New PSU time.. sigh

[snakeeater_za]

Hi guys

My bro currently has a really dodgy 500W psu, which is light as hell, with NO STICKER denoting its capabilities.. When i saw this, I recommended he get a new PSU asap.

His system is pretty similar to mine power wise, but here are his specs:



AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ (stock clock + vcore)
Gigabyte M57SLi-s4
3x 1gb DDR 2 800
2x 250gb Sata hdd
1x DVD-RAM
Inno 3d 8800gtx (stock clocked)
He has 2x big fans, and two smaller ones, some have LED's, I cant really see, his case is a mess!

The 585W Odin Gigabyte PSU I have puts out 460 continuous, and 34A on the two 12v rails - Would this be sufficient? It is fine for my GTS 250, and my 45nm o'ced Intel E5200, but his card and CPU are older, more power hungry variants. Should we be looking for more than 34A/460W continuous?

Thanks in advance.

PS We can get Gigabyte easily from a mate of mine, if need be there is also the modular Odin 550 W, 41A on 12v rails which is an option.

 

[hefox]

It will be more than sufficient. His system uses up to 400W so it's fine.

 

[theAnimal]

It will be more than sufficient. His system uses up to 400W so it's fine.

Without OCing, the system will not top 300W. A PSU with 408W on 12V would be a good choice for a 400W system.

 

[hefox]

Wrong, it will top even 400 W. Now depends what he is doing. If he stays on Excel, of course not. But you don't know what he is doing with the pc.

 

[theAnimal]

Wrong, it will top even 400 W. Now depends what he is doing. If he stays on Excel, of course not. But you don't know what he is doing with the pc.

Dual core CPU - 50-70W
Mobo, RAM - 35W
Drives - 15-30W
8800GTX - 150W
Fans & LEDs - 15W

That's a rough maximum power consumption. Where's the other 100W+ going?

 

[delluser1]

PS We can get Gigabyte easily from a mate of mine, if need be there is also the modular Odin 550 W, 41A on 12v rails which is an option.

Lucky you, hard to find around here and expensive when you do.
Like theAnimal stated; the system won't top 300 watts without any overclocking.
If the 550 you're talking about is the GT and is within budget it's a pretty neat toy that will give you some insight into actual power consumption.

 

[hefox]

Motherboard - 35W
Processor - 80 W (100% load)
Ram - 14 W
2 x HDD - 49 W
DVD-rom - 27 W
8800 GTX - 146 W
2 x LED 80 mm - 5 W
2 x 120 mm - 9 W
Total 365 W
If we add also some usb devices...each one of 3 W... I think we getting there.

 

[theAnimal]

2 x HDD - 49 W
DVD-rom - 27 W

Those are only for spin-up, actual load wattage is much lower.

 

[hefox]

I know but you get the point. It can get to that. Also you don't take in consideration what he will add in the future or what changes he will do.
My point is that is better to make sure that you have a power supply that can sustain a full load for few seconds. Don't get my wrong guys, I understand perfectly what you try to point out but always I am using "if" to be 100% sure.

 

[jsc]

Dual core CPU - 50-70W
Mobo, RAM - 35W
Drives - 15-30W
8800GTX - 150W
Fans & LEDs - 15W

That's a rough maximum power consumption. Where's the other 100W+ going?

Not only that, the motherboard will be powered by the 5 volt output and the memory by the 3.3 volt output, dropping the load on the 12 volt rails a little.

I would power something like this with a 550 - 600 watt PSU. I prefer to run my PSU's at a 50% - 70% load, and I'm not on a tight budget.

 

[snakeeater_za]

Thanks guys. They do have SLI compatible mobo's, which they might use in the future so maybe we should look at something bigger to keep it at 70% load. I will talk to him tonite and get back here.

Thanks for all the advice offered!

 

[snakeeater_za]

Wrong, it will top even 400 W. Now depends what he is doing. If he stays on Excel, of course not. But you don't know what he is doing with the pc.

He will be gaming mostly - COD 4 and 5, GTA 4 and dota.

 

[theAnimal]

Thanks guys. They do have SLI compatible mobo's, which they might use in the future so maybe we should look at something bigger to keep it at 70% load. I will talk to him tonite and get back here.

Thanks for all the advice offered!

It won't be over 70%.

 

[hefox]

As I said, the psu is fine.