The Extreme Power Supply Calculator is ridiculous

[jamiepotter]

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

Why are the recommendations this thing gives out always too much by a long way? How much money are they getting off PSU manufacturers? (presumably some, because they've got adverts all over it)

Here's an example:
Quad QX6700 overclocked to 3ghz on 1.4v
8800gtx's in sli
Capacitor aging set to 20%, which they recommend
Everything else pretty standard.

Oh, I need 1274 watts, do I? Riii-ggg-hhh-t... Makes me wonder how people have been doing extreme overclocks using this very setup, yet appartently a modest overclock is beyond the bounds of currently available PSUs.

They've just updated it. Before it used to recommend 2000w PSUs! But it still strikes me as utterly absurd. I'm pretty sure an 850w PSU would be fine for this, capacitor aging taken into account.

Is it just me?

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

For a rig like your describing, I wouldnt even look at anything under 1000 watts. Yes I want aging reliance, and yes I want overhead too. My next rig will look something similar like this , just no sli/xf. But THEN Ill want a 850, maybe a 750 IF I can have that overhead.

 

[yakyb]

for the rig you described i got 804W

you didnt happen to select system type quad processor did you as the qx6700 only counts as one processor (ie not like 4x4 )

System Type: Single Processor
Motherboard: High End - Desktop
CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2660 MHz Conroe
Overclocked: 3000 MHz, 1.4 V
CPU Utilization (TDP): 100% TDP

RAM: 4 Sticks DDR2 SDRAM
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Video Type: SLI

SATA HDD: 2 HDDs

DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive: 2 Drives

Sound Blaster - All Models: Yes
Additional PCI Card (avg): 1 Card

USB: 2 Devices
Fan Controller: Yes

Fans
LED: 2 Fans 120mm;

Cold Cathodes: 2 Cathodes

Keyboard and mouse: Yes

System Load: 100 %

Capacitor Aging (+ W %): 20 %



Recommended Wattage: 804 Watts

Bearing in Mind this the absolute MAX the system will use ie all harddrives spinning dvds playing whilst running supcom at full settings whilst also encodeing some video - seems about right to me!

 

[DoubleE460]

In my opinion the comp industry is getting it waay wrong when 1kW psu's are needed for any purpose. It's niche market that should die by itself.
New technology should make current power hungry devices a big laugh.

In perspective... if you invest in a 1kW photovoltaic power generating unit you would need to spend some 6-10k US for that 1 kW and it would take 10-15 years for the investment to break even.

 

[jamiepotter]

Oh my God, I'm a retard. Yep, I'd been selecting quad processor. D'oh!

I apologise to anyone who reads this, and thanks to you yakyb for helping me out. Please disregard my initial post.

 

[tehrobzorz]

good for you