Silverstone Olympia 1000 Watt (OP1000) -- thoughts?

[cronjob]

Can't find much in the way of reviews and experiences with Silverstone Olympia 1000 Watt PSU. I'm looking to finally make my choice early this morning so I'm hoping someone can fill me in here as Google has failed me (one small review, one small HardOCP thread is all I could find).

I was sold on the 1000W Enermax Galaxy, but plan to go 8800 GTX SLI and Enermax only has two PCI-E connectors. I'd rather not use the molex-to-PCI-E adapters for the other two.

I then considered the PC Power & Cooling 750W Silencer but would prefer at least an 850W. So, I decided I was interested in heading toward a Silverstone since they ahve a great history and their 850W (two rail) Zeus looks well loved.

So, I'm wondering if - at $100 more - the 1000W Olympia is worthwhile? The only downside I see is that it's large (probably not a problem for the cases I'm going for) and that it doesn't use modular connectors so I'm going to have a lot of wayward cables in my case that I don't know where to stick.

It's going in this machine:
+ eVGA 680i SLI
+ Intel E6600 (hoping to overclock to 3.4ghz to 3.6ghz if cooling allows)
+ Tuniq 120 Heatsink/Fan
+ 2gb DDR2 800 (Crucial Ballistix or Team Group Xtreme)
+ Dual eVGA 8800 GTX cards.
+ 10k RPM Raptor SATA drive. Four or five other large SATA drives.
+ Handful of USB peripherals.

I know even 850W might be overkill, but I'm looking to buy a PSU that I will be able to continue using when I built a new top of the line gaming box in another eighteen months. I believe this PSU will still hold strong even in a year and a half, with plenty of drives, SLI, overclocking quad cores and even a third graphics card for physics.

 

[cronjob]

I had checked out the OCZ 750W/850W (I couldn't find a 700W where I'm ordering from and I'm trying to get everything through the same outlet if I can manage to save on hassles), but they only have two PCI-E connectors. As I mentioned above, I know I can apply the molex-to-PCI-E adapters that should come with the 8800s, but I would prefer not to do that.

Would going with the Silverstone 850W Zeus PSU be reasonably wise? It's about $100 less than the 1000W Olympia I was scoping out, has the four connectors, etc.

The chassis this will be going in will be a Coolermaster 830, Silverstone TJ09, Thermatake Armor or something similar.

 

[cronjob]

Yeah, that's where I started from and ran down the list (except for the Enermax Galaxy which isn't SLI certified but supposedly runs well). I'm really looking to extend the life of this PSU by basing my next box in the second half of 2008 on it (which I think I will still be able to do with the 850 even with a new generation of cards in SLI, quads, overclocking, etc). So that will make the $244 I'm paying for the 850W a decent deal. Reportedly quiet, too.

Much appreciated - take care!

 

[cronjob]

Right now we are at a point where it's hard to buy a future proof PSU. Newer video card will start using then new PCI-e 2.0 8 pin power connector. About the only PSU i've seen that has it is this one.

I'm not expecting to futureproof my system, but I will likely be building a whole new top of the line system again in eighteen months and hope to carry this PSU to it. I think a lot of people look just toward wattage and throughput as to whether they'll be able to use the PSU in another year or so, but even if it's powerful enough, it doesn't do anyone any good if (like in this case) your other components require connectors that your PSU doesn't even use.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817194016

Now it only has 2 of each but you can use the 8 pin in the 6 pin slot. As long as there is room for the exstra 2 pins to hang off. Now where the 8800GTX has 2 connectors new cards will only need a single 8 pin to get the same power. As i understand it anyway.

I had no idea you could use the 8pin in the 6pin. I'll be damned.

I think I'll go with the Silverstone Zeus and take the bet that in 18 months, it will still be powerful enough for the top of the line-ish box then. If it does, sweet. If it doesn't or if the connectors are no longer useful for whatever is out then (the 9900s -- whatever), then at least I've only lost a $244 part instead of a $350 part. If I hadn't been reading about problems with 680i mobos and ram faster than 800mhz (pointed out to me in another thread here and then later googled), I could put that extra $100 into PC8000 instead of PC6400.

Also, as I realize the eVGA 680i (and the eVGA 8800s for that matter) could end up having problems requiring an RMA, I might be on better footing if I can say I have actual SLI certified components.


Edit: Whoops. I thought I had read earlier that the Zeus actually had two 8pins but now that I look again, it actually doesn't. So I guess I will spend some time deciding if I want to spend an extra $100 today in the hopes that I will have what I need for another machine in 18 months -- or just save the $100 today and in 18months I'll be $100 ahead of the game in purchasing the net CPU... probably less risk that way.

 

[Howard_Stern]

Hi mpilchfamily,
I enjoy reading your posts, I know you know your stuff. I wish I would have read this post or your post on PSUs earlier. I bought the 1000 Olympia already and it's being delivered today or tomorrow. I got the Antec 900 case so I'm pretty sure it will fit.

I guess what I'm asking is do you think the Olympia is a good solid PSU? I'm not worried about the extra money I spent (wasted maybe a better word).

Hi Regards,
Howard

 

[cronjob]

I chose the 750W PC Power & Cooling Silencer lastnight, based on a decent price paired with the outstanding reviews I found for it and the reputation they seem to have.

I'm not looking to futureproof, really. Just looking to extend the PSU to another box if possible. Chances are I won't build another box after this until a new graphics card comes out. It is usually the release of the next major generation of graphics cards that prompts me to begin an all new build. While I'm guessing the PSU requirements for the next generation of everything will exceed the one I bought, but I finally concluded three things:

+ With the purchase of a more expensive PSU that may be usable in a new system a year from now, I also take the risk of wasting the extra cash I spent on it if the new machine has requirements such as connectors that the one I buy today doesn't provide. Hopefully we'll be using PCI-E (6 or 8 pin) in a year or two. But maybe we won't?

+ I like to think that in the next year, I'll upgrade most of my system but keep most of the components to reduce cost. But the truth is, I have never upgraded a PC in my life. I have been building machines for myself since I was about fourteen years old and in almost sixteen years the most I have done is added more RAM, more drives and replaced dead parts. I've never upgraded the CPU or GPU. So I have to put weight in what I have historically done as well as what I "hope to do".

+ When I build another machine in a year or so, I'll still want to put this machine to use in some way. So it'll need a PSU.

The machine this PSU will be in will start off as a single 8800 GTX with a dual core E6600, 4x140mm fans, at least 3x120mm fans, several USB devices, a high end sound card (if I can find something that works with the 680i since everyone is having the damn snap crackle pop issue with Sound Blaster cards) and at least 1x 74gb 10k SATA Raptor. I've decided that I am primarily interested in making sure the PSU I chose will be more than sufficient for these considerations. I was a little silly to put so much importance on being able to carry it to the next box with me in a year or so.

The only reason I would have any additional drives on this machine is to store data (150gb MP3s, 4.5tb video, etc). Rather than clutter this machine up with more heat when it's already going to be overclocked and taxing the PSU, I will probably tone down my current box so it consumes less power and puts out less heat and turn it into a Debian file server (since my current file server has no SATA ports).



I will probably go dual 8800 GTX (or dual 89xx GTX if they come out and I'm able to use the eVGA trade-in thing on them) in the next few months. I will be overclocking. I'll be running a lot of fans to keep them cool (at least 4x140mm and 3x120mm) and a 74gb 10k SATA Raptor. Possibly a high-end soundcard if I can find one that doesn't have the snap-crackle-pop problem on the 680i board like everyone seems to be experiencing with Sound Blaster right now. A few USB devices.

Since a new generation of cards usually prompts me to build a new box, this machine will probably only ever host 8xxx GTX cards. One for now, dual in the next few months (possibly 89xx if the eVGA ugprade program actually works out). I may upgrade the CPU if a significantly faster chip comes out at an affordable price. I will probably NOT upgrade to a quad core unless the quads suddenly become very affordable in the next eighteen months AND software starts actually taking advantage of quads. I will be starting off with 2gb Crucial Ballistix 800mhz and will overclock them whenever that becomes safe to do (I understand that if you try to use memory faster than 800mhz -- even if it isn't overclocked, the 680i stops working) and at that point, I will probably go 4gb (because I'll be forced to suffer Windows Vista if I want to go DX10 whenever games I really want start using that).

So, based on my purely unprofessional, limited hardware experience (like I've said elsewhere, I'm a software engineer and know about hardware only what I learn building my own annual game boxes), I think the P&C Power & Cooling 750W Silencer should be plenty of PSU for me.

If I'm wrong, I'm all ears! I've already placed my order and it will arrive in about 20 hours, but I can always return it if there is a convincing reason based on my latest conclusions and long-term plans above.

I will say that this experience here has been informative as I have usually not put forth much research or thought into buying a PSU before. Two boxes ago, I only cared about total wattage. Last year, I cared about wattage and silence and went with what the guy at the local mom and pop retail PC store said (I try to shop local indie stores whenever I can, even if it's more expensive than online simply because I miss the days when they were everywhere). Now that I'm finally realizing how deep this subject is and how interesting it has become in the last few years, I sure will be trying to keep up. It's very interesting!

 

[cronjob]

Yes a year or 2 ago you could just but a PSU with decent wattage and be ok. Unfortunatly the power requierments os the video cards has made that imposible now. You actually have to have some knowledge of PSUs in order to make the right dissisions for your build.

I also took the recent evolution of PSUs into mind when I decided to place less emphasis on carrying this PSU into 2008's build. Even if the PSU I choose today could suffice in a year, I would probably be looking at all of the other cool PSUs and features and efficiencies they offer and think "man, I wish I hadn't spent so much on my 2007 build, because I'd rather have XYZ!".

The Tier1 850W PSUs I could get from Newegg were all around $250 and the 1000W were about $350. The P&C was $230. So I can take that $120 and put it toward 2008's PSU and be happy to get something funky and new then.

Thanks to both of you for your comments, insights and even arguments. I find that disagreements in these forums often shed more light on a topic than everyone just nodding and saying "yep, do that!". So it's all good and all of it completely appreciated. Thanks, guys!