Is my power supply good enough?

[vexun11]

Hello everyone, I just added a second Radeon 5830 to my i7 930 rig and am having issues overclocking my CPU, I used to be able to run it at 4ghz w/ HT on before I ran crossfire, now that I am running crossfire I cant get it above 3.5ghz or it will blue screen. I am assuming that my Corsair TX650W PSU isn't enough power? I read that my radeon 5830's each draw 175W and my i7 930 draws around 150, I am running 2 500gb 7200 sata drives, 1 cd/dvdrw drive, 5 120MM fans, 2x2gb ddr3 1600 memory and I think that's pretty much it other then my usb 3.0 external 2TB seagate drive, mouse keyboard, self powered bose companion 2 speakers (they suck) and a 27'' LCD @ 1080P and a 22'' monitor @ 1680x1050.

I am able to make it through 3dmark 11 with my video cards at stock and cpu @ 3.5ghz I am happy with my score, I get around 6800 in 3dmark 11 but I can't overclock my 5830 anymore which makes me sad because I had it running at 975/1200 and it was running perfect, now I can't take it over 850/1100.

Do I need a new power supply? I added everything up and it looks like its a little under 600W at load. Am I wrong?

 

[davcon]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-5830-review/11
Yep you're a little lite on the 12V rails if you want to o'c your cpu and gpu's.
The TX650 has 52A it's pretty much maxed out when adding the 2nd 5830.
Would explain your issues.
You need a better unit with higher 12V amps and 4 x PCI-E pins.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007657%2050002120&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=58%7C17%2D207%2D016%5E17%2D207%2D016%2DTS%2C17%2D139%2D021%5E17%2D139%2D021%2DTS%2C17%2D116%2D016%5E17%2D116%2D016%2DTS
XFX 750W PRO750W
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=59617&vpn=P1750SNLB9&manufacture=XFX
XFX 750W PRO750W XXX
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=62224&vpn=P1750BNLG9&manufacture=XFX

 

[nikorr]

Input your data here,

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

[nikorr]

BTW, is your PSU new? If used for a year of gaming, it might not have the power u need to run all your HW.

 

[serialkiller]

i think u should upgrade to @least 750 that would do .
850w is good so as to keep head room for oc .
Corsair and seasonic makes best power supplys and also silverstone

 

[vexun11]

There isn't an option for that right now, I for sure will get a new power supply as soon as I can afford it but for now I am stuck with this, will I be safe if I just keep my cpu and gpu's at stock clock, maybe disable hyperthreading and unplug a hard drive?

I also added capacitor aging 20% in psu, ive had it for a year and half with my radeon 5830 and i7 not overclocked too much, I added a few extra things like 10 usb, both my hard drives as high performance, both my cathodes, a 1ghz cpu overclock with voltage at 1.3 just to see how much headroom I might have and it went up to 565W recommended.

I know it's not all about wattage, it's about the rails but will I be safe running what I am running?

 

[nikorr]

There isn't an option for that right now, I for sure will get a new power supply as soon as I can afford it but for now I am stuck with this, will I be safe if I just keep my cpu and gpu's at stock clock, maybe disable hyperthreading and unplug a hard drive?

Is your PSU new?

 

[tiang]

Since there is no option for you, you better disable one of your graphic card. You don't damages done to the motherboard and other parts. Disable hyperthreading or hard drive will not save much of the power for others use.

 

[vexun11]

Input your data here,

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

I put all my data in, including led's on my fans and it shows Minimum PSU Wattage: 454 W - Recommended
PSU Wattage: 504W

 

[vexun11]

I also added capacitor aging 20% in psu, ive had it for a year and half with my radeon 5830 and i7 not overclocked too much, I added a few extra things like 10 usb, both my hard drives as high performance, both my cathodes, a 1ghz cpu overclock with voltage at 1.3 just to see how much headroom I might have and it went up to 565W recommended.

I know it's not all about wattage, it's about the rails but will I be safe running what I am running?

 

[HEXiT]

your i7 should clock to 3.6 at the very least on stock volts (under 1.20v(or up to 140w)) even ocd the system should still run as your not gonna get anywhere near 600w unless your benching and idle your probably drawing no more than 120w if you leave power saving on the cpu as i do with my oc of 3.6-3.8. or 240 if you dont.

byw what error does the bsod throw up? if its error 124 then it definitely is a power problem.

 

[vexun11]

I run 3.8ghz w/ HT @ 1.25v

So you think I am fine with my current power supply?? Is it just the 52v rail that's maxed out and that's why I can't overclock as much? I get a higher score in 3dmark 11 with my cpu stock @ 2.8ghz then I do 3.8ghz

 

[nikorr]

If u played a lot, aging should be 50%. It is the PSU.

Yes you are maxed out when u added the 2nd 5830.

Like Davcon said above.

 

[vexun11]

I haven't gamed too much but ill add 50%, thats crazy a psu can age that fast..

There were times where i went a few weeks without gaming, other times a few hours a day.

At the bottom it said this:


4 Electrolytic capacitor aging. When used heavily or over an extended period of time (1+ years) a power supply will slowly lose some of its initial wattage capacity. We recommend you add 10-20% if you plan to keep your PSU for more than 1 year, or 20-30% for 24/7 usage and 1+ years.

 

[vexun11]

Since there is no option for you, you better disable one of your graphic card. You don't damages done to the motherboard and other parts. Disable hyperthreading or hard drive will not save much of the power for others use.

Even though my wattage use is less then 550 at peak load you I could do damage to my system? Is it because I am maxing out the rails??

I asked what psu I could get on toms hardware and I was told this psu would work good for crossfire, on the package it says it guarantees it will work with SLI or crossfire, does that mean with a GPU that isn't so heavy on wattage?

 

[vexun11]

This site doing a review on the 5830 is showing that a 650w power supply would work for 5830 in crossfire:

Radeon HD 5830

The card requires you to have a 500 Watt power supply unit at minimum if you use it in a high-end system. That power supply needs to have (in total accumulated) at least 35~40 Amps available on the +12 volts rails.
Radeon HD 5830 CrossfireX

A second card requires you to add another 170 Watts. You need a 650+ Watt power supply unit if you use it in a high-end system. That power supply needs to have (in total accumulated) at least 45~50 Amps available on the +12 volts rails.

Got that info from here:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-5830-review/11


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok so it's 6:00AM and I am now having issues booting into windows, I blue screen right after I get in, I switched monitors from the bottom card to the top and things seem stable, but if I restart who knows what will happen, this is the report I got, can anyone identify what this problem might be? :

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 101
BCP1: 0000000000000031
BCP2: 0000000000000000
BCP3: FFFFF88002F64180
BCP4: 0000000000000002
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\021112-38859-01.dmp
C:\Users\VeXun\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-63804-

0.sysdata.xml

(I apologize for adding 2 more messages, it wouldn't let me edit my previous 2 posts.)

 

[delluser1]

Let's throw the capacitor aging out the window please.
OP would need to be running his system flat out 24/7 for a couple of years before cap aging set in enough to maybe be noticeable.
As for OP's system maxing out a Corsair 650, let's go to the review
"System with GPU in FULL Stress = 325 Watts"
Now let's factor in 90% efficiency ( since I can't remember which psu they are using )
325*.9 = 292.5
Now we need another graphics card, X-bit labs says ~125 watts when gaming
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/xfx-radeon-hd5830_4.html
292.5+125 = 417.5 watts
That's not enough to make a fully functional Corsair 650 sweat, even after a year and a half.

 

[vexun11]

If that's true delluser1 then you just made my day! When I purchased this PSU I was told that it would be good with my 5830 because I would be able to add a second one, no way would I have gone with this if I couldn't have added a second one. I am getting weird blue screens when booting up, it never happened until I switched the top card to the bottom and bottom to the top because I needed the top to have 2x DVI not 1 dvi & 1 hdmi and I didn't want to put too much pressure on the top card because the fan doesn't have too much room to breath but my temps are good.

Am I safe having all 52V on the rail being used?

 

[delluser1]

If that's true delluser1 then you just made my day! When I purchased this PSU I was told that it would be good with my 5830 because I would be able to add a second one, no way would I have gone with this if I couldn't have added a second one. I am getting weird blue screens when booting up, it never happened until I switched the top card to the bottom and bottom to the top because I needed the top to have 2x DVI not 1 dvi & 1 hdmi and I didn't want to put too much pressure on the top card because the fan doesn't have too much room to breath but my temps are good.

Am I safe having all 52V on the rail being used?

You're not coming anywhere near the 52a 12v rail rating with your system.

 

[vexun11]

nikorr said I was maxed out when I added the 2nd 5830, how many amps am I using with my setup?

 

[delluser1]

36-38 amps, with dual cards under a gaming load

 

[vexun11]

My system won't stop blue screening, at least I know my psu can support my cards. I am stressing out, I am so tired but refuse to go to sleep until I get my system able to boot stable.


Any idea what that blue screen message/code I posted earlier is?

I ended up setting my bios to book from pci-e 1 and plugged both my monitors into the top video card and now things seem stable. If I am not overpowering my video card why am I not able to overclock? And the little bit that I am able to overclock why are my scores lower in 3dmark 11? I used to be able to overclock so well until I put this 2nd 5830 in.

 

[vexun11]

Best answer selected by vexun11.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr