My new power supply won't cut it huh? :( HELP!

Just get a 4870 for now, and then later when you get a 650+w psu, get the 2nd 4870. Or if at all possible, return the psu for a better one

For that system using HD4870s in Crossfire i'd go with the Corsair 750TX.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139006
If you got the 520 from Newegg give them a call on Monday and see if they'll switch it out for you. They've done the same for me before with no restocking charge.

the 520hx WILL work, dont believe me, try it!

even if i am wrong and the psu cant handle you system the worst that could happen is that the psu will turn its self off.

crosshair are a good make and their psus will automaticaly power off in the case of exessive power draw so you have nothing to loose, people allways over estimate the power consumption of high end pcs and it makes me laugh to see people recommending 750w psus for your rig. if you didnt already have a the psu i would recomend something around 600w so you have some room for overclocking and upgrades but 520 will be enough.

here is a source to back up what i am saying... dont waste your money

http://www.behardware.com/articles [...] ption.html

ive read about 10 articles basicaly showing the same thing but i cant be arsed to find em all for you... dont believe the marketing hype

The system with 2 8800 GTXs needed almost 700w at load.... maybe you missed the boat and did not see that his CPU is more demanding than theirs and the cards he wants use more power.... guess 750w really is what you need judging from this. Oh and do not forget, or considering this post please try to actually understand, that a PSU runs best between 25%-75% of the rated wattage, and that's even pushing it. Unless that system would push less than 450w, then even that 520HX would have a relatively short life span.

Yes, you need a new PSU.

I think the person who said you did not, did not realize you wanted to do Crossfire.

same one for 20 bucks less

http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-tx [...] 78325.html

a 8800gtx consumes more power than a hd4870,

a 65nm cpu at 1.5v is VERY unrealistic and will add a **** load of power consumption, even over the 3.2ghz quad he has it will consume ~ 50w more than his i would say

the systems memory was over volted to 2.25v adding ~20w i would estimate

the system in the test set up had 4 hard drives adding at 10w at the very least,

GeForce 8800 GTX had an 185W maximum TDP at launch, dropping to 177w a few months later. acording to http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2 [...] 00_ultra/1

hd 4870 has a tdp of 155w, (a rough averarage of sources only found in forums etc as there was no official source anywere)

the power source in the article http://www.behardware.com/articles [...] ption.html actually SUPPLIES 567.6 watts under these exreme conditions, it CONSUMES 687.6 watts at the wall - PSUs are rated for what they SUPPLY, not what they CONSUME,

so to conclude he WILL be able to run his set up on a 520w psu from a good manufacturer

you say a psu runs "best" between 25 and 75% of its maximum rated output... if you mean it has most of its efficiency in this range then you would be correct, the fact that his pc will stay idle most of the time, unless he ONLY uses it for gaming means it will be in this high efficiency band most of the time, unlike most people who buy over powered psus.

why will running a psu near it limit shorten its lifespan? i have seen no evidence for this, please show me some.