Is a 850W good enough

[Grothaal2]

Well, this might be worth asking here, so here it comes:

By your experience, is a 850W psu good enough to hold a i7 system with 2, maybe 3 gpu's?

I want it to be flexible enough to allow me to ad more cards in the future.

Currently, I plan on having something like 5870/5850 as main card, and assign a 9800GTX as a phisyx card. and maybe have room fro a crossfire in the future.

Any toughts and sugestions about a good fit PSU Wattage with enough amps and Brand?

[Graythandor]

Yes, 850W is plenty for an i7 + 2 gpu's (unless you're talking GTX 480's...you might need more for two of those). Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Thermaltake, and Antec are generally considered the best.

IMO best bang for your buck: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153128

[Sapience]

Well, this might be worth asking here, so here it comes:

By your experience, is a 850W psu good enough to hold a i7 system with 2, maybe 3 gpu's?

I want it to be flexible enough to allow me to ad more cards in the future.

Currently, I plan on having something like 5870/5850 as main card, and assign a 9800GTX as a phisyx card. and maybe have room fro a crossfire in the future.

Any toughts and sugestions about a good fit PSU Wattage with enough amps and Brand?

I don't usually chime in on these threads, but I thought I'd throw this out here.

I currently run an I7 with a pair of GTX 260 cards and a Corsair 850W PS and I've never had any power issues.

[Harlinator]

If you are looking at putting 2+ graphics cards in your system, then, IMHO, there is no such thing as too much wattage. A good, stable PSU will make or break a system under heavy load. Lots of people have good and bad experiences with different brands. I myself have had good experiences with Thermaltake and Coolermaster. A few things on PSUs:

- never get the cheapest
- make sure it will fit your case
- make sure it has enough connections for your system
- no such thing as too much power

For 3 cards, 850W would be on the low side for my tastes. Especially if you plan on putting in more cards later, get a big PSU now so you don't have to buy another one later. Make sure the PSU has enough PCIE connectors (6 or 8-pin depending on the cards you are using).

I would consider a 1050-1200W PSU. 850W is *probably* sufficient for a system you describe, but I do not like for my PSU to simply 'suffice'.

Harl

[Happyfish]

For some reason this thread makes me think of the Simpsons episode where Homer has filled his car with every conceivable gadget, and ends up getting distracted and driving into the ocean.

I can just imagine all the crazy stuff you could hook up with a small power plant as a power supply, "OP need poison removal! OP! OP! arhghgh..." "Sorry everyone I was making a latte and grilling a burger with my rig, ooh my french fries are done!"

[deadman67]

If you are looking at putting 2+ graphics cards in your system, then, IMHO, there is no such thing as too much wattage. A good, stable PSU will make or break a system under heavy load. Lots of people have good and bad experiences with different brands. I myself have had good experiences with Thermaltake and Coolermaster. A few things on PSUs:

- never get the cheapest
- make sure it will fit your case
- make sure it has enough connections for your system
- no such thing as too much power

For 3 cards, 850W would be on the low side for my tastes. Especially if you plan on putting in more cards later, get a big PSU now so you don't have to buy another one later. Make sure the PSU has enough PCIE connectors (6 or 8-pin depending on the cards you are using).

I would consider a 1050-1200W PSU. 850W is *probably* sufficient for a system you describe, but I do not like for my PSU to simply 'suffice'.

Harl

QFT
My choice would be http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371032
Also, I'd like to point out that operating temperature can have a big effect on actual wattage. Keep that sucker cool, and you should be good.

[Zarador]

Quality of the Power Supply can't be stressed enough. I'm using an 800W Antec 80 Silver Certified. Saves power, has conditioning and works like a charm. Cheaper ones base it off the peak ability, often without load conditions. Basically that means if the system is almost on standby, it will deliver.

[Darmokk]

Well, this might be worth asking here, so here it comes:

By your experience, is a 850W psu good enough to hold a i7 system with 2, maybe 3 gpu's?

I want it to be flexible enough to allow me to ad more cards in the future.

Currently, I plan on having something like 5870/5850 as main card, and assign a 9800GTX as a phisyx card. and maybe have room fro a crossfire in the future.

Any toughts and sugestions about a good fit PSU Wattage with enough amps and Brand?

Stating the watts means nothing without stating vendor and model and if you can manufacturer.

A junk 700 watts delivers less than half the permanent stable power compared to a really good 700 watts.

BTW, are you sure sure that the driver installs for NVIdia and ATI mix so that you can use a NVIdia card for physics?

Personally I use the Seventeam V-Force silent PSUs you can get on newegg for my beefy machines. For run of the mill boxes I have good luck with any random OCZ, even the Forton-made ones, and that is although I think Forton-branded Fortron-made PSUs are trash.

I also have one of those server class 700 Zippies with 45 A on a single 12 V rail. It sounds like camping on an aircraft carrier flight deck but it is a good reference to use when debugging instability.

[Grothaal2]

I read its possible to mix both brands, but it may be tricky and may even not work.

Anyway, the real fact is that my 9800gtx+ is freezing my pc randomly, and I have to do a "forced-upgrade" before schedule.

So, checking prices, I found that ATi have more competitive prices, and it seems to be the way to go c/b wise, unless I stick with a gtx470 - but its really expensive compared to a 5850 or even 5870.

I hope that the card may still be good enough to run physx, it will be more like a "lets kick it and see what comes out of the bushes" project.

But the PSU have to hold at least these 2 cards, a high-end and 98kgtx+.

I will start looking for the Corsair/OCZ/Thermaltake ones, equal or above 850W.

I heard somewhere that some thermaltake's had too much noise in their powerlines lines :/

[Zarador]

Stating the watts means nothing without stating vendor and model and if you can manufacturer.

A junk 700 watts delivers less than half the permanent stable power compared to a really good 700 watts.

BTW, are you sure sure that the driver installs for NVIdia and ATI mix so that you can use a NVIdia card for physics?

Personally I use the Seventeam V-Force silent PSUs you can get on newegg for my beefy machines. For run of the mill boxes I have good luck with any random OCZ, even the Forton-made ones, and that is although I think Forton-branded Fortron-made PSUs are trash.

I also have one of those server class 700 Zippies with 45 A on a single 12 V rail. It sounds like camping on an aircraft carrier flight deck but it is a good reference to use when debugging instability.

+Rep for the truth on power supplies.

Over the years as a one time technician, the largest amount of machine failures and crashes that I observed were attributed to cheap power supplies.

There is a reason that the $35 coca cola tin can case comes with a 450 watt power supply and that is to lure unsuspected buyers into believing they just got a great bargain on a cool looking case. Forget that it often lacks even adequate fans for cooling, that power supply will fail or cause failures very quickly.

In fact, a well rated 80 Silver power supply will most likely save you on the electric bill over the years thus paying for itself. Not to mention the aggravation and cost of burned out parts that it will avoid.

It's been my experience that power supplies are one of the most important as well as most neglected components of the system. Anyone who has worked on a "high end" vendor system (Dell/HP comes to mind) will find that they often scrimp with a small, often poorly ventilated case and supply. Sure you can in theory fit that upgraded video card in there and in theory, it might run, but not for very long and not very reliably.

[Darmokk]

I read its possible to mix both brands, but it may be tricky and may even not work.

Anyway, the real fact is that my 9800gtx+ is freezing my pc randomly, and I have to do a "forced-upgrade" before schedule.

So, checking prices, I found that ATi have more competitive prices, and it seems to be the way to go c/b wise, unless I stick with a gtx470 - but its really expensive compared to a 5850 or even 5870.

I hope that the card may still be good enough to run physx, it will be more like a "lets kick it and see what comes out of the bushes" project.

But the PSU have to hold at least these 2 cards, a high-end and 98kgtx+.

I will start looking for the Corsair/OCZ/Thermaltake ones, equal or above 850W.

I heard somewhere that some thermaltake's had too much noise in their powerlines lines :/

That doesn't make much sense. Your current freezes might be power supply (then get a new one right now), or a bad video card (then you can't carry it over anyway) or something else (then it makes sense).

Thermaltake doesn't make PSUs and they sell PSUs from good and bad manufacturers. These PSUs have nothing to do with each other except the brand name printed on them. I don't rate them as a safe vendor, although they do have some good PSUs.

Personally, I still don't trust ATI to come up with decent drivers for a wide range of applications. While it is true that NVidia screwed up worse during the early Vista period by now the world seems to be normal again, which is that ATI's QA seems to consist of testing the current top 20 games and NVidia having some form of real QA to test API features for real. (the result being that NVidia works better if you do something exotic like playing very old games)

[Grothaal2]

NVidia works better if you do something exotic like playing very old games)

I loled o this

In my case the gpu seems the culrupid, I tried it yesterday on a friends box with a similar psu (Seventeam 550W), and after some random gaming it got errors too on his machine while playing Hawx. I believe the shaders are defective somehow.

And I took his card and pluged on my system, a 8800gt, and LOTRO runned without flaws or freezes (but slower, of course )

My psu dosent seem very good as well, its a Seventeam 500W but I dont like that it shows 11.6 on the +12v rail, and have only 18A rated on it.

I will do some more research on the gpu pricing, and see if I can get a good deal for a Nvidia gtx470.

I trust more Nvidia, but the lack of competitive boards from them on the DX11 market is a negative point. The new gtx465 dosent seem much trustworty in the performance department when compared to its competitors.

[Grothaal2]

I don't usually chime in on these threads, but I thought I'd throw this out here.

I currently run an I7 with a pair of GTX 260 cards and a Corsair 850W PS and I've never had any power issues.

Oh, hi Sapience, thanks for stoppign by and sharing

[Darmokk]

My psu dosent seem very good as well, its a Seventeam 500W but I dont like that it shows 11.6 on the +12v rail, and have only 18A rated on it.

Did you measure that with a voltmeter? The on-mainboard sensors are usually worthless.

Not that a gaming box with a NVidia 9800 shouldn't have > 500 watts.

[Bry2007]

Video example not by me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7epu4oEQVR4

850 should be enough but depends on the brand.

[Grothaal2]

Not with a voltimeter, but it dosent sem a good omen, I dont remember it being that low earlier this year, and 500W is barelly enough for my current rig and I know it wont be good anyway for my new rig.

I am buying a psu + gpu combo, really

I am fond of those psu's with a single rail and plenty of wattage on the 12v rail

[Darmokk]

Not with a voltimeter, but it dosent sem a good omen, I dont remember it being that low earlier this year, and 500W is barelly enough for my current rig and I know it wont be good anyway for my new rig.

I am buying a psu + gpu combo, really

I am fond of those psu's with a single rail and plenty of wattage on the 12v rail

Wanna buy my Zippy?

You might make the money back renting out your apartment to record the soundtrack for the next "Top Gun" movie

[swattz101]

Like others have said, 850 is probably good enough. I built a nice upper-mid level gaming system about 3 years ago with a Thermaltake 750W and a good Ati card and never had any power issues. I thought about a 1GW but couldn't talk myself into the price. Where I have run into issues is cooling. I can't stress enough to make sure you have good cooling and make sure your box can breath.

People on this thread have given you some good brands, I would say also make sure you shop around for price. I got most of my parts from http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Home.jsp and have had very good service from them. You can also try http://www.tigerdirect.com/, http://www.newegg.com/, http://www.geeks.com/ or http://www.frys.com/ or your own place or local store. If you are in the right area, you might even try a computer show at your local Fair Ground or Event Center. I like the MarketPro shows and have done some good haggling for parts with some of the vendors.

[Grothaal2]

Thanks a lot for the advices.

I am very inclined to go after a 850 / 950 W from Corsair TX series, it seems of good quality and have a single rail. Will try to stay away from 1000 and more wats, they are really expensive.

Unfortunately I do not live in north america, you guys have so nice prices up there, when i enter a shop site from US I am like "buying it all" because the prices vs relative income are much cheaper then here multiply the prices by 2,5 and cut your income in half (or more) lol

[Zarador]

Thanks a lot for the advices.

I am very inclined to go after a 850 / 950 W from Corsair TX series, it seems of good quality and have a single rail. Will try to stay away from 1000 and more wats, they are really expensive.

Unfortunately I do not live in north america, you guys have so nice prices up there, when i enter a shop site from US I am like "buying it all" because the prices vs relative income are much cheaper then here multiply the prices by 2,5 and cut your income in half (or more) lol

You're most welcome.

By the way, we can solve that under priced situation real easily. Purchase it at Best buy where you're almost always guaranteed half the product at twice the price. Their motto seems to be "Yesterdays goods at 1990 prices, relive the memory!"

[SaintBass]

The specific advice was covered by others, but I would like to share a couple of guidelines that I use when dealing with electrical/electronics hardware. This is everything from computers, to fire alarm or security systems, custom A/V, lighting and the like.

1) Add up the power requirements (wattage of the individual components in this case) and add 20%

2) For every 10 degrees fahrenheit over 75 that the equipment is operating in, add another 5%. This is mainly applicable when you are hiding equipment in crawlspaces and closets... but lets face it, we don't all have central air.

Admittedly, this is a somewhat overspec'ing but it accomplishes two things. It allows for additional components to be added later without any real stress on the power supply and it allows for less wear and tear on your circuitry which will allow it to last longer. Long story short, temperature, resistance and general wear and tear are interrelated. De-rating your equipment will generally extend its life and allow it to more easily deal with unexpected loads.

[IGolbezI]

definitely

stuff

The specific advice was covered by others, but I would like to share a couple of guidelines that I use when dealing with electrical/electronics hardware. This is everything from computers, to fire alarm or security systems, custom A/V, lighting and the like.

1) Add up the power requirements (wattage of the individual components in this case) and add 20%

2) For every 10 degrees fahrenheit over 75 that the equipment is operating in, add another 5%. This is mainly applicable when you are hiding equipment in crawlspaces and closets... but lets face it, we don't all have central air.

Admittedly, this is a somewhat overspec'ing but it accomplishes two things. It allows for additional components to be added later without any real stress on the power supply and it allows for less wear and tear on your circuitry which will allow it to last longer. Long story short, temperature, resistance and general wear and tear are interrelated. De-rating your equipment will generally extend its life and allow it to more easily deal with unexpected loads.

true and good advice. don't skimp out on quality for a few dollars, it can be really detrimental both to the life of your hardware and your computer's output.

[RedlineJunkie]

850W just isn't enough. Splurge on the 1.21 gigawatt PSU. Might need a small nuclear reactor (or bolt of lightning) to power it though.

[Harlinator]

850W just isn't enough. Splurge on the 1.21 gigawatt PSU. Might need a small nuclear reactor (or bolt of lightning) to power it though.

Mr. Fusion, anyone?

[Lycaunoss]

Thanks a lot for the advices.

I am very inclined to go after a 850 / 950 W from Corsair TX series, it seems of good quality and have a single rail. Will try to stay away from 1000 and more wats, they are really expensive.

Unfortunately I do not live in north america, you guys have so nice prices up there, when i enter a shop site from US I am like "buying it all" because the prices vs relative income are much cheaper then here multiply the prices by 2,5 and cut your income in half (or more) lol

Expensive relative to the sum of the cost of all the other components you will have attached to this power supply? Any one of the components in my system is probably priced less than the difference between a good and a shady PS. Granted I live in NA and these components are actually cheaper than they are elsewhere.

If I was doing a build and couldn't afford it I'd be willing to put it on hold and wait rather than settle. Just as others have said above...a lot of people seem to be willing to skimp on this part and it's probably one of the most important.