I need rediculous amount of wattage.

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chuckshissle

chuckshissle

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Feb 2, 2006
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Okay my 600 watt psu died. I was expecting this cause my system used more than 600 watts. I have an 840, 2 7800GTX, 3 hard drives, 2 media, floppy drive, card reader, temp sensors, fan controller, cathode lightings, black lights, 5 led fans, sound card, tuner card, 2 separate water cooling systems and 4 usb devices. My psu was 8 months old and I could get a replacement for its warranty but it would still died out sooner or later.

Okay I don't know exactly how much wattage does my rig needs to run smooth. So my options would be to buy a 750-800 watt psu or go dual psu since I can get a replacement and then just get another one.

1. Which one would be better of the two option?

2. If I were to get a single psu of 750-800 watts what would be the best one to get? Budget of $150-$250.

3. If I were to get a dual psu set-up then could someone give a hint how to do it? Since Im getting a replacement for my 600 watt psu which I would use for my system and then I'll get another 300 watt to my 2 separate water cooling kits.

:)
 
TeraMedia

TeraMedia

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Jan 26, 2006
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Curious... what kind of PSU was it? I'm not running as much gear as you, but it would be nice to know. I'm using a Seasonic 600 Watt.
 
chuckshissle

chuckshissle

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It's an Aspire AS600 psu. I have used them for my past two rigs and to this day it's still running but my 600 watt just could not keep up with my current SLI gaming rig's appetite. Yeah it's not the best psu makers but it's a decent psu. I got it first for my system before upgrades which only consist of basic gaming components and a single 7800GT. Then I started upgrading it to become a high end SLI gaming rig and so started the psu delima.

This is my rig,

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_rotm_june06.html
 
ZOldDude

ZOldDude

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Apr 22, 2006
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Did it die becuase a cap in it exploded?
If not you may be drawing alot of "start up" power while the HD's are getting up to speed.

Allow the gfx cards 10 amps each (more than they use).

Allow the HD's 9 amps each (for when they spin up,after that they use about 3 amps each).

I use Optrons and go overkill and allow them 10 amps.

Allow 8 amps for 4GB of ram (more than it needs).

Try putting all your fans and lites on a 2nd psu...some cheap thing is fine.
 
phreejak

phreejak

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May 11, 2006
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I am using a Silverstone SST-ST75ZF 750 for my system for which, I believe, has more energy demands than yours and should show how dependable the power supply is for me. It has 4 good rails at 18amps each and has been working for me flawlessly for the past 2 months.

Presler 955 3.46
Abit AW8D
2GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 800
XFX 7900 GTX Extreme
X-Fi Fatality
(2) DL-DVD Burners
(2) WD 36 Raptos in Raid 0
Maxtor 300GB Sata
52-in-1 card reader
Floppy Drive
Dual pump watercooling system (2) Swiftech 655's in a dual parallel loop - My CPU is cooled by a peltier cooler in a seperate loop, the other loop is for northbridge, GPU and HDD waterblocks
(2) White LED 120 fans
dual cold cathode white light 12 inch setup
(eight) 120mm fans mounted on 2 dual 120 rads (externally) - each has 4 fans apiece in a "push-pull" setup
 
sailer

sailer

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Apr 9, 2006
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A psu that fits your budget requirement for 750-800 wt would probably be a Silverstone SST-ST75ZF for $209.99 from Newegg. There is also a Coolmax CTG 850 for $239.95 with the $50 mail in rebate, which might work out better for you, giving more room for expansion later.

I've got an Aspire 680 wt that keeps my machine going, but its on the edge powerwise. If I ever decide to go SLI/Crossfire, it wouldn't keep up. I've also heard both good and bad about Aspire psu's. I've had two now and neither have failed or caused any type of problem.

Using a dual psu setup is bear, in my opinion. You either have to try to squeeze the second into the case, and hope the added heat and blockage doesn't cause problems, or mount it externally. Offhand, I'd go for a single psu if only using an internal mount. If you mount a second psu externally, then the 300 wt should work fine. You can cut a couple holes in one of the knock out slots in the back of the computer and run the power lines through those to your water coolers.
 
W

wun911

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There are now psus with quad 12v rails each with 18Amps

Silverstone makes em up to about 750 wats

I have found the 600wat ones surfice for my needs

P5N32 SLI Deluxe
P4 960
XMS Pro (2x1 Gb)
Swiftec water pump 12v
9 Panflo fans 120mm
2 UV lights
DVD rom
WD raptor 150Gb
7900GT SLI
 
clue69less

clue69less

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OCZ 700W

Coolmax 850W
Click to expand...

I'll second the vote for the big OCZ. I have one and it is awesome. I also have the mushkin and since it has an excellent MIR now, I'd recommend it over the OCZ for your rig. The auto-bridge feature can help the unit cover the HD spin-up current demand mentioned by ZOdude. The mushkin has high quality modular cables and it is surprisingly quiet considering that it has two 8cm fans. My limited experience with the Coolmax was not too impressive. Maybe I got a dud.
 
chuckshissle

chuckshissle

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I don't know if it blow a cap, but all it did is just one day I pushed the botton and it didn't turn on. I check the power connections to make sure it's all connected and I have verified the psu was blown by doing the power jump (green and black) and it didn't turn on. So Im now in the process of turning it in for its warranty and get a new one.
 
waylander

waylander

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I have similar specs except only one pump and i over clock, my old enermax 600w couldn't handle it either so I also have the seasonic 750w in my rig... rock solid so far.

If I could have afforded it I would have gotten the PC P&C 1kw but I was like you, if this didn't do it I was going to go dual psu. If you want to use dual I did a lot of research into it just in case... pm me.
 
chuckshissle

chuckshissle

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Guys I appreciate for all your quick inputs and I have looked at Silverstone, OCZ and Coolmax and it all looking pretty good. The Coolmax though is a bit high for my budget but I'm sure it's a high quality PSU.

But let say if I were to do the dual psu set-up. I would use the 600 watt replacement psu for the system and then I'd go get another 300 watt psu for the 2 water cooling kit. My question is how would I do this and set up the secondary psu. I think I can place my secondary psu inside the case but is there any (Im sure) adaptor/extension cable and switch for this matter? I could really use help in this one for this is my low-budget solution on this wattage problem.

If this is not a good idea then I'll just get the single psu solution, more likely the Silverstone or the OCZ. :)
 
badge

badge

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Jun 17, 2006
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It's an Aspire AS600 psu. I have used them for my past two rigs and to this day it's still running but my 600 watt just could not keep up with my current SLI gaming rig's appetite. Yeah it's not the best psu makers but it's a decent psu. I got it first for my system before upgrades which only consist of basic gaming components and a single 7800GT. Then I started upgrading it to become a high end SLI gaming rig and so started the psu delima.

This is my rig,

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_rotm_june06.html
Click to expand...

Wow. I expected to see Pam Anderson or somethin'.
 
nick_000000

nick_000000

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Mar 5, 2006
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OCZ 700W

Coolmax 850W
Click to expand...

I'll second the vote for the big OCZ. I have one and it is awesome. I also have the mushkin and since it has an excellent MIR now, I'd recommend it over the OCZ for your rig. The auto-bridge feature can help the unit cover the HD spin-up current demand mentioned by ZOdude. The mushkin has high quality modular cables and it is surprisingly quiet considering that it has two 8cm fans. My limited experience with the Coolmax was not too impressive. Maybe I got a dud.

Yeah I say get the OCZ 700W I want one trying to swap my S12 for one.
 
clue69less

clue69less

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But let say if I were to do the dual psu set-up. I would use the 600 watt replacement psu for the system and then I'd go get another 300 watt psu for the 2 water cooling kit. My question is how would I do this and set up the secondary psu. I think I can place my secondary psu inside the case but is there any (Im sure) adaptor/extension cable and switch for this matter? I could really use help in this one for this is my low-budget solution on this wattage problem.
Click to expand...

You can safely wire it up yourself. I've got a link somewhere around here about how to set it up but I'm in a rush to get to work and won't be able to search it out right now. I know I found it by Googling something like "PS dual power supply" or some such thing and found it on a forum, maybe overclockers.com. I'll try to remember to find it later. I've also seen threads about setup details right here on Tom's recently, so do some searching here too.
 
L

lbax

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May 15, 2006
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You may want to check out this article regarding seperate power supplies for high power Graphics cards.

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2770

I suspect that the Graphic Cards are the power hogs of your system. If you elect to go dual power supplies, I think that you would get better ROI by powering them with the secondary PS. I can't imagine the water cooling rigs consuming nearly as much power. Isolating them to the secondary PS wiould be of little benefit.
 
waylander

waylander

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Definitely the graphics cards are the hogs, dual 7800gtx's pull almost 200w by themselves. I've read in a lot of forums that it's not a good idea to run anything that plugs into the motherboard with separate psu's due to different voltages. This may or may not be true but 600w will run the cpu, two video cards and the motherboard easily, it's the hdd's, fans, lights and pumps that are pushing him over the edge and these are the ones I'd put on the secondary psu.
 
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