GTX 280 and FSP Blue Storm II 500W ?!

[Maximal_Xen]

Hello,
Can someone tell me if a FSP Blue Storm II 500 W PSU is enough for a GTX 280 in a Intel C2D E4300 OC based rig ?

Thank you in advance, and hope to find the right answer, `cause I am waiting to make an upgrade from a Leadtek 8800 GT ZL Superclocked (742 MHz - GPU, 2200 MHz - GDDR, 1836 MHz Shaders) to a EVGA or XFX GTX 280 standard to be OC.

Cheers,

C.

 

[hell_storm2004]

It should be enough. I doubt the quality of the PSU though.

 

[Maximal_Xen]

Thank you for your opinion, as for the FSP Brand also know as Fortron, i have read about it and it has a good performance/price balance. I have sold this brand for a few years and proved to be quite solid !

 

[sportsfanboy]

Here's a review from Jonny Guru, it's actually not a bad psu. The power supply doesn't have MOV built in to it's circuitry to help against surges, and you need to keep it cool. That appears to be the main difference with the storm 2 over the newer more trusted companies like Seasonic and corsair.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=84

On a side not, you might want to overclock your chip a bit in order to handle the gtx 280.

 

[Maximal_Xen]

So much appreciate your response sportsfanboy, I have read the xsreviews.co.uk review, and this johnnyguru review is a good one too.

My CPU Intel C2D E4300 is now @3150 MHz, very stable with an Scythe "INFINITY" Tower Cooler. I think it can do well at 3250 MHz too or more if it needs to

What`s you opinion on this, can it handle the GTX 280 ?

And a side question, between EVGA and XFX, what do you think?

( http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/cpu/024/scinf1000.html )

 

[sportsfanboy]

It should be able to handle the card, it seems to lower in performance as it warms up around 45c. Keep it cool and you should be fine. Between EVGA and XFX I would lean towards EVGA but they are both good.

That's a pretty good overclock for that chip. I would leave it there unless you can go higher keeping the voltage under 1.5 and temps under 70c prime loaded on the cores.

Edit: here's a power calculator for full system power draw. Keep in mind this isn't 100 percent accurate, but will give you a pretty good idea if you have enough power. http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

[sportsfanboy]

I don't agree, a good quallity 500w psu can run most if not all single card setups.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251702-33-power-requirements-build

 

[hell_storm2004]

^^Yeah. Most of today's cards are becoming so much more power conscious that we may see a day 550W PSU with CF/SLI setups in them!!

Its like the fad in the fashion world of becoming size zero models!

 

[KBentley57]

Let me throw in my .02 cents. using a kill-a-watt meter, my rig only uses about 530 W from the psu under max load. even a 550 Watt would be enough for me, and im running xfire'd 4870's with an OCed 955.

People way over-estimate the power draw from some of these builds.

 

[sportsfanboy]

Yes sir they do

 

[Maximal_Xen]

That's right, everything these days is about media marketing on how to convince you to buy a more powerful PSU for the hungry energy eating PC's. You hear people hitting a 1000 W PSU on their rig, c'mon man, what is that machine doing, drilling tunnels on mountains? )

Thank you Sportsfanboy and kbentley57 for your time, and all of you who spiced up the topic.

I think my FSP Fortron Blue Storm II is enough for a crazy GTX 280.

 

[mosox]

Buy a less power hungry card like the HD 6850/6870. They overclock very well especially the first one.

 

[sportsfanboy]

One of the main reasons for over estimating power usage is because of all the crappy power supplies out there. The companies don't want you to buy a card that might not run so they over estimate to compensate for all underpowered low efficiency psu's.

 

[sportsfanboy]

You don't trust all the testing Jonny Guru does? Not sure I get that logic. Some reviews are a matter of opinion and some are through extensive testing and the outcome is fact. A review from a reliable source can be very helpful.

I think you've lost track of the point of this thread. He's asking if what he has will be enough for a gtx280, and the answer is yes. He obviously doesn't want to buy a psu with 2x headroom if the psu he has now will be sufficient for his power needs.

 

[mosox]

No, some OCZ PSUs are made by FSP not the other way around.

 

[apache_lives]

agreed with the over rated psu

if you work it out, a solid 300w PSU can handle a GTX260 with a Core2 Duo, 2 hdd's and other average equipement

if a psu says 550 i would also EXPECT 550w *constant* (obviously give a little head room but not like 50% or anything)

most if not all corsair psu's will do more then the rated power easily

 

[Maximal_Xen]

One of the main reasons for over estimating power usage is because of all the crappy power supplies out there. The companies don't want you to buy a card that might not run so they over estimate to compensate for all underpowered low efficiency psu's.

My feelings exactly !

 

[Maximal_Xen]

theres not a lot wrong with the psu but that gfx card and cpu just wont work well together. especially in games like bad company 2, shift, black ops and a lot of other recent titles. even oc'd 2 4.0 ghz.
really you want a quad 2.4ghz minimum for a gtx280 to get a balance that will allow smooth game play on gpu or cpu dependant games.

you will find you will have to max out the vid settings on every game you play and still suffer from low fps because the gpu will still only be pushing 50 percent usage. due to an underpowerd cpu.

we are talking 30 to 40 fps max and minimum of 0 fps...

my recommendation is forget the gtx280 till you have a cpu that can handle it propperly. and settle for a gtx250 or gtx450 which will give a respectable 60 fps at a modest resolution of 1440/900.

You may be right L-S-D. For some time `been thinking of changing that CPU , but I imagined that running at that speed would be enough for a new gen GPU.
What CPU in particular would you recommend for me, on a LGA 775 ?

Thanks !

 

[hell_storm2004]

Q9550 should be your choice. Check for the prices in your area and see if it fits your budget. I can say that that CPU is still very expensive!

 

[Maximal_Xen]

Q9550 should be your choice. Check for the prices in your area and see if it fits your budget. I can say that that CPU is still very expensive!

Thanks, if is to expensive, I will look for one used, or something like that...

 

[Maximal_Xen]

if you cant stretch to that then a q8400 is a nice chip with reasonable over-clocking potential.

Thanks L-S-D, I will look for it.

Cheers

 

[shovenose]

Yeah with that calculator you must x2 the total so that you have headroom and run it at its full effiency. PSU's run only at their efficiency when they run on 40-60 percent load.

thats crap. first of all, most psu calc overstate hat you need, in an attempt to offset some of the $h!t power supplies out there. also, the max efficiency doesnt matter really to the performance of the psu. sure you dont want to run a psu at 100% load for along time but its not neccessary to only run it at 40% load.