Power Supplies

[Marduke_12]

Ok, I have a question seems that I get multiple answers on this on other WWW pages, and since Tomshardware to me is dependable I am going to ask here.
Here is my delima, I bought a 850w psu from Apower and it crashed on me after 6 months. I need to know what is the watts I really need, on EVGA www page it says I need a 500w min for my graphics card, but other people says otherwise. Here is my current rig

Giabyte MA74GM-S2 MB
AMD PHENOM X3 8650 CPU
EVGA NVDIA 260 GRAPHICS CARD
2 DDR2 PC6400 4 GIG MEMORY CHIPS
5 STANDARD SATA HDS
2 IDE HDS
3 SMALL FANS FOR CASE
LIGHTS GOING AROUND FRONT OF CASE
3 USB'S BUT THEY 2 ARE SELF POWERED

I do not overclock. I know people say you get what you paid for, so I am not looking at a corsair or OZX PSU. what is the min wattage I would need, I am not planning on adding more hds, I am actuallt planing on buying a 2tb to replace 3 hds. Thanks for your time

Aaron Hart

 

[delluser1]

so I am not looking at a corsair or OZX PSU. what is the min wattage I would need
Aaron Hart

I'm hoping the first part of that is some kind of typo.
A good quality 500-550 watt unit from either manufacturer would be more than sufficient.

 

[Scotteq]

/agreed I am *not* a believer in skimping on the PSU. They're not that expensive to begin with, and a bad or marginal one can cause endless headaches.

Corsair, OCZ, PC Power and Cooling...

In your wattage range, and less than $100:

OCZ - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341001 $80, less $20 mail in rebate.

Corsair: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004 $90, less $10 maikjl in rebate (highly recommended)

 

[dunklegend]

The Fortron PSUs, are very dependable also.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The general rule of thumb is a high quality 500 to 550 watt power supply with sufficient current (amps) on the 12 volt rail(s) can easily power a system with any single video card made. A high quality 700 to 750 watt power supply with sufficient current (amps) on the 12 volt rail(s) can power a system with two video cards operating in dual mode. There are some exceptions such as the ATI Radeon HD 5XXX series card which are a little more energy efficient.

Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, and Seasonic are some of brands with a reputation for high quality. They consistently earn high marks in technical reviews. They are stable, reliable, and come with a 5 year warranty. Lately we've been seeing other brands offering some high quality power supplies.

 

[dunklegend]

How many Amperes are "sufficient" for the 12 Volt rail?

 

[jsc]

How many Amperes are "sufficient" for the 12 Volt rail?

Depends what you are powering with it.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The high quality 500 to 550 watt power supplies are usually rated at 40 amps on the 12 volt rail(s). The high quality 700 to 750 watt power supplies are usually rated at 60 amps on the 12 volt rail(s).

The videos cards do not require all that current. In fact, most cards don't use very much current at all. The 12 volt rail(s) power many other components and account for about 75% of the power consumption.

 

[dunklegend]

One more question.

I have this thread open.
What kind of PSU do I need to buy so it has the 8 pin connector that the Gigabyte mobos use?

 

[blackhawk1928]

marduke, as dell user said, I hope you meant to say something else when you said "i am not looking for corsair or OCZ" because corsair makes outstanding powersupplies and so does OCZ....ESPECIALLY CORSAIR which consititantly earns the best or excellent ratings on most sellers. Corsair as a matter a fact would be the PSU i would recommend. I good 550 watt would do fine.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

One example would be the high quality Corsair VX550:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004

It has a 4+4 pin connector which can be used either as a 4 pin or an 8 pin motherboard connection. They've got both types covered.

 

[dunklegend]

Thank you Johnny