newegg psu calc

[amdfansftw]

here is the link to it. it says i need a 500W psu but i was just checkin to see what you guys think... also what psu do i get i am leaning towards the fsp ax500 or the ENERMAX Noisetaker anyways i won't ramble on anymore except to say the reason i need one yesterday. my computer started smelling like burnt plastic. but was running just fine. so i turned it off and it was coming from the psu. don't know what happened but i cleaned everything up and it's now sitting on the table not in use.

 

[HOOfan 1]

1) I don't think the newegg calculator is that great

2) If you want our opnion about what PSU you need, we need to know what you are trying to power with it.

 

[amdfansftw]

ok i have two raptor 36GB drives
939 system with 2 gigs of ram and an fx-55
7950GT

 

[MarcVenice]

qaulity 400w PSU will easily suffice. Depending on your upgrade schedule you might want to go for a 450/500w PSU that can be reused for years to come.

If I were you I'd try to get my hands on a cheap antec earthwatts 430/500w, that can be reused for a qaudcore/highend videocard rig and should last several years. Or get a corsair 450vx. And shop around, try clubit.com for example, they might have some really good PSU deals.

 

[Zap]

IMO no PSU calculator can be anywhere near accurate.

The reason is that a 400W PSU is not the same as a 400W PSU, which is not the same as a 400W PSU or a 400W PSU.

WTF?

Okay, lemme explain.

Let's say you have four 400W PSUs (just for simplicity).

#1 is a unit capable of putting out combined and sustained 24A on +12v at 50ºC. It is rated at 400W.

#2 is a unit capable of putting out combined and sustained 30A on +12v at 50ºC. It is rated at 400W.

#3 is a unit capable of putting out combined and sustained 30A on +12v at 25ºC. It is rated at 400W.

#4 is a cheap unit with a label that claims 400W output.

Do all four PSUs put out the same power? Yes (maybe). Can all four run YOUR heavily loaded system? Some can and some cannot.

#1 may be better off running an older system that doesn't rely as much on +12v.

#2 is suitable for a modern system that is +12v heavy.

#3 should be considered more of a 300W (or so) unit, because of something called "de-rating." The thing is that in actual use, a PSU runs closer to 50ºC. The output of a PSU drops as it heats up, therefore one rated at 400W at 25ºC will be putting out much less inside a real system due to higher temperatures than at which it was rated.

#4... who knows how much power it can really put out. On super low end units with random "brands" sometimes the label has numbers pulled out of a hat.

If an online PSU calculator says you need 400W of power, which one is it talking about?

 

[amdfansftw]

well i was more than likely gonna get an earthwatt 430 can they really handle lets say a q6600 with 4gigs of ram and an 8800 with a raid 0 raptor array? lets say that's my upgrade path what psu would you recommend?

 

[Zap]

It probably can, but maybe go for an EA500 instead.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

hmm dont think that calculator is accurate at all!

says i need 720 watts for my system in signature haha

 

[mpilchfamily]

Wow everyone is coming out with a PSU calc now. Many of these might as well be a random number gernerator for all the good they do.

 

[amdfansftw]

yeah that's what i've come to the conclusion of. how do you really know what a raptor draws and such? is there some kinda chart for watts used that someone has done?

 

[GhettoBlaster]

The calc worries me a little. Says I need 474w, I have a 500 watt Antec Truepower. It now has me worried that it's my PSU giving me issues and not my mobo. I also have a Haupaugge TV Card not figured into the calc. Maybe I am cutting it way too close?

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
qaulity 400w PSU will easily suffice. Depending on your upgrade schedule you might want to go for a 450/500w PSU that can be reused for years to come.

If I were you I'd try to get my hands on a cheap antec earthwatts 430/500w, that can be reused for a qaudcore/highend videocard rig and should last several years. Or get a corsair 450vx. And shop around, try clubit.com for example, they might have some really good PSU deals.

I'm not so sure about getting an Antec PSU, I have had two die on me, and I know others on this board have as well. PC Power & Cooling are generally considered the best, but they also cost an arm and a leg. I heard good things about OCZ, but I haven't tried them out.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: GhettoBlaster
The calc worries me a little. Says I need 474w, I have a 500 watt Antec Truepower. It now has me worried that it's my PSU giving me issues and not my mobo. I also have a Haupaugge TV Card not figured into the calc. Maybe I am cutting it way too close?

I had issues getting all my drives to work on an old computer, and I thought it was the MB. (Drives would randomly just "disappear" from one boot to the next) It turned out to be my Antec Trupower 450W PSU. It let me know by giving out a nice black puff of smoke. Like an idiot I bought another Antec PSU for my next build and it died too. I will never buy another Antec PSU, although I will probably still buy their cases (I love the P180).

 

[mpilchfamily]

Originally posted by: amdfansftw
yeah that's what i've come to the conclusion of. how do you really know what a raptor draws and such? is there some kinda chart for watts used that someone has done?

Well many items do state the amount of power they draw. Usually drives don't pull more then 2A and thats peak load and only happens for a split second at startup. In the end these calcs vastly over estimate the power needed. They certainly don't want you to come back complaining about there recommendation blowing up on you because it was under powered.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: amdfansftw
yeah that's what i've come to the conclusion of. how do you really know what a raptor draws and such? is there some kinda chart for watts used that someone has done?

The manufacturers usually divulge that information. Don't know about Raptors, but typical 7200RPM desktop drives can peak at 15W on spinup, and usually operates around 7-10W. The thing is... which voltage rail do drives pull power from? I think it is mostly +12v with a bit of +5v, but am not 100% sure.

 

[aussiestilgar]

You can't go wrong with any of Corsair's lineup, they are high quality PSUs. For your setup a 450 vx would more than suffice.

 

[GhettoBlaster]

Originally posted by: Martimus

Originally posted by: GhettoBlaster
The calc worries me a little. Says I need 474w, I have a 500 watt Antec Truepower. It now has me worried that it's my PSU giving me issues and not my mobo. I also have a Haupaugge TV Card not figured into the calc. Maybe I am cutting it way too close?

I had issues getting all my drives to work on an old computer, and I thought it was the MB. (Drives would randomly just "disappear" from one boot to the next) It turned out to be my Antec Trupower 450W PSU. It let me know by giving out a nice black puff of smoke. Like an idiot I bought another Antec PSU for my next build and it died too. I will never buy another Antec PSU, although I will probably still buy their cases (I love the P180).

My mobo is out of warranty, maybe it is indeed the PSU. I think I will go buy one and just return it if the system still does not power on. Epox will charge $50 to look at my board and I am not even 100% that it's the board. I am almost ready to just buy some enclosures for the harddrives and sell off the other working part and get a good laptop.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: GhettoBlaster

Originally posted by: Martimus

Originally posted by: GhettoBlaster
The calc worries me a little. Says I need 474w, I have a 500 watt Antec Truepower. It now has me worried that it's my PSU giving me issues and not my mobo. I also have a Haupaugge TV Card not figured into the calc. Maybe I am cutting it way too close?

I had issues getting all my drives to work on an old computer, and I thought it was the MB. (Drives would randomly just "disappear" from one boot to the next) It turned out to be my Antec Trupower 450W PSU. It let me know by giving out a nice black puff of smoke. Like an idiot I bought another Antec PSU for my next build and it died too. I will never buy another Antec PSU, although I will probably still buy their cases (I love the P180).

My mobo is out of warranty, maybe it is indeed the PSU. I think I will go buy one and just return it if the system still does not power on. Epox will charge $50 to look at my board and I am not even 100% that it's the board. I am almost ready to just buy some enclosures for the harddrives and sell off the other working part and get a good laptop.

A bad power supply can destroy the components within the system as well. Constantly supplying too much, or too little power will kill the MB over time. Hopefully that isn't what happened though. After my "black smoke" failure, I now realize that the PSU is the most important component in the whole system. That one incident destroyed my MB, RAM, Processor, and GPU (And one of my HDD's). It was an expensive lesson to have.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I would say it's extremely inaccurate.

For example. Every time you add 1 more 7200rpm hard drive, they recommend 39 more watts.
That is more than a 100% overestimate.
Even most 15K RPM drives use less than 20 watts with intense use ...
7200RPM drives use usually 10-15 watts or less. (each)


For my X2 System, newegg's calculator recommends 573W of power.
I currently use a 4 or 5 year old Enermax 435 watt power supply with no issues.
I also have in the past had more hard drives in the system than I do now (right now 5 drives, at one time I had 8)
I also OC (though only a little bit)

 

[aka1nas]

The calc wouldn't let me go past 2GB RAM or spec out different speeds of HDs at the same time, but what I could input of my system came out to 850 watts. :laugh:


I don't break 500watts from the wall under full load overclocked with 8GBs of RAM and 4 hard drives.

 

[Aluvus]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: amdfansftw
yeah that's what i've come to the conclusion of. how do you really know what a raptor draws and such? is there some kinda chart for watts used that someone has done?

The manufacturers usually divulge that information. Don't know about Raptors, but typical 7200RPM desktop drives can peak at 15W on spinup, and usually operates around 7-10W. The thing is... which voltage rail do drives pull power from? I think it is mostly +12v with a bit of +5v, but am not 100% sure.

Western Digital indicates that the power drawn by the 150 GB Raptor from the two rails is about equal. Other drives will vary. Most manufacturers are reasonably good about making this information available.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: Martimus

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
qaulity 400w PSU will easily suffice. Depending on your upgrade schedule you might want to go for a 450/500w PSU that can be reused for years to come.

If I were you I'd try to get my hands on a cheap antec earthwatts 430/500w, that can be reused for a qaudcore/highend videocard rig and should last several years. Or get a corsair 450vx. And shop around, try clubit.com for example, they might have some really good PSU deals.

I'm not so sure about getting an Antec PSU, I have had two die on me, and I know others on this board have as well. PC Power & Cooling are generally considered the best, but they also cost an arm and a leg. I heard good things about OCZ, but I haven't tried them out.

Those were the old Antec TP and SP lines which had a ton of problems, something to do with bad caps IIRC. The new Antec Earthwatts, NeoHE, and TPT are made by seasonic. Their current SP's are made by channelwell I think...

Eitherway I see a TON of praise for the Earthwatts 500. Many seem to think they are the best cheap PSU, epsecially since you can get them for ~$30 AR. Yes, one of the Seasonic built corsairs, PCP&P or a Seasonic itself would be even better but for the price it looks like nothing touches the Earthwatts 500.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Zap
The thing is... which voltage rail do drives pull power from? I think it is mostly +12v with a bit of +5v, but am not 100% sure.

All hard drives use power the same way. The electronics uses 5v power, and the spindle motor uses 12v.

 

[buckeye83]

This is a much better power supply calculator:

http://www.extreme.outervision.../psucalculatorlite.jsp

If you want to pay for the pro version (don't think it's necessary) it will even tell you the current you need for each rail.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: buckeye83
This is a much better power supply calculator:

http://www.extreme.outervision.../psucalculatorlite.jsp

If you want to pay for the pro version (don't think it's necessary) it will even tell you the current you need for each rail.

that one still overestimates my system.

system exactly as in signature + some usb, fan controllers, fans, etc

says i need 499watts at 90% load and 20% capacitor aging (my psu is just about 2 years old running 24/7)