http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/prod [...] /w0172.asp

I was wondering if Thermaletakes's ToughPower 850W Power Supply could support:

Intel QX6850
EVGA i680i T1 Mobo
EVGA 8800GTX KO w/ACS3
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 8500 2gig
SoundBlaster X-FI
Two Western Digital Raptor HD 150gig/each

Even if I included another EVGA 8800GTX KO w/ACS3 and still have a reasonable margin for further additions for revisions?

Yes. go here to get a number. http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

I got 1072W. Now I am a little worried. I add the extra Video Card and a storage hard drive when I ran the test to make sure it could handle the expansion. I was told that a quality 850W might still be able to handle everything effectively. Anyone got any extra advice?

I'm just really curious how you got 1072W.... I'm getting this PSU myself and my math tells me it should run a quadcore and 2x GTX in SLI just fine.... If you go to SLI Zone: http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

It shows you here what PSU are good for 2x GTX (that's running a X6800, but that shouldn't matter that much...)

I got 695W, with two GTX in SLI. This included a couple of high performance fans, and a couple of USB devices; i used 20% cap aging. I didn't overclock the CPU. Please note that it is a single processor, even though it has four cores.

You used the software incorrectly.

Read the fine print below the processor. A dual core chip is a single processor.

Run the software again and see what you get.

You did something way wrong.

One place of error - Make sure system type is Single Processor and not Quad. You have a single 4-core processor. If you select a Quad 6850 it will assume you have 16 cores.

Even so, with 3HDDs instead of 2 and the system running 100% TDP on the processors, I show under 450w of power.

Got to love the fine print. I messed up the processor section as you all might have already guessed. Thanks guys!

2 of the 12v rails are 30A dedicated so I'd say it should handle what you've listed! But to be on the safe side you might give the Silverstone OP1000 a look, I know for sure it will!

Yeah, that Silverstone 1000 should power just about anything someone with a home computer could build. I'm planning on a Toughpower 850wt myself for my next build. From what I got on the psu calculator, it should handle everything just fine, including two video cards if I go that way. Man these psus are getting big. I remember when my old Alienware came with a 350wt and I thought that was big. Times change, and we keep burning the power.

Hi sailer, Yeah today the P/S needs to be at the top of the list in the build plans, not at the bottom like the old days, especially if O/Cing and multiple graphics cards are concerned. I just bought one of those OP1000, to power my setup I thought all along was sufficiently powered, to discover it wasn't! Its been a tough learning experience but seems to be resolved now. ryan

Hey ryan. Just looked at your hardware config and noted that you have a Cheiftec dragon case. That's what my Alienware came with. I've had that case through three upgrades now, moded it a bit, and it will be the one for my next build. Its a cheap case compared to some they sell these days, but it sure seems to allow me to do anything I want. Of course, maybe I'm just too cheap to buy a modern case. Don't know the answer to that.

Man I have modded and remodded this Cheiftec Dragon case over and over, after getting it I saw no reason to get any other case, just modd this one to what I needed. Its presently modded with 2 / 120mm blowholes, and 1 / 120mm side fan directly blowing on the video card area, I actually used the right side panel to bore and align my holes exactly where I needed them. Swapped the original left side panel to the right side and used graphics to cover the old misaligned holes.

Newest challenge was adding the 1000W P/S its huge length 8 5/8" would have been a show stopper for many other cases, thats 3" longer than a standard P/S, not to mention the wire cable trunk coming out the rear of the P/S added another 2" to make the bends, installing her was definitely a challenge.

The P/S completely blocked the rear 120mm blowhole, leaving about 3/4" clearance over the top of the P/S to the bottom of the fan, not leaving the fan enough draw area to pull air, solved that by relocating the fan outside the case on top, looking pretty impressive actually, and allowing a solid 2" air draw inside, which the fan works great with that much draw area.

Second challenge was installing the Tuniq Tower 120, huge heatsink! When you first open the box and look at it all you can say is WOW!, and first thoughts are can my M/B support that thing? It fit inside the case with room to spare, but wouldn't clear the side fan I had added over the graphics card area, so that fan also was moved on the outside of the side panel, looks great and has better flow also.

Tuniq note: I used a nylon cable tie from the top of the tower to the Cheiftecs case cross brace the P/S rests on, so when the case is upright the cable tie supports the outer weight of the Tuniq, so really the only pressure on the CPU socket is the clamp tension itself, the Tuniq gave me an 8c temp drop instantly over the stock air cooler and the AS5 hasn't burned in good yet.

Did lap the Tuniqs base, its a little on the rough side when you receive it, and you have to be careful handling it, it will cut the crap out of you if you're not careful, but its nice to know when its retired, you can dice vegetables with it quite effectively!

Moving the fans outside the case has made it look quite impressive, I was concerned about it at first, but it also gave much more clearance inside, and outside looks like an industrial grade server, still cool to me and also keeps my room warm in winter! [Just Kidding]

Do you have some pics Ryan? I would love to see how that looks.