XFX GTX 280 SLI??

[Butcher999]

HEY THERE, CAN I RUN 2 X XFX GTX 280 GRAPHICS CARDS, QX6850@3.9GHZ, 1 DVD R/W AND 3 X SATA 2 HARDDRIVES WITH A COOLERMASTER 850 WATT PSU?? BECAUSE I WANTED TO BUY ANOTHER GTX 280 BUT NOT SURE IF MY PSU WILL POWER ALL. THANKS IN ADVANCE.

 

[sabot00]

How many amps? You should be able to do it but with the OC'd 6850 and 3 HDD's I would get a 950 or 1000.

 

[mtyermom]

STOP YELLING!!!

 

[Butcher999]

Sorry had the caps on

 

[Butcher999]

Would really appreciate the help

 

[jerreece]

How many amps? You should be able to do it but with the OC'd 6850 and 3 HDD's I would get a 950 or 1000.

Keep in mind, Tom's just did their $2500 High End build posting today. They did a system with an OC'd i7 920, 3 hard drives, and 3x GTX 260 Core 216's and showed a high end Wattage use of 760 Watts with CPU & GPU's at full load.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-overclock,2116-13.html

Amperage is where he truly needs to be concerned. Won't necessarily need 950 or 100Watts so long as he has a really good power supply. Now, that's not to say you shouldn't get one that beefy. Keep in mind you should be able to keep your powersupply for 2-3 years if you do your research and get a good enough PSU.

 

[coozie7]

The GTX280 needs 40A if that`s any help.

 

[mtyermom]

Get a PSU with a single powerful rail (all PCP&C and most Corsair units) rather than multiple weaker rails.

 

[brendano257]

I'm not sure about the quality of the CM PSU, look at the Corsair 850TX or for the future get the Corsair 1000HX, both are very high quality PSU's at a decent price.
But it's worth a try with your CM PSU first just in case you don't need to upgrade. But if your going to order the CM one I would recommend a Corsair one.

 

[4745454b]

Why? What difference does that make? Read jonnyguru.com, there is no such thing as trapped power.

Coolermaster makes both good and bad power supplies. Without knowing which model you have, its impossible to say how well your PSU will handle this.

 

[Butcher999]

i have a coolermaster 850watt real power modular power supply if that helps

 

[sabot00]

Keep in mind, Tom's just did their $2500 High End build posting today. They did a system with an OC'd i7 920, 3 hard drives, and 3x GTX 260 Core 216's and showed a high end Wattage use of 760 Watts with CPU & GPU's at full load.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-overclock,2116-13.html

Amperage is where he truly needs to be concerned. Won't necessarily need 950 or 100Watts so long as he has a really good power supply. Now, that's not to say you shouldn't get one that beefy. Keep in mind you should be able to keep your powersupply for 2-3 years if you do your research and get a good enough PSU.

Yeah, LOL, I read the SBM right after the post, so if you got a good PSU I think you can do it.

 

[4745454b]

Probably ok with that one. 60+ amps on the 12V rail, and it looks ok. If a fully loaded system needs 40A with the GTX280, I doubt another one will add 20 more amps.

 

[monsta]

Should work fine

 

[Butcher999]

Thanks all, will invest in the new card soon when prices go down a bit in a couple of weeks, again help much appreciated.

 

[pbrain]

i now swear by Enermax Galaxy...although it is huge in size!

 

[4745454b]

i now swear by Enermax Galaxy...although it is huge in size!

The Galaxy's are nice, but I'm with jonny on this one. The Galaxy is one of the few PSUs where there can be trapped power. It actually has two 12V transformers. One feeds the CPU and motherboard, the other feeds everything else. The problem is that first transformer simply has to much power dedicated to the CPU/Mobo. 408W? For a CPU and motherboard? 200W is plenty, even 300W is excessive, why include another 108 on top of that?

The other larger problem with them is the high ripple on the 3 and 5V rails. They can both meet and exceed ATX specs. I would avoid them because of this. The last problem with these PSUs is the now lowish efficiency of the PSU. They struggle just to get up to 80-82%. Some PSUs can start there, and end up at 85%. Not a huge difference, but if your paying $250+, I'd want it to be the best. (think about the Antec signature or the new Seasonic)