Picking and Building my First System

[Panzer91]

Yeah I might get a kill-a-watt for seeing up how much of the electricitiy bill is of the computer, but yeah the wattage is changing in core temp during these burn tests, so I assume it's working, how accurate it is I don't know.

 

[Aquinus]

Yeah I might get a kill-a-watt for seeing up how much of the electricitiy bill is of the computer, but yeah the wattage is changing in core temp during these burn tests, so I assume it's working, how accurate it is I don't know.

Yeah, it says my usage is ~96 watts @ 4ghz.

 

[cadaveca]

So to calculate approximate CPU consumption you would want:
(Total Over-clocked usage - Total stock usage) 95-watt TDP

I measure CPU power consumption using an in-line meter on the CPU EPS 8-pin, to eliminate the PSU efficiency side of things, and to isolate the CPU VRM power draw.

That said, here is a graph showing power consumption numbers using that method while running IBT with 3072 MB of ram:

Note that even with inefficiencies of the VRM, several boards managed stock clocks at under 75 W total.

As you can see with the X79 numbers, SB-E sucks twice the power of SB. Over the 30-something 2600k chips I've tested(through building rigs for people over the past 16 months or so, plus my own chips), not one drew over 150W @ 4.5 GHz, measured in the same way, whereas at stock, it is defintely possible to pull 150W through the 8-pin on X79(155 W @ stock on X79-UD5).

According to my own testing, Coretemp is wildly incorrect for CPU power consumption. No software is correct, to be honest. They all read far more than what is delivered by the 8-pin CPU EPS connector. The CPU's System Agent domain(commonly powered via 24-pin) cannot account for the differences(based on load testing with differnt PCIe configs).

 

[Aquinus]

Thanks, Dave. Great post.

 

[Admiral Breaker]

I've been looking at SSD's and they look like they work amazingly for boot up and application launching. However this system currently rests on me selling what I have at the moment , I'll be looking into an SSD, but not just yet.

Have you seen Coraisr's new Accelorator Series? They are small in size, between 30 and 60gbs and they are made for Intel's SRT. I think the 60gb is like 124 USD or £79.92. but that is waht Corsair says on their website. http://www.corsair.com/ssd/accelerator-series-ssd-cache-drives.html

 

[Bambooz]

and with a PSU at 85% efficiency (assume a 650-watt PSU because that is what the user is using,) gives you a 550-watts to work with.

That makes it sound like the PSUs are labelled with the input wattage, which is total BS.
A 650W PSU will give you 650W worth of total (combined) output power to work with. Not 85% (efficiency) of 650W, which would be ~552W.

This only works out if it's a good PSU, not a Hongkong Flyapart LLC with a 650W label and maybe 250W real output power, like for example this junk right here. Or that one. Or a slightly "better", but still crappy as f*ck overrated noname junker like this Coolmax.

You either have no clue about how powersupplies work in general, or at least no clue about how to choose between a proper good quality unit and a bling bling mediocre to crappy one that isn't able to power a system reliably, despite having the same specs on the label as another PSU that does work.

Just because it has a big brand name on it like Asus, Antec or whatever doesn't mean the insides are any good / up to the job. The two examples I just listed don't manufacture anything themselves (edit: in terms of PSUs). They just choose whatever OEM they want and modify it to their needs (custom casings, PSU insides manufactured to their specs, which can also mean cheaping out on parts and/or overspec'ing others etc.)

An Antec EA-500D is Delta Electronics OEM, and Antec HCG-520 is Seasonic OEM, an Antec BP500U is Fortron Source OEM, and Asus uses whatever they can get their hands on, which is usually mediocre at best. Same goes for other manufacturers. Just because manufacturer ABC's PSU #1 was epic doesn't mean PSU #2, 3 or 4 are anywhere near that quality.
[/rant]

 

[Panzer91]

So it's safe to conclude my PSU will be fine?


@Admiral - No I haven't, although I just read up on it and it sounds great, automatically sets up and everything. Will definitely be looking into this later on when the price goes down a bit.

Also to the person who stated my hdd would bottleneck my system - I now know exactly what you mean =p

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[Aquinus]

That makes it sound like the PSUs are labelled with the input wattage, which is total BS.
A 650W PSU will give you 650W worth of total (combined) output power to work with. Not 85% (efficiency) of 650W, which would be ~552W.

This only works out if it's a good PSU, not a Hongkong Flyapart LLC with a 650W label and maybe 250W real output power, like for example this junk right here. Or that one. Or a slightly "better", but still crappy as f*ck overrated noname junker like this Coolmax.

You either have no clue about how powersupplies work in general, or at least no clue about how to choose between a proper good quality unit and a bling bling mediocre to crappy one that isn't able to power a system reliably, despite having the same specs on the label as another PSU that does work.

Just because it has a big brand name on it like Asus, Antec or whatever doesn't mean the insides are any good / up to the job. The two examples I just listed don't manufacture anything themselves (edit: in terms of PSUs). They just choose whatever OEM they want and modify it to their needs (custom casings, PSU insides manufactured to their specs, which can also mean cheaping out on parts and/or overspec'ing others etc.)

An Antec EA-500D is Delta Electronics OEM, and Antec HCG-520 is Seasonic OEM, an Antec BP500U is Fortron Source OEM, and Asus uses whatever they can get their hands on, which is usually mediocre at best. Same goes for other manufacturers. Just because manufacturer ABC's PSU #1 was epic doesn't mean PSU #2, 3 or 4 are anywhere near that quality.
[/rant]

Then go load a PSU to the max and watch what happens. I talk about what I've experienced. I'm a systems admin and have a degree in computer science and work on computers every day for work, what do you do?

I don't appreciate you insulting me because you disagree with what I have to say. I also never said that crappy PSU manufacturers don't over-rate their PSUs. Don't be an ass.