Is a 650 watt PS enough?

[ESQ]

I'm building a setup for my son--probably used for gaming. I have a new gigabyte board (sata 3 and usb 3) and an amd phenon 2 x4 965 chip. I'd like to do cross-fire with 5750?? or greater?

My question is will the Antec TruePower 650 PS on sale at Fry's for $80 be enough?

http://adv.ocregister.com/interactive-ads/ocr/images/pdf/20100122093956.pdf

I plan on only one hd and one dvd drive. I'll be using the Antec skeleton open-air case.

You guys have convinced me not to go cheap on the ps, but I can't believe that the 650 isn't enough.

I called Antec and they said the 650 would not be enough if I cross-fire.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[cubeless]

how can a 650 watt 'premium' psu not power that rig, even with 2 5750's (which are pretty low power cards)??? will always ask why go xfire with slower cards instead of just buying 1 faster card on a new build, but that is a different issue...

 

[Farfrumhumpn]

I ran an EA650 to power a PII 720 unlocked to quad and OC'd to 3.6 ghz, 2x HD 4850's in xFire, 4x 2gb DDRII-800, 2x 500gb HD's and about 7 fans all without an issue so I'm pretty sure you'll be fine with a TP650

As far as the HD 5750's go, wait 3 days for the HD 5830.

 

[ExcaliburMM]

The PSU will be fine. Antec told you it wouldn't be because they want you to buy a more expensive model. Manufacturers and their employees just want your money.

 

[ESQ]

Thanks. I thought that should work fine especially with the Antec skeleton case--only has two fans (big and HDD one). Antec does not recommend a bigger/better cpu fan because of the open design and tall fans hit the bottom of the big fan. So I see little additional power needs beyond the minimal.

Thanks again.

 

[ESQ]

I ran an EA650 to power a PII 720 unlocked to quad and OC'd to 3.6 ghz, 2x HD 4850's in xFire, 4x 2gb DDRII-800, 2x 500gb HD's and about 7 fans all without an issue so I'm pretty sure you'll be fine with a TP650

As far as the HD 5750's go, wait 3 days for the HD 5830.

I asked this in a different forum (video cards), but would it be better to run one 5830 in the 16x slot or have two slower cards (5750s) but because one is in the 8x, both are reduced to 8x, whereas the single 5830 will run at 16x?

I can always buy another 5830 next year when prices go down.

 

[TemjinGold]

General rule: If one faster card is around the same performance as two slower cards, it is ALWAYS better to get the one faster card.

 

[theAnimal]

I asked this in a different forum (video cards), but would it be better to run one 5830 in the 16x slot or have two slower cards (5750s) but because one is in the 8x, both are reduced to 8x, whereas the single 5830 will run at 16x?

I can always buy another 5830 next year when prices go down.

The 8x only makes a few % difference in performance.

 

[Udgnim]

just to give you a rough reference

my system is an E8500 @ 4.01 Ghz, Gigabyte EP45-UD3P mobo, 4870 512 @ stock, 4 GB DDR2 RAM, 1 VR 300, 1 Hitachi HDD 160, 1 DVD Burner, 4 fans

Silverstone Olympia 650 is the PSU

when running the Crysis benchmark, my Kill-A-Watt meter is reporting a load of 280ish watts. no idea how accurate a Kill-A-Watt meter is but a 650W PSU should be plenty of power for the setup you're proposing.

 

[Grim281]

I have a I7 920 oc'd 3.8, a 4870 oc'd ( dont remember the speeds ), 4 fans, 2 640gb hd's, a blu-ray combo drive, an intel ssd, 2 monitors ( one 22in, one 19in ) 2 routers and my verizon femtocell hooked into my ups and the max load I have ever seen is about 350-375 watts. Needless to say, I will be using my ocz 700 watt psu for some time to come.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I recently ran the Furmark GPU stress tester while prime95 blend was running on rig 2 in my sig and I was pulling ~430w

 

[cbn]

I'm building a setup for my son--probably used for gaming. I have a new gigabyte board (sata 3 and usb 3) and an amd phenon 2 x4 965 chip. I'd like to do cross-fire with 5750?? or greater?

My question is will the Antec TruePower 650 PS on sale at Fry's for $80 be enough?

http://adv.ocregister.com/interactive-ads/ocr/images/pdf/20100122093956.pdf

I plan on only one hd and one dvd drive. I'll be using the Antec skeleton open-air case.

You guys have convinced me not to go cheap on the ps, but I can't believe that the 650 isn't enough.

I called Antec and they said the 650 would not be enough if I cross-fire.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

That PSU should easily handle two Hd5750s and a 125 watt CPU.

 

[DarkColonel]

I have that same exact PSU that you want to buy.

It is currently running the hardware in my signature. I'm positive I could throw in a 5870, max out my 860 and still have enough juice. I'm also running 3 Seagate Hard drives (1TB 7200.12, 2x500GB 7200.11).

You won't have to worry about any power issues.

As for the video card, I would actually recommend getting something like a 5770 which is much better than the 5750.

 

[Udgnim]

That PSU should easily handle two Hd5750s and a 125 watt CPU.

yup good enough for 5850 Crossfire

 

[Jimbo]

A 650 should allow you to do some staggering things in your computer.

I'm running a Sesonic 330W to power an overclocked Q6600 and a few very fast WD black drives along with a DVD-RW and a card reader with an ATI 5870 video card.
It's very stable, does not get hot, and the fan is not running at anything close to 100%.

Many years ago Intel and the PC industry brought to light the problems of cheap and under powered supplies. Unfortunately the power supply industry seized on that earlier legitimate concern and used it to sell the public power supplies that are now much larger than they will ever need. If you have a quality power supply, you can comfortable be very conservative in your power supply selection and not waste money.

If you have the time, grab the Seasonic 380 Watt PS (S12II 380B 380W) for $52 at the 'egg. Try it out and you will see you need much less of a power supply than you think in the real world. If you don't like it you can send it back and get a bigger one.
But I bet if you do that, you will find it has all the power you need.

 

[CraigRT]

A 650 should allow you to do some staggering things in your computer.

I'm running a Sesonic 330W to power an overclocked Q6600 and a few very fast WD black drives along with a DVD-RW and a card reader with an ATI 5870 video card.
It's very stable, does not get hot, and the fan is not running at anything close to 100%.

Many years ago Intel and the PC industry brought to light the problems of cheap and under powered supplies. Unfortunately the power supply industry seized on that earlier legitimate concern and used it to sell the public power supplies that are now much larger than they will ever need. If you have a quality power supply, you can comfortable be very conservative in your power supply selection and not waste money.

If you have the time, grab the Seasonic 380 Watt PS (S12II 380B 380W) for $52 at the 'egg. Try it out and you will see you need much less of a power supply than you think in the real world. If you don't like it you can send it back and get a bigger one.
But I bet if you do that, you will find it has all the power you need.

I agree with you almost entirely, except I probably would go more than 3xx watts... I know my 600 is overkill, but I wanted it to last, and its doing just fine after a few years and my new upgrade! Seasonic PSUs are awesome.

 

[RXD]

Is a 650 watt power supply enough for 2 XFX 9600 GT XXX Alpha dog edition graphics cards? IM building a new computer and im also gonna have 4 gigs of ram, a e8400 cpu, and a xfx 680i sli lt mobo.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Is a 650 watt power supply enough for 2 XFX 9600 GT XXX Alpha dog edition graphics cards? IM building a new computer and im also gonna have 4 gigs of ram, a e8400 cpu, and a xfx 680i sli lt mobo.

As long as its not some piece of crap overrated power supply, yes, easily.

 

[taltamir]

A 650 should allow you to do some staggering things in your computer.

I'm running a Sesonic 330W to power an overclocked Q6600 and a few very fast WD black drives along with a DVD-RW and a card reader with an ATI 5870 video card.
It's very stable, does not get hot, and the fan is not running at anything close to 100%.

A powerful video card takes ~180 watts +/-140 watts by ITSELF on load (the powerful ones take relatively a lot); your CPU can take 100watts +/- 50watts.

A normal 7200rpm HDD takes 5 watt +/- 2 watts on load and 2 on idle. likewise, your DVDRW does not take significant amount of power.

All those +/- depend on model.

Running multiple GPUs DOES take significant power. And remember, you do not want to max out your PSU, even if it can deliver the advertised values (many crap PSUs deliver less than half, but good companies are honest about their PSU power)

A 500 watt crap PSU is actually a 250watt PSU advertised as 500 watt... put in a 95 watt intel CPU and 100 watt video card and it will work; put in a higher end video card and it will not work. This why people say to get a quality brand name PSU.

you need to look up serious review sites like anandtech to find out what the real power consumption of your video cards and CPU are, add 50 watts, and get a PSU that has been tested (by reviewers) to be able to deliver that much... and then some (20% above what you actually need). note that going a lot above what you need (say, 50% over) will murder your efficiency and increase electricity costs and heat generation.

 

[deimos3428]

Yes. The TPN-650 is an excellent PSU that will handle your CF configuration.

If you look at it's 80plus sheet, you'll see the efficiency curve of this PSU peaks just below 50% . Ideally, you'd pair this PSU with a system pulling 300-325W under normal use to be maximally efficient. Looks like you're pretty close to that figure, but you've got a lot of headroom as well with 650W.

Jonnyguru reviewed its big brother here, but none of his minor "cons" were performance-based:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=140