PSU choice

[TrisT]

Hey everyone,
I got a choice to do between an ANTEC sonata III case and an ANTEC Nine Hundred + PSU (Enermax Liberty 620W).
I first tought that the sonataIII's power supply (500W) would be ok for all my components but someone told me it was borderline with this build :

[*]CPU : INTEL Core 2 Quad Q9450
[*]Mobo : ASUS P5K-E/WiFi-AP
[*]Video : ASUS EN8800GT 512Mb
[*]RAM : CORSAIR TWIN2x2048-6400 800MHz DDR2
[*]CORSAIR TWIN2x2048-6400 800MHz DDR2
[*]HD : WD Raptor 74GB SATA 16Mb 10 000RPM
[*]SEAGATE 500GB SATA2 32Mb 7200RPM
[*]Case : ANTEC Sonata III
[*]Opt : SAMSUNG SH-S203B
[*]PSU : Stock
[*]Heatsink : Stock
[*]Monitor : SAMSUNG 22in 226BW

I just want to know if it's a good choice to pay the double of the Sonata III for an ANTEC 900 + Enermax Liberty 620W.

Thank you !

 

[John]

The EarthWatts 500 is more than adequate for your rig.

 

[Angerisagift]

do you know which Antec power supply it is, they seem to have a 500w model available for 3 different product lines, if it's the earthwatts, you should be ok, dual 12v rails at 17.0a

 

[John]

Originally posted by: Angerisagift
do you know which Antec power supply it is, they seem to have a 500w model available for 3 different product lines, if it's the earthwatts, you should be ok, dual 12v rails at 17.0a

The Sonata III ships with an EarthWatts 500.

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15137

 

[DSF]

As John said, the Earthwatts 500 is plenty of power for your setup.

 

[Lunyone]

The Sonata III has the Antec EW edition with it and has 34A on the 12V rails. This should power any single GPU solution out right now.

 

[DannyLove]

if you want to spend a little bit and are more interested in quality, i highly recommend SeaSonic USA

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: DannyLove
if you want to spend a little bit and are more interested in quality, i highly recommend SeaSonic USA

Seasonic makes the Antec that's in the case.

Unless you're going to recommend a specific model of Seasonic, you may actually be telling the OP to replace what he has with the exact same thing.

 

[Zap]

Hello TrisT, and welcome to Anandtech forums.

I'm tossing my vote for the EarthWatts. There are better PSUs out there, but there are also far worse. It can certainly power a quadcore and one 8800GT just fine.

 

[rich168]

enermax is good.

 

[TrisT]

Thanks a lot for your answers !
My choice isn't done yet but I'll strongly consider choosing the sonata III since it obviously can do the job.
My fear is that if I eventually want to add one or two other HDs or if I wanna upgrade anything, the Earthwatt could be a little overwhelmed.
I feel like Im a little too borderline to choose this case/PSU combo.

Anyway, I still have time to think since my CPU won't be available until 3 or 4 weeks.

 

[nerp]

It's not borderline.

I powered the following with an EA380 with no issues for a couple weeks:

Dual opteron 180 @ 2.75ghz
Radeon x1950Pro OC'd
1x36 GB raptor
2x500GB Samsung Spinpoint T SATA
1x160GB Hitachi 160gb SATA
1x320GB Seagate 7200.10 SATA
4xDDR500 Crucial Ballistix
M-Audio Audiophile 2496
NEC 3550A DVDRW

I could burn a DVD while encoding and listening to music while downloading, streaming video to another computer with ORTHOS running. The 380W held up fine.

In your case, the EA500 is more than enough. It isn't borderline at all, IMHO.

 

[Tullphan]

Originally posted by: TrisT
Thanks a lot for your answers !
My choice isn't done yet but I'll strongly consider choosing the sonata III since it obviously can do the job.
My fear is that if I eventually want to add one or two other HDs or if I wanna upgrade anything, the Earthwatt could be a little overwhelmed.
I feel like Im a little too borderline to choose this case/PSU combo.

Anyway, I still have time to think since my CPU won't be available until 3 or 4 weeks.

If the only upgrading you'll be doing is 1 or 2 more hdd's, i'd stick w/the Sonata III. The PSU that comes with it is fine & it's a nice, fairly quiet case...if that's your thing.

 

[TrisT]

One last question before I buy the case : If I ever want to try some overclocking, would the Earthwatt sill be OK ? AND would the sonata III + 120mm front fan be enough to cool everything?
I don't know a lot in overclocking yet but im starting to read some articles and it seems worth it if you do it well.
Thanks for the tips!

 

[imported_Barbarossa]

It's best to get an exhaust and an intake fan as well. The Sonata is a great case but it's designed primarily for silence. It's got good cooling, but not great. It should be more than adequate for most overclocking, but more of that will depend on your cooling setup and making sure that you've got good airflow.

A nice job of cable routing (hiding cables behind the motherboard, out of the way of airflow) can do a lot for cooling too.

Cheers!