New PSU recommendation? based on future requirements

[davelakecity]

Builing a new system. Plan on buying a good quality mobo, good quality ram, and good quality psu -- I say good quality because I want to keep those components for close to 3 years.

I have a very limited budget so I'm going with a 7600gt and a $200cpu (c2d) for now BUT, I plan on upgrading to a high end video card in a year or so and also a faster cpu (maybe a quad?) in the future

So I'm looking for future proof PSU recommendations taking into consideration the power requirements of todays highest end vid cards (next year they'll be half the price) and predictions on what future socket LGA775 cpu power requirements may be.

Been doing alot of reading, but I'd appreciate any advice.

NOTE: will not be running SLI now or in the future.. so single vid card only.. I'm thinking 450 watt psu (true 450 that is)... Also will not be overclocking

NOTE: I know you can't cheap out on a good psu... but I really can't spend more than $100 and I'd "like" to only spend $60, but that may be unrealistic.

 

[jaguarskx]

Give a budget of less than $100 I would recommend the ENERMAX Whisper II EG565P-VE FMA(24P) ATX12V 535W Power Supply for $85 + $6 shipping.

The first generation of DX10 card will be pretty power hungrey ranging from 130w to 300w. Both ATI and nVidia are neither confirming nor denying those figures. If you want to upgrade to a "high end" GPU next year, then figure about 200w for it. I'm guessing that any video card with dual GPUs on it will reach the 300w mark. I think I read that later DX10 card will not be as power hungry as the 1st generation, but I don't recall where I read that from.

 

[davelakecity]

Thanks Jag...

That enermax looks like a nice psu.. good reviews...
I'm a little concerned about the 18amp on the 12v... Not sure how all this works, but I read that some current highend cards need a 12v 20+++amp minimum - does that only apply when there is a single 12v rail? As in having TWO 12v rails makes that 20amp requirement not as important. Dual 12v rail - One dedicated to cpu? Thus the other has plenty of juice for the vid card?

another note: that psu is sli certified etc.. don't need that if I'm paying extra for it.

 

[jaguarskx]

The "20+++amp minimum" is a "best guess" by the manufacture since they do not know what type of PC parts you are using. For example, a person might be overclocking a Pentium D 805 up to 4.0GHz using liquid cooling and have 8 hard drives running. The D 805 @ 4.0GHz need 200w+ and each hard drive uses about 20w. That configuration alone requires at 30 amps and that doesn't include the video card.

Having more than one 12v rail is very common these days and so are SLI certifications. nVidia hands them out like candy. The "20+++amp minimum" is for all 12v rails combined. Important Note: Unless the sticker specifically states that the combined 12v rails provide 36 amps, or 432w (12v X 36 amps = 432w), always subtract 3 or 4 amps from the total. Therefore, the Enermax PSU probably only provides a total of 32 amps or 384w of power.

You can use 1 12v rail to power the GPU, and the other to power your drives. The CPU draws power from the 24pin power connector.

 

[jaguarskx]

Here's an example of a Core 2 Duo E6400 system that has been overclocked to 3.2GHz using a power hungry X1900XT:

=========================================

Power consumption of this system on the 12v rails:

E6400 @ 3.2GHz.(Faster than X6800)....................................70w CPU Power Consumption Chart
X1900XT 256MB (assume same as X1900 XT 512MB)...............108wGPU Power Consumption Chart
160GB Hard Drive...................................................................18w
1 DVD Burner.........................................................................14w
2 120mm Case Fans................................................................10w

Total Power Consumption..................................................220w
Total Amps.......................................................................18.33a


=========================================

The Enermax PSU I recommended should provide about 32 amps on the 12v rails. Therefore, even with this "powerful" system, there's about 13.67 amps still left on tap (164w).

 

[davelakecity]

JAG - thanks big time. Great job of explaining... I now have a much better understanding.