PSU Recommendations

[brianj320]

this is a new system build and i have done my research on all the parts and compatibility. i am pretty set on the components but am having trouble with the PSU decision. the rig is mainly for gaming but DVD encoding and burning will be done with it as well. as for overclocking, chances are minimal but there always is the possibility. specs are shown below:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H
GPU: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 1GB
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
HDD1: Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
HDD2: (Existing SATA 7200 RPM)
HDD3: (possible extra drive, not sure yet)
Optical: LG Black 6X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R Burner
Case: COOLER MASTER RC-690
Extras: 4-5 case fans, 2-3 USB plugins

as of now i am considering 2 different PSUs:
COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro RS-650
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817171023

Antec EA650 650W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817371015

however, i recently read this posted by a user from another site:
"I had a sweet Antec Sonata with a 550 watt Neo supply. The supply is rated at 140 watts for the 3 and 5 volt, and won't handle the startup current of the Phenom with 4 gigs of memory. I stuck in a 610 watt OCZ Silencer which is fine. The silencer claims to deliver 170 watts of combined 3V and 5V. So save yourself some trouble and be sure your have an adequate power supply. I suspect protection circuits sense the surge as the Phenom initializes and do what they are designed to do."

so my concern naturally is to avoid that issue and any other potential power issues due to an underspec'ed PSU. before reading that i was set on the CoolerMaster but then was recommended to consider that Antec. what am i to do? any others besides those to consider?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: brianj320
this is a new system build and i have done my research on all the parts and compatibility. i am pretty set on the components but am having trouble with the PSU decision. the rig is mainly for gaming but DVD encoding and burning will be done with it as well. as for overclocking, chances are minimal but there always is the possibility. specs are shown below:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H
GPU: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 1GB
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
HDD1: Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
HDD2: (Existing SATA 7200 RPM)
HDD3: (possible extra drive, not sure yet)
Optical: LG Black 6X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R Burner
Case: COOLER MASTER RC-690
Extras: 4-5 case fans, 2-3 USB plugins

as of now i am considering 2 different PSUs:
COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro RS-650
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817171023

Antec EA650 650W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817371015

however, i recently read this posted by a user from another site:
"I had a sweet Antec Sonata with a 550 watt Neo supply. The supply is rated at 140 watts for the 3 and 5 volt, and won't handle the startup current of the Phenom with 4 gigs of memory. I stuck in a 610 watt OCZ Silencer which is fine. The silencer claims to deliver 170 watts of combined 3V and 5V. So save yourself some trouble and be sure your have an adequate power supply. I suspect protection circuits sense the surge as the Phenom initializes and do what they are designed to do."

so my concern naturally is to avoid that issue and any other potential power issues due to an underspec'ed PSU. before reading that i was set on the CoolerMaster but then was recommended to consider that Antec. what am i to do? any others besides those to consider?

I encourage you to do more research as preparation for your purchase.

It's important these days to get a unit offering closer to 50A on the 12V rails -- or something exceeding that. I can't advise on the 3 and 5V rails, but when checking the specs at manufacturer sites, they usually show a table of the sustained spec amperage draw on each and all of the rails.

Now -- some here will criticize me for this recommendation, only because it would lead you to purchasing a PSU in excess of your system's maximum power draw. You can find a calculator on-line called the Extreme Outervision PSU calculator -- "free" and "Pro" versions.

The calculator will allow you to select processor, motherboard (category), amount and type of memory, number/type of fans, PCI and -e devices, number of hard disks and optical drives, etc. It will then give you an estimate of the most extreme upper-limit of sustained wattage necessary. [Apparently, the Pro version -- which you have to pay for, will give you estimates of the 3, 5 and 12V rails, as well].

You may find other "calculators" on the web. You can also do this manually, if you can obtain the necessary data or calculate the amperage/wattage draws of all components, then adding them up with rail subtotals. I believe there was a DYI article in Maximum PC magazine -- probably around 2004/2005 -- explaining this, and you may be able to find the article in their archives. But you should be able to do the arithmetic with -- or without -- consulting the article.

What about "Outervision?" Well, I used it to decide between 500, 550, 600 and 650W PSU models. The designers of the program suggested padding their estimate with an extra 35W. The components of my system suggested a need for about 585W of sustained power (under the most extreme situations), and I finally settled on a 650W PSU. But today, when I run my APC software that monitors my UPS battery-backup, it shows that the system uses 319W under idle conditions. When I load the system with stress-testing software like PRIME95 or IntelBurnTest (LinPack), sustained wattage use climbs to around 420W. Keep in mind, though, that the stress-testing doesn't run all the hard disks and optical drives at the same time to their maximum activity.

And there's nothing wrong with that. Because, given the bench-result 2D chart of any PSU's efficiency (% of AC power converted to DC), the high range toward the limit of a unit's rated sustained usage under specified temperature conditions tends to show a drop-off in efficiency (which means more heat dissipation.) So it's probably better to get a PSU with an anticipation that the computer will be drawing wattage most frequently in the middle range and below the sustained wattage spec.

Here's how your system compares to mine. I'm running an INtel CPU, so I recommend the Outervision calculator for whatever the difference might be: mine is a Q6600 C2Q system with a power-hungry nVidia 680i motherboard. But the rest of my components in type and number are equivalent to yours -- n of hard disks, optical drive, USB and PCI/e, memory sticks, fans etc.

I can't vouch for the CoolerMaster, but I use Antec when lower price is more important and I want some assurance of quality. Even so, take a look at the Seasonic PSUs in the 550W to 700W range -- either modular M12 or the S12 models such as the 550HT or 650HT. And I'd suggest you scout around TechReport and some other web-sites (Tom's Hardware, too) for benchtest PSU comparisons over several makes and models. See how the Seasonic, Antec and Coolermaster of similar wattage compare. Also OCZ has been in the PSU business for a while, and BFG has some decent entries -- at least from cursory recent review-readings I've made.

 

[theAnimal]

The Antec EA650 would be the better of those two, and the Corsair TX650 would be a good choice as well.

 

[rarebear]

If it was me I would think bigger...

Do you think in a few years you might SLI or CrossFire ?

If yes you may want a 750 or 850..
I just moved up from a 500W I just bought because I did not do my homework

I think 650 is for a OK Gamer system
750 a Good Gamer
and 850 ready to rock and roll with SLi

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: rarebear
If it was me I would think bigger...

Do you think in a few years you might SLI or CrossFire ?

If yes you may want a 750 or 850..
I just moved up from a 500W I just bought because I did not do my homework

I think 650 is for a OK Gamer system
750 a Good Gamer
and 850 ready to rock and roll with SLi

You don't need 850w for SLI. I know one person - I built his rig - with SLI'd 8800gt's w/550w PSU, and my bother has a 750w PSU and SLI'd GTX260's.

@brianj320: I'd avoid CoolMax. Corsair, BFG, Antec, Seasonic, PC P&C have much better reps. Rosewill's 750w & 850w PSU's are very good, and a great value when Newegg has a big sale. OCZ is OK, better than CoolMax. Thermaltake has some (not all) good PSU's.

Check out Jonnyguru.com and Hardocp.com for PSU reviews.

 

[brianj320]

thanks for all the replies guys, i really appreciate the info. i realized i didnt mention SLI/Crossfire in my original post so to address that there is always the possibility i would get a 2nd card to run Crossfire, considering i stick with the 4870 down the road. so i would like to have that extra ability in case i do decide to go ahead with that type of setup. for the time being, i plan to only run a single card.

@banzai: thanks for that link, never seen that before and after using it, the results were for a single GPU card 522W and if i go with 2 GPU cards 639W. so based on that and for the sake of upgrading down the road to Crossfire, a 650W most likely wouldnt be beefy enough? that's how i read it and look at it but i could be wrong.

@flipped gazelle: thanks for those recommendations, i looked at the Corsair 750TX last night and that seems like a pretty good PSU. everything i read about it seems legit and on the up-and-up especially after reading the reviews and stress test results from tom's hardware and hardocp.