Building a PC - Power Supply Question

[Brianish]

I took a look at the Power Supply FAQ, but I'll admit that my brain shut off by the end of part 1. Electricity was never my strong suit. So, if anyone could give me a ballpark as to what kind of power supply specs I should look at, I'd appreciate it.

To start, I'm going to be running an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0 GHz LGA 775 Processor.

I'm planning on this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130365

It recommends a minimum of 550 Watts, but I'm planning on buying another and running them with SLI in the future, probably 4 or 5 months down the line.

The case has a 120 mm fan and a 250 mm fan, the larger with LED lights. I'll be using 4 sticks of 2 GB DDR2, planning to upgrade to 4 sticks of 4 when the price drops. I'm using a 16x/48x DVD Burner, and an 18x/48x DVD Rom. I'll also be running 1 SATA 7200 RPM hard drive, and 1 IDE hard drive, which I believe is also 7200 RPM.

I've checked out some power supply calculators, but I'm not sure they're giving me enough information.

If anyone could just ballpark the sort of specs I should be looking for, I'd be really appreciative. I intend to top the necessity by a bit, just to be safe, so an estimate would probably do.

 

[Brianish]

I should mention I might add a second 120 mm fan to the case, just to be on the safe side.

 

[theAnimal]

You should get a GTX285 instead for around the same price as that card.

A good quality 600W+ PSU with the required PCIe connectors would be sufficient. Corsair TX750, Seasonic M12 700 or Silverstone ST60F or ST60EF would be good choices.

 

[Brianish]

nvidia's SLI site recommends quite a bit larger. Are they just looking to make money off of it and/or cover themselves by erring deep into the side of caution?

Also, I notice that the 285 here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130442

doesn't have a minimum recommended wattage. Is it likely that by upgrading to that I could save myself money on the power source?

 

[dirtmountain]

An overclocked Q9550 with 2 GTX 280s in SLI would draw about 610w at full load. With 2 GTX285s it would be about 560w. That's with 2x 120mm fans, 1 hard drive, 2 sticks of DDR2 800RAM. I'd go a minimum of 750w especially if you add a couple more HD and some fans, even a 850w wouldn't be excessive.

http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index.php?showtopic=264
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-2-overclock,2146-14.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009

 

[Brianish]

I was looking somewhat idly at this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817815003

But I know nothing about the brand. Are they any good?

 

[theAnimal]

THG had an OCed 9550 with a 4870x2 (close to 2 GTX285) and it only used 530W at the wall, which is ~450W DC. A 600W would have no trouble with that.

 

[theAnimal]

I was looking somewhat idly at this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817815003

But I know nothing about the brand. Are they any good?

I would skip that one.

Do you want modular?

 

[dirtmountain]

I haven't seen a quality review of that particular PSU, the Xigmatek 500w got an 8.5 rating from www.jonnyguru.com which is pretty good for a group regulated PSU, but i'd personally go with the Corsair.
Personally i'd prefer to run my PSUs at about 60% of their rated load, they get better efficiency, run cooler, run quieter and last longer.

 

[Brianish]

I'd prefer it for simplicity's sake but the case is big enough that I don't really care. Some extra wires hanging around won't be too much in the way.

Edit - Modular, that is.

 

[jaguarskx]

I recommend the following Corsair 650w PSU (made by Seasonic):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

It's not modular though.

 

[Brianish]

The 650 actually doesn't have enough cables for 2 of them. I'm thinking the 850 but something a bit odd: I ran it through Corsair's calculator. When I ran my initial (285, non-SLI) setup, it said 520 would suffice. When I added in the SLI card, it boosted up to 1000. Adding one component nearly doubled the recommendation. Anyone know why? (Lacking other evidence, I'm guessing it's to make more money).