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Which SLI PSU? Help us decide

Forum CPU & Components : Power Supplies, PC Cases & Case Mods - Which SLI PSU? Help us decide

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Fogly   03-19-2006 at 12:20:36 AM

I'm Considering the Antec Truepower II, and Silverstone Strider ST56F now. Anyone have one who can comment on its performance?

I am going to:
Overclock
Use Dual 7900GT in SLI
Use a AMD 4800 X2

Current Prices(on Pricegrabber.com):
Antec Truepower II 550w- $75
Silverstone Strider 560w- $130
Antec NeoHE 550w - $88

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BaronMatrix   03-19-2006 at 12:48:22 AM
- 0 +

There are very good Antec PS' around. ThermalTake I believe also makes a 600W PS. It really depends on the Proc. If you're going with a P4, you will need 650+W but for an X2 or A64 a 550W Antec Pure Power will do. Check out Newegg.com

They have every major brand, great prices and fast delivery.

Reply to BaronMatrix
bilbo3660   03-19-2006 at 01:44:10 AM
- 0 +

There are a good number of "SLI-approved" psu's. Some of the best are Antec, Enermax and Seasonic. Check out slizone. PC Power & Cooling have great voltage regulation but are loud and inefficient...and expensive. lol. 550W should put you in the sweetspot. Look for total amps on the +12v rail to be in the neighborhood of 40a.

Reply to bilbo3660
Sano   03-19-2006 at 03:57:21 AM
- 0 +

how about coolermaster realpower 550W?? i heard it's quite good but not sure was thinking of getting it myself :P

Reply to Sano
chuckshissle   03-19-2006 at 04:15:07 AM
- 0 +

How about an Aspire 600watts psu. This is my second Aspire psu and it performed exceptionally well and pretty stable as well.

http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/9144/dsc006945iy.th.jpg

or

Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/4329/antecslipsu7rg.th.jpg

Either one of them is very good psu, but kind of pricey. :D

Reply to chuckshissle
pengwin   03-19-2006 at 04:26:30 AM
- 0 +

ENERMAX Liberty ELT620AWT ATX12V 620W

Reply to pengwin
bilbo3660   03-19-2006 at 04:27:33 AM
- 0 +

The CoolerMaster Real Power 550 is supposed to be real loud. With so many good psu's to choose from I would pass on it. The Antec True power 550 is good but I think the Antec NeoHE 550 is better. It has three +12V rails with 18A on each and also has modular cables.

Yeah, that Enermax Liberty 620w is pretty sweet too. That's one of the reasons I mentioned the Enermax brand. It has two +12V rails with 22A on each. Total is 36A. Even though the Antec NeoHE 550 is 70W less it has 6 more amps (total 42A) on the +12V rail.

Reply to bilbo3660
noobAl   03-19-2006 at 04:21:02 PM
- 0 +

I just recently bought a Antec neo 550 HE and what a pain in the A*#. I got rid of it and went wth a Silverstone Zues ST56ZF. This is one heck of a PSU for the money it has a 38A single 12v rail and is every bit as good a PSU as the PC Power and cooling 510 in my opinion at a very good price I have seen them as low as $108.00 but I in general around $115.00 is the norm at many vendors. Give one a try and you won't be sorry.

Good Luck

Al

Reply to noobAl
SR71   03-19-2006 at 04:23:38 PM
- 0 +

:D 8O :D

I have loved my Silverstone since the moment I took it out of the box. BUT with this review - I now know e x a c t l y why I love this puppy. Don't screw around and go for the very best:

Silverstone ST60F Modular
http://www.jonnyguru.com/PSU/ST60F/

8) :wink: 8)

Reply to SR71
bilbo3660   03-19-2006 at 07:21:41 PM
- 0 +

What didn't you like about the Antec NeoHE 550?

Reply to bilbo3660
AlphaOfTheOmega   03-19-2006 at 07:45:00 PM
- 0 +

Id go with the Antec true power II

Reply to AlphaOfTheOmega
noobAl   03-20-2006 at 06:08:26 AM
- 0 +

With the neo my computer kept shutting down. Now with the siverstone it can take anything that I throw at it


Goood Luck

Al

Reply to noobAl
mpjesse   03-20-2006 at 06:30:22 AM
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Quote :

If you're going with a P4, you will need 650+W



Ummm... no. 500W is enough for his setup. 650W for any system is overkill. The only exception I can think of is quad SLI.

-mpjesse

Reply to mpjesse
Fogly   03-20-2006 at 07:51:58 AM
- 0 +

Quote :

:D 8O :D

I have loved my Silverstone since the moment I took it out of the box. BUT with this review - I now know e x a c t l y why I love this puppy. Don't screw around and go for the very best:

Silverstone ST60F Modular
http://www.jonnyguru.com/PSU/ST60F/

8) :wink: 8)



It says Its Certified for Crossfire, does that mean SLI too?

Reply to Fogly
Fogly   03-20-2006 at 08:00:19 AM
- 0 +

Quote :

There are a good number of "SLI-approved" psu's. Some of the best are Antec, Enermax and Seasonic. Check out slizone. PC Power & Cooling have great voltage regulation but are loud and inefficient...and expensive. lol. 550W should put you in the sweetspot. Look for total amps on the +12v rail to be in the neighborhood of 40a.




What is the significance of the 12v rail? Why is it so important

Reply to Fogly
SR71   03-20-2006 at 05:05:18 PM
- 0 +

Quote :

It says Its Certified for Crossfire, does that mean SLI too?



Yes - Here's a list of PSU's certified by Nvidia Corp:

http://www.xoxide.com/slicertified.html

8) 8O 8)

For build quality - Silverstone, PC P&C and Seasonic can't be beat.

Reply to SR71
bilbo3660   03-20-2006 at 06:45:18 PM
- 0 +

Quote :

There are a good number of "SLI-approved" psu's. Some of the best are Antec, Enermax and Seasonic. Check out slizone. PC Power & Cooling have great voltage regulation but are loud and inefficient...and expensive. lol. 550W should put you in the sweetspot. Look for total amps on the +12v rail to be in the neighborhood of 40a.




What is the significance of the 12v rail? Why is it so important

PSU's are advertised by wattage. This wattage is delivered across a number of votage rails where the most important are +3.3V, +5V and +12V. Until recent years when cpu's and video cards became much more power hungry, most of a psu's power was supplied through the +3.3V and +5V rails. Nowadays, the +12V rail is far and away the most important. Amperage is the measure of power from a rail. Watt = Volt x Amperage

Reply to bilbo3660
Fogly   03-20-2006 at 07:50:50 PM
- 0 +

Thanks Bilbo,
Some Power Supplies Have multiple 12v rails, why whould you need several? Does my settup need more than 1?

Reply to Fogly
carpcmelee   03-20-2006 at 08:29:10 PM
- 0 +

wow. this is an easy question. get an ocz powerstream 520. its peak is 600 watts! and btw, it is also modular. with sli. about 140, 130 online$

Reply to carpcmelee
bilbo3660   03-20-2006 at 11:20:12 PM
- 0 +

Multiple +12V rails spreads out components demand for +12V power. The latest standard is for two +12V rails. I'm not sure if three and four +12V rails psu's are inherently better than those with two.

I think a psu has to have at least two +12V rails to be SLI-certified. All three of the psu's you are looking at have multiple +12V rails and are all good. Read some reviews and see if there are some features more important to you than others ie. voltage regulation, heat, noise, efficiency, looks, modular, etc.

I lean towards the Antec NeoHE 550 because the reviews have been excellent. One tester ran it at 110% then 120% without problem. It ran shortly at 130% before conking out. Its continuous power is 550W and its peak power is somewhere between 660W and 715W! It has 42A combined for its three +12V rails. :D

Reply to bilbo3660
noobAl   03-21-2006 at 03:01:39 AM
- 0 +

Not true there are many single 12v rail power supplies that are Nvidia SLI certified. For example the PC power and cooling 510, The OCZ Power Stream SLI 520, Silverstone ST56ZF 560 etc.

I have read many serious overclockers tend to prefer a stong single rail power supply over multi rail units. They belive that a stong single rail works better under heavy load especially heavy deamand from modern video cards (SLI and Cross fire). I don't know if this is true but My single rail Silverstone ST56ZF works real well with my system. It has a single 38A 12v rail Which in a PSU of this size is about as good as it gets.

As far as the Antec Neo 500 HE is concerned if you have an Asus motherboard stay as far away as possible. There are some serious compatability issues with them and Asus motherboards. Mine would run fine but randomly shut down. It took me a little while to figure it out and then I found out that I was not alone. This has happened to many people with Asus boards.

Good luck

Al

Reply to noobAl
Fogly   03-21-2006 at 05:36:15 AM
- 0 +

Quote :

Not true there are many single 12v rail power supplies that are Nvidia SLI certified. For example the PC power and cooling 510, The OCZ Power Stream SLI 520, Silverstone ST56ZF 560 etc.

I have read many serious overclockers tend to prefer a stong single rail power supply over multi rail units. They belive that a stong single rail works better under heavy load especially heavy deamand from modern video cards (SLI and Cross fire). I don't know if this is true but My single rail Silverstone ST56ZF works real well with my system. It has a single 38A 12v rail Which in a PSU of this size is about as good as it gets.

As far as the Antec Neo 500 HE is concerned if you have an Asus motherboard stay as far away as possible. There are some serious compatability issues with them and Asus motherboards. Mine would run fine but randomly shut down. It took me a little while to figure it out and then I found out that I was not alone. This has happened to many people with Asus boards.

Good luck

Al



Thanks, ya, I am going to use an asus a8n premium mobo

Reply to Fogly
Ultraviolet   03-21-2006 at 11:43:59 AM
- 0 +

Im building a new pc which im going to get the BFG GeForce 7900 GT. Im going for the Seasonic S12 600W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply Seasonic S12 which will give me enough power to run a small army :)

Reply to Ultraviolet
dustin1300   03-21-2006 at 05:22:25 PM
- 0 +

I'm running a 3800+ X2 and just one 7800 GTX (havent bought the other yet) and have an Aspire 600 Watt ps that I'm really liking.
Has three fans built in and has a controller on back of ps to change the speeds...and paid right under 100 on newegg.com

Reply to dustin1300
bilbo3660   03-22-2006 at 01:29:17 AM
- 0 +

Quote :


As far as the Antec Neo 500 HE is concerned if you have an Asus motherboard stay as far away as possible. There are some serious compatability issues with them and Asus motherboards. Mine would run fine but randomly shut down. It took me a little while to figure it out and then I found out that I was not alone. This has happened to many people with Asus boards.

Good luck

Al



The compatibility problem was only with some first production run Antec NeoHE's. If you have one of these Antec will exchange it. :D

Reply to bilbo3660
noobAl   03-22-2006 at 02:05:49 PM
- 0 +

[quote]The compatibility problem was only with some first production run Antec NeoHE's. If you have one of these Antec will exchange it.


That is what I was told so I bought one of the supposedly newer models. It still happened. I would just stay away from the Neo 550 HE and get something that has not shown to be such a hassel.

I did get my money back a bought a different power supply that works perfectley.

Good Luck

Al

Reply to noobAl
bilbo3660   03-22-2006 at 04:24:56 PM
- 0 +

Antec told me the compatibilty issue would be fixed with a psu after a certain serial number and the latest bios for the Asus board.

"Please be advised that a comment has been added to your trouble ticket:
-------------------------------------------------------
Trouble Ticket ID: 37835
Description: Compatibility with Asus motherboards
Comment By: Chris Patterson
-------------------------------------------------------
Comment: The ASUS motherboard is great, and works with other power supplies. The Neo is great and works with other boards. What you need to do to get these to work together is make sure the motherboard has the latest BIOS (make sure to use a different psu to do the flash - you don't want it to go down in the middle of an update.) Then make sure that you are using the EZ connector and have a NeoHE with a serial number higher than S05110080433. If you have an older psu, we can exchange it for you.

Thank you,

Chris Patterson
Antec Customer Support"

Sorry things didn't work out for you.

Reply to bilbo3660
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