is this psu enough?

[Kona1169]

is my cosair 550tx enough? i just added another card to cf and am looking at overclocking.

i went on antecs site and depending on the configuration (doesnt have h50) it said i needed a minimum of 530-600. this excluded the 20% capacitor aging.

i also have
3 antec tricool blue led 120mm on low (think their 1200-1400rpm on low)
2 gentle typhoon 120mm @ 1430rpm
1 arctic cool 80mm @2000 rpm
and 1 antec bigboy on low (dunno what it spins at)
2 UV 12" cold cathode

 

[CDdude55]

Yep should be fine for that rig. 4850's consume very little power, getting a second one won't suck up much more power. You should have a good amount of headroom for some nice overclocking on that rig.

Corsair is also a very reliable brand, it should be more then sufficient.

 

[TIGR]

^^ Yep, CDdude55 nailed it. I have yet to find an online PSU calculator that didn't exaggerate PSU needs, and your PSU when new can put out more than it is rated for. Even with capacitor aging, I imagine it'll still be good for 550w when it's ten years old (if that fan lasts that long lol).

 

[trickson]

Yep should be fine for that rig. 4850's consume very little power, getting a second one won't suck up much more power. You should have a good amount of headroom for some nice overclocking on that rig.

Corsair is also a very reliable brand, it should be more then sufficient.

+1 .

 

[_33]

Honestly, I wouldn't think 550 watts is enough for any crossfire setup, but check for yourself on the PSU calculator and see how much your system consumes and how much it will when you crossfire.

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

EDIT: You'll roughly be consuming 450+ watts overall in crossfire without overclocking with your system (cpu + GPU). If you overclock, the power draw will be much higher and you'll reach the limits of your PSU (just choose 4890 in crossfire to see what I mean). Now keep in mind that a PSU isn't 100% effective, so you're obviously gonna tap in the limits of your Corsair at some point and get system instability.

 

[SUPERREDDEVIL]

if you need other PSU Calculators you can use this other ones, is always good to have different results

MSI PSU Calculator

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=power

Thermaltake PSU Calculator

http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/

 

[Kona1169]

so i think i might get a power supply sometime this month. i find that when i game now the power supply produces a lot more heat now. its not stupid hot but i don't like it that much.

if for example in the future i decided to get a card that uses similar power to a 5870 CF, if i got a HX750 would it be sufficient or would i really need a 850 so im not back into the same situation i am in now? it just seems spending close to 200 on a power supply seems a bit much when i could be putting that money elsewhere ya kno?

 

[EarthDog]

For some reason I cant see your system specs, but 2 4850's would probably take around 220W stock or so (assuming 110W TDP for each). Overclocked as a pair, you are looking around at least 250W. A 4Ghz i7 with HT will use ~200W also. While that should be fine, I like a bit more headroom for quiet operation...

Your PSU is one of the most important parts of your PC. Do not skimp out on that.

For Xfire 5870's, and an I7 at 4Ghz with HT or hex for AMD will work fine with a 750HX. But if you can afford the 850, get it.

 

[Tatty_Two]

550W is the Minimum spec required for Crossfired HD 4850 so dont overclock! may well work OK at stock but it's fairly borderline, so I agree with those that say it's Ok, and I agree with those that think it isn't.... sort of

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desk...s/ati-radeon-hd-4850-system-requirements.aspx

 

[twicksisted]

i reckon youll be fine... and if not its not going to explode into a great fireball... itll just black screen or give you other warning signals..... give it a go and if you get instability, get a larger corsair

 

[Yukikaze]

It will be perfectly fine. A Corsair 550W can run that system with no worries, overclocked or not.

 

[erocker]

The answer is no. A 4850 uses just over 200W at peak.

Two 4850's = 415 watts needed

965BE C2 = 140 watts

That's 555 watts right there. Then you have the other things that use power. Now peak load on your PSU is actually over 550 watts. It might (and I say "might" lightly) cut it at stock settings, overclocked it will not.

 

[TIGR]

The answer is no. A 4850 uses just over 200W at peak.

Two 4850's = 415 watts needed

965BE C2 = 140 watts

That's 555 watts right there. Then you have the other things that use power. Now peak load on your PSU is actually over 550 watts. It might (and I say "might" lightly) cut it at stock settings, overclocked it will not.

Are you certain a 4850 (card alone) draws 200w? This review, for example, shows an entire system with two 4850s drawing 302w total under load. That's total system power, not just the cards, with a QX9770. And, to the best of my knowledge, that's AC power draw, meaning the DC draw was actually probably more like 250w, given the efficiency of the PC Power and Cooling 1200w PSU used.

 

[erocker]

Ahh, crap! I was looking at W1zzards review and it was before he listed card power consumption and used system power consumption.

Test System
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.6 GHz
(Wolfdale, 6144 KB Cache)
Motherboard: Gigabyte P35C-DS3R
Intel P35
Memory: 2x 1024MB A.DATA DDR2 1066+ CL4
Harddisk: WD Raptor 740ADFD 74 GB
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 700W


^^ So that system with a single HD 4850 used 208 watts.



I guess the PSU has some power to give then.

 

[Kona1169]

its actually a 4850 and a 4830 (had it laying around so i thought why not...)

i can tell you that before i added the 2nd gpu that i think i got a capacitor dying smell (smelt like candy and burning). this was when i was overclocking and running prime95 (i think it was 3.8ghz i dunno)

my processor on stock runs 129 on stock but drops to 20 with C&Q. with overclocking its around 133 and does not drop.

how much better cable management is a modular anyways? i think i got my antec 900 pretty neat. all that shows is the power for the drives really.

how hard would 2 5870 be pushing a 750 anyways? a 850 seems like overkill to me as i will probly not get a 5xxx card and go to a '6870/50' (possibly crossfire) when they come out, so i dunno lol

all the psu calc tests i ran (4 differenct sites) got around a recomended 550-600 with a 10% cap wear.

 

[overclocking101]

I say get the 850 man, it will give peak power of 1000w and you wont ever need another one again. I say this because usually what happens is you tell yourself well I dont really need the 850 and you get the 750 then 6 months down the road you get the super nice gpu's and guess what your psu is maxxed again let alone deciding to get a quad or 6 core cpu. just my 2c. I learned the hard way and got the lower psus and it costs more in the long run, if you dont want to spend $200 get the corsair TX850 its closer to $150 and just as good but no modular cables, and imo modular cables are over rated anyways

 

[erocker]

I use the TX850 and it is a marvelous PSU. Powers my rig (300w at idle) nicely and keeps cool. I also got mine on sale for $129

 

[Kona1169]

the only thing i heard though is that the tx750/850 have way to long cables or something.

i think my case is only not using one of the cables. i have to use both drive cables to power the cdrom at the top and the 2 harddrives at the bottom

i heard the hx's were bettter though? how much though?

i noticed that the tx is not 80plus silver, dunno if that matters. i did notice that the tx provides more amps on the 3v and 5v. i see that the tx850 comes with about 5 more cables then my vx550, that might be a problem as it took me awhile to get the cables to fit in the back so they would close correctly (my antec 900 isnt modified but seems to clean up fine)

@erocker, you really need to stop changing your avatar lol. you always comment but your avatar always changes.. now a reliant robin... whats next

 

[TIGR]

Ahh, crap! I was looking at W1zzards review and it was before he listed card power consumption and used system power consumption....

I understand—even if W1zzard's article was clear about how exactly the power consumption was measured, not all reviews are and it's often easy to miss anyway. Even the article I referred to doesn't actually specify whether the measured consumption is AC power draw or DC output, which can be a significant difference. I suspect a lot of hobbyists have a skewed idea of how much power most components actually draw, because they see total system power consumption numbers in reviews and take those numbers to be for the component reviewed only. And I've never seen an online PSU calculator that could be relied upon to clear up the issue.

the only thing i heard though is that the tx750/850 have way to long cables or something ... i heard the hx's were bettter though? how much though? ...i noticed that the tx is not 80plus silver....

Both the HX and TX series PSUs are excellent products. The 750HX, 750TX, 850HX, and 850TX are all made for Corsair by CWT. The HX models have shown measurably better voltage regulation and noise/ripple, but the TX models are already so good in that department that there is no practical benefit to improving it. So while the power provided by the HX series may be "better" in theory, in practice it simply doesn't matter. Much of that difference may be eaten up in unit-to-unit variance anyway.

The main practical benefit of the HX models is modular cabling. This statement may make me unpopular with a number of folks, but in my opinion: if you require a modular PSU to set up a clean installation of components, you don't belong poking around in a computer. With very few exceptions, there is always a way to tuck cables neatly away, which is why I'll also say that the length of the TX series cables is no problem.

Another thing you may hear about fixed- vs modular-cabled PSUs is that there is more resistance in the cabling for modular PSUs. This is true, but actual measurements (done by myself and I think there are some articles online in which others have done it) show that the resulting drop in voltage is small enough to ignore.

Edit to add: Efficiency can make a significant difference over time. It is worth running the numbers to see if a more efficient PSU would pay for itself over time based on the price of electricity in your area. Example: at 10¢/kWH, if a system is on 24/7 and draws 250w on average, it will be $34 cheaper to operate per year with an 85% efficient PSU than with an 75% efficient unit. Consider this when selecting a PSU based on value. Also keep in mind that lower efficiency means more electricity is being converted into heat in the PSU, which requires a louder fan and may decrease life.

Annual cost to operate
Power draw (watts) / PSU efficiency * 8.76 * $/kWH

 

[Kona1169]

The main practical benefit of the HX models is modular cabling. This statement may make me unpopular with a number of folks, but in my opinion: if you require a modular PSU to set up a clean installation of components, you don't belong poking around in a computer. With very few exceptions, there is always a way to tuck cables neatly away, which is why I'll also say that the length of the TX series cables is no problem.

true, but the without modding my case has bad managements lol. i barely even fit my cables into the hole next to the psu with my 550. with the additional cables that the 850 provides i dont think it will fit. i think theres 2-3 more pci cables and so on.

energy costs not a factor to me i have so many computers its not funny. i also have a printer that runs 2x 220 amp supplies.

hrm, i was playing borderlands, keeps crashing. dunno if its the game (i know its buggy) or possibly the power supply. the bluescreens seem memory related though