Triple CrossFire 5870s and HX1000 .

[Del52]

Hi there,

A quick question on whether a 1000w power supply can handle tri crossfire 5870s.

Just wanted some thoughts on whether the Corsair HX1000 could [safely] manage 3 5870s with the following system (so you can see what else is drawing power):

Asus Rampage III Extreme
Intel i-7 950 CPU (Assume OC to 3.6 or 3.8)
12GB OCZ Reaper 2000
Corsair H70 CPU Cooler
OCZ PCI-e RevoDrive (120G)
1TB SATA HDD
DVD/Blu-Ray Combo Drive

With the following additional items also drawing power:
1 x 230mm Fan
3 x 200mm Fan (two with LED)
1 x 140mm Fan
1 x 120mm Fan
1 x 80mm Fan
2 x Ram coolers
4 High Powered USB devices
2 Low powered USB devices.

I look forward to your thoughts! Thanks for any help. Cheers!

 

[wa1]

Wow, great specs you have there...

To answer your question, yes you can run 3 HD5870 along with all components above on Corsair 1000W PSU.

 

[notty22]

I like where ocz is going with those Revo drives. But I looked at your m/b choice.
The revo needs a x4 slot.
The x4 slot on that m/b is under the second pcie x16 slot. Which means it will be covered if there is a double slot 5870 there.
I agree the HX1000 is capable of pushing that config or more.

 

[Del52]

Thanks for the responses. I perhaps too hastily prepared my post without mentioning why I was asking.

It seems, from reviews of trifire 5870s that power consumption is in the vicinity of 650w under load. See for example, http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http://www.hardware.info/nl-NL/articles/amdnampoZGCa/Clash_of_the_Titans_3way_SLI_GTX_480_test/&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1. That page provides 641 watts under load for Stalker.

Another post tested tri 5870s with a HX1000: http://au.gamespot.com/features/6264201/index.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=picks&tag=picks%3Btitle%3B3. But the test machine used may not have been setup to account for capacitor ageing.

However, PSU calculators seem to press much closer to the 1000w mark (or above) when taking into account capacitor ageing etc... so I'm somewhat hesitant to assume the 1000w PSU is satisfactory.

The x4 slot on that m/b is under the second pcie x16 slot. Which means it will be covered if there is a double slot 5870 there.

Thanks for the comment. Unless I am mistaken though, you can use PCI in any slot of an equal, or greater size. So, a PCI-e x4 card can be used in PCI-e x16 also. Feel free to correct me though!

Thanks guys, I look forward to any further comments.

 

[ortoklaz]

Hi there,

A quick question on whether a 1000w power supply can handle tri crossfire 5870s.

Just wanted some thoughts on whether the Corsair HX1000 could [safely] manage 3 5870s with the following system (so you can see what else is drawing power):

Asus Rampage III Extreme
Intel i-7 950 CPU (Assume OC to 3.6 or 3.8)
12GB OCZ Reaper 2000
Corsair H70 CPU Cooler
OCZ PCI-e RevoDrive (120G)
1TB SATA HDD
DVD/Blu-Ray Combo Drive

With the following additional items also drawing power:
1 x 230mm Fan
3 x 200mm Fan (two with LED)
1 x 140mm Fan
1 x 120mm Fan
1 x 80mm Fan
2 x Ram coolers
4 High Powered USB devices
2 Low powered USB devices.

I look forward to your thoughts! Thanks for any help. Cheers!

this my help:
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

[leon2006]

I'll go for HX1200. For the money spent the cost difference between HX1000 and HX1200 is insignificant.

The min range is 800W which questionable as the calculator from Antec and Outervision could not account for more than 2x video card (SLI or CF). Corsair lowend recommendation is 950W PSU. Corsair calculator accomodates for the actual number of GPU card.

http://www.corsair.com/psufinder/results.aspx?cpu_id=1155920&vc_id=1155903&card_count=3&hd_num=325798&cpu_oc=True&cpu_oc_ex=False&vc_oc=False

For practical purposes you are already spending considerable amount of money. Go for the HX1200.

 

[letsgetsteve]

On the Corsair website it says that the hx1000 is good for 2 X GTX 295's or 3 5870's. I would tend to agree with them.

 

[Del52]

I saw that too letsgetsteve. ATI doesn't certify the PSU for 3 (or even 2) 5870s though: http://support.amd.com/us/certified/power-supplies/Pages/details.aspx?item=108; and I'm not sure what Corsair accounted for in respect of other things drawing power, such as additional fans or overclocking. It certainly presents a grain of hope though!

I am tempted to agree with Leon2006 in that a 1200 watt PSU would be better. I'd be happy to go that path and spend the extra money, however I have had some difficulty finding quality 1200+ PSUs in Australia. I have been considering the Corsair AX1200 or the SilverStone Strider ST1500, but neither seem to be currently available. This is another reason I'm canvassing whether I can get by on the HX1000.

Cheers for the responses.

 

[OvrClkr]

I saw that too letsgetsteve. ATI doesn't certify the PSU for 3 (or even 2) 5870s though: http://support.amd.com/us/certified/power-supplies/Pages/details.aspx?item=108; and I'm not sure what Corsair accounted for in respect of other things drawing power, such as additional fans or overclocking. It certainly presents a grain of hope though!

I am tempted to agree with Leon2006 in that a 1200 watt PSU would be better. I'd be happy to go that path and spend the extra money, however I have had some difficulty finding quality 1200+ PSUs in Australia. I have been considering the Corsair AX1200 or the SilverStone Strider ST1500, but neither seem to be currently available. This is another reason I'm canvassing whether I can get by on the HX1000.

Cheers for the responses.

You should be able to get by just fine with that HX1000.

http://www.corsair.com/psufinder/default.aspx

type in what you have and you will find your answer, make sure you click on the overclocked options

On a side note : the whole system power (load) is not even 900w to the wall, an i7 920 @ 3.8Ghz pulls around 225/250w max LOAD (CPU/RAM). An overclocked CPU and GPU/GPU's is what normally hogs the PSU, the fans/drives/usb peripherals don't draw much power..

 

[Just a nickname]

Just wondering if you took in consideration that all PSU have higher efficiency under 80% of use (really not sure of that number, I'm trying to find back my source).
From what you said and Del52 quoted, only the CPU and tri would drain 900W (650+250).
I guess that Del52 will try to push a lil more his card for the extra free performances and I am really sceptic with the fact that a 1000W PSU would do the job according to these numbers!

Just to know: could you please add the model number of the card?
If you don't know which one you'll get yet, I recommend, no I implore you to not take rev2 models. Those are craps! No voltage regulator, noisy fan, can't install after market cooler and many other cons over the regular PCB model!

Reference models usually have a fan in the back and non-reference have fan in the middle! BTW, from what I've heard, both card don't have a great cooler, but you can at least change the one of the reference.

 

[Del52]

Hi 'Just a nickname' (nice name ).

Just to know: could you please add the model number of the card?
If you don't know which one you'll get yet, I recommend, no I implore you to not take rev2 models. Those are craps! No voltage regulator, noisy fan, can't install after market cooler and many other cons over the regular PCB model!

Reference models usually have a fan in the back and non-reference have fan in the middle! BTW, from what I've heard, both card don't have a great cooler, but you can at least change the one of the reference.

The model I have ordered is ASUS EAH5870/2DIS/1GD5/V2.

It is the second version ASUS 5870, and differs from the reference design.

I have read that the fan is somewhat unpleasant at 100%. But, from what I understand the card uses 2 amp rated voltage regulators - perhaps the reference design uses higher rated regulators, I'm not sure. There have been some reasonable reviews of the card, so I am not overly concerned. I would like to hear any thoughts you have though Just a nickname.

Regarding cooling, there is an EK water block (EK-FC5870 ASUS V2 Acetal Nickel) that suits the ASUS version 2. The next step in cooling is likely to be that, so I'm safe on that front as there is something available. I haven't looked at aftermarket air cooling for the ASUS version 2 though, as I don't see myself going down that path.

From what you said and Del52 quoted, only the CPU and tri would drain 900W (650+250).
I guess that Del52 will try to push a lil more his card for the extra free performances and I am really sceptic with the fact that a 1000W PSU would do the job according to these numbers!

UPDATE: I ended up finding a SilverStone ST1500 and placed an order. 1500 watts is undeniably overkill, and I probably would have preferred a Corsair AX-1200, but my choice was dictated by availability. Thanks to everyone for their comments, but I felt the need to err on the side of caution and go with something > 1000watts (it was nagging at me!).

Cheers all,
Del.