Power Supply

[Sam1990]

I seen on here someone post a website, where you can put in all your system specs and it'll tell you how many watts you need to run everything to know what power supply to purchase.

Wanted to know, does anyone know the website because I couldn't find it.

[megawhompertoo]

I seen on here someone post a website, where you can put in all your system specs and it'll tell you how many watts you need to run everything to know what power supply to purchase.

Wanted to know, does anyone know the website because I couldn't find it.

you can google:

psu requirements

or you can post your specs and someone (maybe even me) will tell you what you psu can and can not supply enough power to.

[solofowaffles]

i think its extemepowersupplycalculator or something(to lazy to check0

[jubb jubb]

link here

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

[JustMe0171]

http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html

[Sam1990]

Well Outer Vision eXtreme tells me I need 342W but NewEgg tells me I need 513W, so let's have a 3rd opinion, from you guys.

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.0GHz
Memory: 3 x 1GB DDR2 PC5400 667MHz
Video Card: 8600GT DDR2 512MB
Motherboard: MSI SLI-Ready 500 Chipset w/ fan (something like that)
Hard Drive: 160GB SATA-150 7200RPM 8MB
CD/DVD Drive: CD + DVD + DVD Burner w/ LightScribe

Cooling: 2 x 80mm Fans, 3.5" Drive HD Cooler

I currently have a 480W power supply in the PC and it seems to run fine. When you give me a power supply I need, can you also let me know what kind I would need if I added another video card, the same one as I have now.

Also wanted to ask, what are SLI Certified PSU's?

[jubb jubb]

513w is a dual sli quad core system. 342 is more realistic for your system and 480w is plenty (if its a good quality PSU). Sli certified psu means that it has been certified by Nvidia for use on sli systems.


YAY 100th POST!

[JustMe0171]

I'd go with teh 513, i'd rather have a little 2 much as not enough.
im not sure which calculator site is accurate though.

[megawhompertoo]

I'd go with teh 513, i'd rather have a little 2 much as not enough.
im not sure which calculator site is accurate though.

That's what the PSU marketeers would have you believe.

In reality:

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Ha...800gts/10.html

^ systems arguably 40-60% more hungry (and 2-3x more powerful) for power max out between 235-237W. That's for the total system, and most of those Watts are being dissipated over the +12V rail.

480W is fine as long as it's a semi-reliable brand and they didn't load up the +5.5/+3.3V rails and neglect the +12V rail to get there. You'd be fine at +20A on the +12V rail, guessing you've got 24-26A one or two* rails. Don't rely on my crystal ball though; you can open up your case and see what your specs are on the side of the psu.

*when are two rails really one rail?

when you're a PSU marketeer.

[JustMe0171]

All i know is, i had a 350W and my game crashed all time after i updated my card, so only thing left was the PSU, i got a little bit better one & it quit , i mean for brief second it was like whole system quit, it was weird, so i figured the game was pushing my old PSU to limit.
anyway i bought this one, specs below, u seem to know alot, did i get my azz burnt or is decent specs?




AC Input

Operating Range: 90-264 VAC
.99 Power Factor

Frequency: 47-63Hz

Current: 8A

Efficiency: 74%

EMI: FCC-B, CE

DC Output

Output: +5V @ 32A
+12V @ 26A
-12V @ 0.8A
+3.3V @ 28A
+5VSB @ 2A
continuous = 470W
peak = 520W

Regulation: 5% (+3.3, +5, +12)
10% (-12)

Ripple: 1% (p-p)

Hold Time: 16ms

PG Delay: 300ms

Environmental

Temperature: 0° - 40° C

Humidity: 10%-90% RH

Fan Type: 22-34 CFM ball

Noise: 20-35dB(A)

[Sam1990]

Alright, I need some help. I just went and upgraded my PSU from 480W to 600W and in PCAlert4 (software that came with the motherboard) it shows 5.20 in red in the +12V category and it has this annoying beeping noise. Here's the image:



My PSU has these specs:

Max Output Current ------ +5V | +3.3V | +12V1 | +12V2 | -12V | +5VSB
------------------------- 30A | 25A | 18A | 20A | 0.6A | 2.5A
Max Combined Wattage ------ 165W | 420W | 7.2W | 12.5W
-------------------------------------- 581W | 19.7W
-------------------------------------------------- 600W

Can anyone tell me whats wrong? Do I need a better one?

[megawhompertoo]

Alright, I need some help. I just went and upgraded my PSU from 480W to 600W and in PCAlert4 (software that came with the motherboard) it shows 5.20 in red in the +12V category and it has this annoying beeping noise. Here's the image:



My PSU has these specs:

Max Output Current ------ +5V | +3.3V | +12V1 | +12V2 | -12V | +5VSB
------------------------- 30A | 25A | 18A | 20A | 0.6A | 2.5A
Max Combined Wattage ------ 165W | 420W | 7.2W | 12.5W
-------------------------------------- 581W | 19.7W
-------------------------------------------------- 600W

Can anyone tell me whats wrong? Do I need a better one?

my opinion is that our 480W was just fine. 600watts is even better, and some four year old in Taipei is thanking you for your business

edit, and it's either buggy software (probably) or a fault psu (unlikely but possible).

don't understand why you went bonkers on power with a very low-to-mid end system.

26A on the +12V rail was more than enough for your config. 8600gts are low-low to low-mid-end 3d acceleration parts. they DO NOT eat much power.

my advice: plug you old psu back in, get a refund on the (cheap?) 600w jobby) and figure out what is going wrong with your OS/drivers/games that is giving you problems, or adjust you settings to resolve them.

if i knew anything about pc hardware, that's what i would tell you.

[looqas]

All i know is, i had a 350W and my game crashed all time after i updated my card, so only thing left was the PSU, i got a little bit better one & it quit , i mean for brief second it was like whole system quit, it was weird, so i figured the game was pushing my old PSU to limit.
anyway i bought this one, specs below, u seem to know alot, did i get my azz burnt or is decent specs?




AC Input

Operating Range: 90-264 VAC
.99 Power Factor

Frequency: 47-63Hz

Current: 8A

Efficiency: 74%

EMI: FCC-B, CE

DC Output

Output: +5V @ 32A
+12V @ 26A
-12V @ 0.8A
+3.3V @ 28A
+5VSB @ 2A
continuous = 470W
peak = 520W

Regulation: 5% (+3.3, +5, +12)
10% (-12)

Ripple: 1% (p-p)

Hold Time: 16ms

PG Delay: 300ms

Environmental

Temperature: 0° - 40° C

Humidity: 10%-90% RH

Fan Type: 22-34 CFM ball

Noise: 20-35dB(A)

You did ok. 26A on the 12V line is the most important thing here. You can see that the manufacturer beefed up the total wattage specs with having the almost irrelevant 5V taking up the lion share 32A.

If you break up the consumption of a gaming rig to what voltages they draw you get roughly figures like this.
5-10A @3.3V
10A @ 5V
18-26A@12V (vid cards)

And when you compare those to your PSU specs you see that @3.3V and @5V you plenty of play room but at the most important @12V you are are sweating.

Quote from wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_power_supply

The DIY boom has led to power supply manufacturers marketing their products directly to end-users, often with grossly inflated specifications. Some of the main tricks employed are...

Advertising the peak wattage, rather than the continuous wattage.
Determining the wattage at unrealistically low temperatures (below 40C).
Advertising total wattage as a measure of capacity, when modern systems are almost totally reliant on the number of amps on the 12 volt line(s).
So if...

PSU A - has a peak rating of 500 watts at 25C, with 25 amps on the 12 volt line.
PSU B - has a continuous rating of 500 watts at 40C, with 33 amps on the 12 volt line.
...and those ratings are accurate, then PSU B would have to be considered a vastly superior unit, while PSU A may only be capable of delivering a fraction of its rated wattage under real world conditions.

Well, of course if the PSU in other aspects like fan noise is fine for you that is. 26A can run any 8800 series cards if the PSU has the 6-pin jack, but the PSU here does not have that much headroom. You can forget running a SLI system with this PSU.

But you are in luck since the power requirements have somewhat stagnated because of nvidia and ati are going to 65nm line width in processing.

[JustMe0171]

You did ok. .

Thanks i appreciate ya lookin 4 me.

[Sam1990]

Well the 480W was probably enough, but I'm trying to get a second 8600GT to run SLI, so maybe it was a good idea to get a better power supply.

Can anyone tell me though, how many amps do I actually have on the 12V rail? Because, I have 18A on the 12V1 and 20A on the 12V2.

Also, my PSU has two 6-pin connects labeled 12V1 and 12V2.... thing is, I can't plug those into anything? Does that make any difference or not really?