I7 with Antec 430W? Will it last me 4 weeks?

dvanholland

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Is the Antec EarthWatts 430W going to be sufficient enough power supply to get me through a couple of weeks? I am going to buy a new PSU as soon as I get the money, but for the meantime I need to use my old one if it is possible. Here is my build (Everything related to power):

NEW PARTS

SAMSUNG DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223L LightScribe Support - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151188

APEVIA CF12S 120mm Case Fan - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998127

LOGISYS AD202 12V Molex to 8pin P8 Adapter - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812887002

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128374

OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365

OLD PARTS:

Antec EarthWatts 430W
http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NjQ=

EVGA GeForce 9600GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130328

Please let me know if this will work. I am planning on upgrading to at least a 750W PSU as soon as I get the money.

Thanks
 
Solution
well here is the thing you are going to try every thing to lower power consumption while still be able to play games, and cutting power to the gfx is the sure way of crippling your gaming experience, while cutting down on cores or ram speed will have little effect as the games you listed wont use more than 2 cores.

Thus i listed those recommendation in that order for you to use when you run into trouble with the build. Ram voltage drop will save very little compared to shutting off cores and killing HT, standby power for cd/dvd rom is also low compared to i7 but they start to ramp when used.

huron

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So you're willing to buy 2 PSUs at some point to save something like $70-100 total from the initial investment? Yes, I realize that you must want to upgrade that GPU in the future as well.

Do you live near a microcenter by chance? If so, you can get that CPU for $199.99 in store. That'd save you enough to get a PSU now.

How long until you can get the $$$ to upgrade? Why not wait until you have all the money - is it such a stellar deal that you can't pass it up?

 

theholylancer

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also, you can under volt the CPU and ram and put them at slower speeds and that will knock off some power consumption.

the most extreme method i know of is to disable all but two or one cores on the I7 via bios (you can reenable after) and kill off HT and then undervolt the remaining 1 or two cores you have left. This should in theory drop that power draw right down.

also, not plugging any PCIe power connectors on that 9600 GT (if it has any) will put it in low power mode, and that will mean less aggressive performance, but lower power use as well, if you got old games that you can play for now, this would be fine (think wow or counter strike source or UT2004)

to be honest with all these tweaking, what is ur old rig rofl......
 

dvanholland

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Yeah basically the only games I am playing currently are Warcraft 3 and Orange Box. I am upgrading from a P4 3.0 Ghz. I've tried several different PSU calculators but they don't seem very helpful. I have been reading the the i7 requires 8 amps continuous and 13 amps peak while the 9600GT recommends 26 amps for the whole system.
 

theholylancer

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okkkk even with two cores turned off and HT disabled the i7 will nuke that rig out of the water so umm, if you run into trouble with the PSU, go into BIOS and kill off two or three cores for now, disable HT, lower the clock until it starts to act up in some torture test (linx?) and lower the ram vdimm, disconnect the dvd/cd until you absolutely need it. unplug extra PCIe connector from gfx, don't install that case fan and use a house hold fan with its own plug for now and you will be good.
 

dvanholland

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how are you coming up with these assumptions holylancer? From what I have read from other sites and research the i7 only requires 8 amps continuous power (13 peak). If anything my GPU would be more of a problem.
 

theholylancer

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well here is the thing you are going to try every thing to lower power consumption while still be able to play games, and cutting power to the gfx is the sure way of crippling your gaming experience, while cutting down on cores or ram speed will have little effect as the games you listed wont use more than 2 cores.

Thus i listed those recommendation in that order for you to use when you run into trouble with the build. Ram voltage drop will save very little compared to shutting off cores and killing HT, standby power for cd/dvd rom is also low compared to i7 but they start to ramp when used.
 
Solution

theholylancer

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not if his psu is older and the components he is using are older and is consuming more power than it should due to dust and what nots making fans work harder / not clocking it self down enough because it needs more juice. But yes, if everything is new, then what he has should work with little issue.