wicky woo

Distinguished
Jan 30, 2010
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Hi, I'm wondering if i should get a new PSU, if its not enough to power my system stably. I have:
OCZ 600W GameXStream
Q9550 Currently at 400x8.5 ( 1.18)
Asus P5Q pro
G.skill DDR2-800
GTX 260 core 216 @ 700/1509/1150
6 extra LED fans
I'm wondering if i'm pushing my PSU hard if it'll last or not? I plan to OC past 3.4 to a possible 4ghz, so thats extra wattage in total? Will this 600W be enough, or shall i upgrade to be safe...?
 
Solution
You should not have any problems with the power supply. It is more than sufficient for your system.

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 a few exceptions like the new ATI Radeon HD 5XXX series cards which use less power due to their energy efficiency.
You should not have any problems with the power supply. It is more than sufficient for your system.

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 a few exceptions like the new ATI Radeon HD 5XXX series cards which use less power due to their energy efficiency.
 
Solution
The wattage is fine ..... the quality would appear to be good for a "stock PC" under light loads. If you want to do serious overclocking, I'd say no. First off I want to start off by saying that it is generally not a goof idea to judge one PSU by a review of its sibling. Individual lines must be judged separately but even different models among the lines must be suspect when comparing because they many actually be made by different manufacturers. Most PSU vendors you'd recognize do not in fact make the products they sell.

That being said, here's a review of the next model up (700w) in the GameXstream line where it seems that the 700 w model at least has some serious ripple issues which drop the rating down to only 7.5

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=24

Again, that doesn't necessarily mean the 600w model suffers from the same problem but as you can see below, the reviewer obtained a 600W version and it had the same issues, as did the replacement 700W OCZ sent. The fact that it was the only PSU they ever tested that failed the ATX spec would be enough for me to move on to something else. In general, I think of an 8.5 performance rating as acceptable for a stock system .... 9.0 for moderate OC's, 9.5 for more aggressive OS's w/ one GPU and 10.0 for serious OC w/ twin GPU's.

Ripple can be quite frustrating when trying to OC. Whether your MoBo's voltage regulators have to overwork themselves to correct it or your vCore starts dancing all over the place, it doesn't spell good things for stable overclocking.

ATX specification has an "allowance" for 120mV. Mind you, test 6 was very stressful, pushing the power supply to it's limits, but it doesn't change the fact that the ripple exceeded spec and this is the first power supply to date I have had do this.

What's wrong with too much ripple? Well, if the voltage fluctuates too erratically, it can over work other regulators used to provide Vcore to the CPU, GPU, etc.

A representative of OCZ did find my findings concerning and asked that I return the unit for an exchange. I did so, and in the interim I obtained an FSP Epsilon 600W. The 600W version of the power supply the OCZ GameXstream is based on. In testing that unit, I found a good deal of ripple as well. When a brand new GameXstream was finally returned to me, I immediately plugged it in and found the same results as the first sample.
 

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