So many to choose from!

[wings19]

Hey guys, I've been doing some research but I need some opinions on the correct PSU for my new rig.

ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe
Corsair XMS2 2gig (2 sticks) DDR2 800
Radeon X1950XTX
2 SATA 3gb/s HDD's
Possibly a soundblaster X-fi sound card in the future
5 case fans and Zalman 9700 CPU cooler

I plan on overclocking processor and RAM, possibly GPU also.

I am looking at the SeaSonic M12 700w PSU, i really like the modular cables. This has 18A on each of 4 12v rails... Would that be ok? I've seen some PSU's with 20A. I don't want to spend much over 200 for a PSU. This one on Newegg is $210 right now.

I want to have some head room of course for upgrades and I think Crossfire is out of the question because I can't see putting $1000 into video cards. I went to the calculator and it tells me 601w for this setup.

I appreciate the help in advance! It's driving me nuts figuring out which one to go with because from what I see, every one has a trade-off, like it will have good amp rating on the 12v rails but crappy efficiency, and another will be opposite, etc...

 

[horstmann]

Antec True Power Trio

This is only $139 and will power your system easily. It has 19A on 3 12v rails.

The one you have would also work great. I was just showing a cheaper alternative.

 

[Guest]

Wonderfull PSU, really silent, highly efficient, modular.

Onyl drawback is the price...

 

[Doughbuy]

That PSU will work fine. Should be enough to handle it and with room to spare.. but you are paying quite a bit also... shrug...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Category=32&N=2010320058+1131414179+1297819680&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=58&Description=Thermaltake&Ntk=all

You might also want to look at these 2, TT also makes some nice modular PSU's and its a bit cheaper.

Rail wise everything should be fine... 18A to each PCI-E, 18A to CPU, and another 18A for everything else is good...

Although I'm wondering... 18A * 12 V is only 216W... thats a bit far from the 250W-300W that we think DX10 cards will use... the PCI-E lane itself can also send in 75W... it might make it... either way, I believe 18A should be perfectly fine. Doubt that 18A to a graphics card won't be enough power...

 

[sailer]

The Seasonic 700wt that you list should do, but the Thermaltake 750wt that Doughboy suggested would be even better for a lower price. Sure, 750wt seems like a lot, but as the power hungry DX10 cards come out, it seems that a lot of people, myself included, will be buying bigger psu's to feed them. Don't know about anybody else, but I'd rather buy one psu than two because the first turned out to be not big enough.

 

[wings19]

I agree with you Sailer... I am not opposed to extra power at all. However there is still 18A per rail on the TT which is the same as the SeaSonic. Am I wrong on this that both PSU's will put out the same power on each 12v rail although the total wattage is 750? The extra total wattage seems to come from the 3.3v and 5v rails.

 

[sailer]

Although I'm wondering... 18A * 12 V is only 216W... thats a bit far from the 250W-300W that we think DX10 cards will use... the PCI-E lane itself can also send in 75W... it might make it... either way, I believe 18A should be perfectly fine. Doubt that 18A to a graphics card won't be enough power...

Two things here. Of there is more than one 12V rail at 18A, then their combined power would be 432wt for two rails, 648wt for three rails, and so forth. The amperage will probably have to go up with the DX10 cards, but the cards might also require more than one feed line as well. Won't know for sure until they are actually released. At least I haven't seen the exact specs yet.

On my gaming machine, I'm looking to have to increase up to a 850wt psu. More money yet, but if that's what it takes, I guess have to pay the price of performance.

 

[Guest]

I actually had the same question on my mind...I guess we'll know for sure with the lunch of the card and the 'certified'/recommended PSU.

@wings19:
Seasonic got 56A Combined on the 4 12V rails
TT Toughpower 750: apparently has 60A of combined(from amazon/Xioxide/Jonhy Guru, not on TT web site...)
(From jonhy guru...)

So there's a 48W of difference in total maximum output.

Both should do equally fine, I'm pretty sur the seasonic is quiter though, not by that much anyways.

Funny tiger tirect says:This 750-Watt Toughpower power supply offers 12V combined output 48A

 

[Guest]

Um just learned something from Johny Guru
Apparently the Seasonic aint quad rail...but dual rail

Thats odd, but somewhat of a good news!

 

[Doughbuy]

Nice call labbby, I remember reading that a while back, but it totally slipped my mind... but since it's really only 2 12v lines, then thats virtually 36A on each rail which should be more than enough...

 

[sailer]

I agree with you Sailer... I am not opposed to extra power at all. However there is still 18A per rail on the TT which is the same as the SeaSonic. Am I wrong on this that both PSU's will put out the same power on each 12v rail although the total wattage is 750? The extra total wattage seems to come from the 3.3v and 5v rails.

This is where is gets very confusing to the customer, myself included. Four 18A rails by themselves would add up to 864 wts, unless I did something wrong on my calculator, which as been known to happen. So except for the minor differences in the 3.3V and 5V lines, these two psu's should carry the same total wattage. Unfortunately, different psu companies seem to rate their psu's by different standards.

I suspect that the 18A rails are rated in total power available in short bursts, but not as continuous power. Therefore, one psu may have more continuous power than another at the same amp rating as another which cannot provide as much continuous power. But I don't know for sure how these psu's are rated by their respective companies. The TT 750wt seems to be the better value for the money, in any case.

I do know that my present psu is rated at 680wt and that I'll have to increase its power considerably next year if I start using Vista and the DX10 cards, probably to 850wt. The cost will be high, but if a person wants to play the games, he has to be prepared to pay for them.

 

[sailer]

Very interesting. More stuff I didn't know, and more in favor of the TT for total output. Wish there was a simple. single standard by which all psu's were rated. wonder too why teh Seasonic is advertized as four rail but is really only two rail.

 

[sailer]

Nice call labbby, I remember reading that a while back, but it totally slipped my mind... but since it's really only 2 12v lines, then thats virtually 36A on each rail which should be more than enough...

Yes indeed, 36A rails should provide plenty of power. I have to get more reading in. Oh well, in a couple months with Vista and DX10, I'll probably have to learn a whole lot of stuff all over again.

Lunchbreak over, got to get back to work.

 

[Guest]

Yeah you kinda have to dig a lot to make a really educated decision. Especially since the ATX standard are guidlines that are not always respected.

Also, every manufacturer seem to have it's own way to calculate the total wattage, sometimes it doesn't add up properly, I found that Johny's review are excelent because he goes really in depth, best way to get answer.

It finally find it really funny that seasonic advertise it as a quad rail

I asked Seasonic about this "descrepency" and it was stated that the "deception" is really quite innocent. Apparently the initial design was for quad rails, and if rails did need to be split up into three or four rails, it would be easy to implement without completely redesigning the platform. Multiple rails can be split up with a separate OCP circuit board, typically screwed to the top of a heatsink.

What Seasonic tells me is that there was an issue with high end video cards overloading a single 12V rail. So with Intel's blessing, Seasonic removed the OCP. Technically, Intel has removed the 240VA rail limit from the ATX12V specfication (although I've yet to see this published on FormFactors.org), and the UL simply considers devices with single output leads with output capability greater than 240VA (12V @ 20A) a different product class (level 6 instead of level 3.)

Still no explanation why their Web site is still telling it's a quad rail.

I personally think I'll go with the Seasonic anyways, I dont mid paying a premium, and I had really good experience with them in the past. I also know that their cable are plenty long for bottom mounted PSU and such. I do expect this PSU to last a while!

Anyway I think you will have better value with the TT and it should last you a good 3/5 years and will survive thru a few upgrades(thats counting on nVidia/ATI keeping their promess that G80/R600 are the most power hungry card we will see for a while)

 

[wings19]

Are there any reviews on there on the TT? I couldn't find any but I had to go to work so I didn't have all the time in the world.

I don't mind paying a premium for a better product. I just want something that will have enough juice to power a DX10 card and vista.

 

[Guest]

Johny gave it a 9, VS 8.5 for Seasonic, mainly for price...

 

[hcforde]

The ANTEC True Power Trio 650W works great for me. I have had it for a little over a month. Paid $140 via business sales at CompUsa. Right now it is only $99.00 (after a rebate of $40 in think)at CompUsa till Sat. Night. Put the extra $100 somewhere else.

My set up is power hungry also 7 scsi drives, Asus P5WDG2-WS-Pro motherboard, 3 video cards, Raid controller, Water cooloing unit-internal, 2 gigs ram, Core 2 duo

Runs flawlessly

 

[Doughbuy]

I agree with you, Johnny's PSU reviews are the best I've seen. Although he did mention there was a weird ripple across the GameXStream. Don't know if they ever resolved that problem because I've only heard good things about that PSU. Don't know if it was only the unit he got or what...

And he wants a modular PSU... Trio ain't modular last time I checked.