I hope it is a smart idea.
 
KleeziE said:
Ya i think I will go with a 700 watt for breathing room.

I am looking at this OCZ OCZ700MXSP 700W it has fairly decent reviews on it 4 eggs and most of the people are knocking it down 1 egg because of cable length which shouldnt be a problem for me since I am going with such a small form factor/case. I have liked OCZ's ram a bunch and I guess I hope they carry over that reliability to their PSU and well... newegg has a good combo for the 6gb ocz kit and this PSU so I hope it is a smart idea.
Click to expand...

Seems too cheap for a quality 700W model. I'd check some reputable reviews before buying. Newegg user reviews are pretty useless, even Apevia PSUs get 4 stars there.

I can't speak for OCZ's quality off-hand though, as they recently merged with PCP&C and their quality may have gone up since then.
 
KleeziE said:
Ya i think I will go with a 700 watt for breathing room.

I am looking at this OCZ OCZ700MXSP 700W it has fairly decent reviews on it 4 eggs and most of the people are knocking it down 1 egg because of cable length which shouldnt be a problem for me since I am going with such a small form factor/case. I have liked OCZ's ram a bunch and I guess I hope they carry over that reliability to their PSU and well... newegg has a good combo for the 6gb ocz kit and this PSU so I hope it is a smart idea.
Click to expand...
Don't get that PSU: http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU2Niw5LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
 
Ahh thanks for the look out on that one:)

I get blinded by prices sometimes when I shouldnt. I think i might go with the PC P&C 750 they recommend. Its not modular but from pics of the mini p180 it has many areas to hide the extra cables.
 
lollerskater69 said:
If you need some power, the Corsair TX850 can power tri sli setups with ease.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately my mATX board doesnt do triSLI thanks though for the suggestion.

...

I really like that red PC P&C, I think it will go well with the color scheme I am going for in my p180mini. Once again thanks for the suggestions all!
 
for real a nice 650 "corsair" would be fine get something a little bigger if you think u might want to drag it over after a while into a new build that how i do it
 
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