Your thoughts on this.

[pengwin]

Ok, so I'm going to build a new system this year end, something vista ready.

I plan on shoving an E6300 (overclocking it too) 7950GX2 or an 8800GT/X, unless ATi can give me a better preformance for a good price. I dont upgrade a lot so i appreicate the life time warranty, i still have MX-440's


Anyways, i was thinking which PSU to choose.

I had the OCZ GameXStream 700w in mind.


BUT, fortron source came strutting around and i saw this.

Booster X3 Now i kno its only to power GPU's but pair that with a Antec Truepower 550 or OCZ Modstream 520w, 620w Peak and actually maybe even an Antec Smart Power 500w.

So, what are your thoughts?

 

[waylander]

I think you would be better off just spending that money on a better psu. I'm not sure how much heat that would generate but it has no cooling system...

 

[jaguarskx]

Based on my calculations in messege #5 in the following thread:

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/opinions-500w-Ultra-Xfinity-ftopict191108.html

The E6300 will only consume an estimated 40w at stock speed. If you overclock it to the speed of the E6600 then the estimated power consumption is 64w.

I think I read some where that the 7950GX consumes 150w.

Pair that up with the following hypethetical system:

Component....................................................12v Rail Power Consumption

Conroe E6300 (OC'ed to E6600)............................64w
7950GX................................................................150w
Typical Mobo.........................................................20w
RAM.......................................................................0w (3.3v rail)
Sound Card............................................................10w
2 300GB 7200RPM Hard Drives..............................50w
DVD Burner............................................................18w
3 120mm Fans........................................................15w
Buffer for unknown overclocks.................................50w

Total Est. Power Consumption (100% load)..............377w

377watts / 12volt = 31.4 amps

I would say any good namebrand 550w+ PSU that can provide you with at least 34 (to be safe) amp on the 12v rails should be good enough.

 

[pengwin]

but i'll plan on SLi/X-fire with the DX10 cards

 

[jaguarskx]

but i'll plan on SLi/X-fire with the DX10 cards

Okay, I didn't see you mention that in your post.

The 7950GX is already a "SLI" card unless you're thinking about Quad SLI; meaning sticking two 7950GX into your system.

Kinda tough to say what the power requirements will be for the GeForce 8xxx series. Same thing about ATI's DX10 GPUs.

If you're talking about Quad SLI or Crossfire then you're talking about some real power consumption. In that case you should probably consider a PSU that can provide at least 48 amps on the 12v rails, or 576 watts of continuous power on the 12v rails.

You're definitely looking for at least a 700w PSU.

Hmmm.... Newegg.com seems to be down, or they are being slammed buy huge traffic.

 

[pengwin]

ok, maybe not quad, but if i CF like 2 X1900XT's would i be better off with the OCZ 700w, or a 550w antec TP + FSP X3

 

[jaguarskx]

I would say that a single 700w PSU is better because:

1. 1 less power cord to trip over.
2. You don't need to worry about extra heat coming from an other PSU sitting in a hard drive bay. That would increase the overall temperature inside the case.
3. You'll also have less noise too.

The good things about the FSP X3:

1. Cheaper than a 700w PSU
2. You're not throwing away a perfectly good Antec TP

 

[pengwin]

the power cord wont be an issue

as far as noise, i plan on a P180.

Heat on the other hand is a big issue.

Hmmm.

Any other thoughts?

 

[jaguarskx]

Any other thoughts?

Can't think of any for now.

What resolution are you gaming at since you're going to with Crossfire or SLI?

 

[wun911]

Just get 1 nice PSU..... 600w should be plenty....

 

[pengwin]

Any other thoughts?

Can't think of any for now.

What resolution are you gaming at since you're going to with Crossfire or SLI?

yes i kno dual gfx cards wont help at low resolutions. I'll have to cash to go dual so thats why.

 

[paybax]

Hey Peng,
The P180 is a good choice for a box. I have one and it's great. It's also quiet just like it says. You will also find that the power supply at the bottom instead of the top is also great for sound dampening.
As for power supply, I would go for the 700 watt one. Jaguar was right on the money as far as power consumption and remember, if you decide to upgrade later, that means more power required.
I always said "One can NEVER have too much power" right ?

I have 2 BFG 7900GT's in SLI along with a bunch of other goodies at hand so I needed some major juice to run it. I bought a SeaSonic S12 600watt to keep my beast fed and it performs like a champ . I would say I do about 90% gaming and the other 10% is emails, surfing, etc.
Check out what I have under the hood and you'll see that I needed a beefy power supply to run mine.

Oh sorry one more thing, I noticed in your last post that you had concerns with heat....The P180 has a 120cm fan at the top, the back (which are close to where the cpu is located) so that's great for getting rid of cpu heat. And don't use the gpu fan shroud that attaches to the inside side. This only gets in the way and adds to heat problems. And the 7950's your talking about have a REAR exhaust so I wouldn't worry about that. Make sure you also add the "optional" 120 case fan for the the front of the case so it can suck air through the front and blow it over the vid cards and out the back. Try to get the 3 speed fans if you can, they cost a few bucks more but are worth it.

My cards run @ 42 C idle and NO MORE THAN 68 C under game load. And my gaming room does not have air conditioning and I never have a problem with overheating. I always check my heat stats RIGHT after a game to see what's going on inside as well

Hope this helps bro... And good luck with your new rig

RIG specs
Antec P180 PerformanceSeries Mid-Tower Case
SeaSonic S12 600 watt power supply
Asus A8N32 SLI mobo AMD N-Force 4 SLIX16 (bios 1103 V02.58)
RealTek 97 onboard digital 5.1 Surround
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo Core, 2 X 1mb L2 cache (AMD drivers w/MS hotfix)
2 gigs of Corsair TwinX3500LL Pro @ 437Mhz 2-3-2-6-1T
2- BFG Tech 7900 GT OC 256mg in SLI (nvidia driver 84.21)
Western Digital RAPTOR 74.3 gig 10-K rpm HDD for XP & Apps
Maxtor SATA II 250 G HDD for gaming, movies, MP3's
Maxtor SATA II 250 G HDD for document backup (unplugged)
Sony CD rom 52X
Plextor 708-A DVD/CD rom
Logitech Z-5500 digital 5.1 THX Surround 500watts