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PSU... overkill, but not enuff volts?

Terenth

New Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2006
Messages
136 (0.02/day)
Processor AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ @ 2.55ghz
Motherboard Abit At8 32x silent otes
Cooling cpu- ZALMAN CNPS7000B copper/4x 80mm 20db
Memory 1stick 1 gig junk
Video Card(s) Powercolor 1950 pro 621/796 12pp
Storage 165 GB generic junk
Display(s) 17in wal-mart.... need i say more?...
Case blue scorpio (heavily modified) by me :)
Audio Device(s) creative soundblaster audigy SE 5.1/7.1
Power Supply Okia-black-650 650 watts
Software xp pro uguru
Okia 650 watt powersupply, sli, 1!!! 12 volt rail @ 24 amps,20 + 4 pin connector, should still be found on newegg if you are that picky on specs (check my system specs for the exact one).

I fear my 4 pin connector doesnt have enuff volts, it's very awkward cuz im looking at my voltage monitor program (abit uguru) that came with this board, and it never dips below 12 volts, BUT yesterday it was dipping to about 11.85 or so... i expierience random lockups, and now that i think of it somedays my comp runs fine... and my "northbridge dual 1.8 volts dips to about 1.7.

now the question is are these "small" dips in voltage enuff to cause random lockups, usually i locked up in games, but ive noticed right at startup it'll lockup sometimes.

This powersupply was quite a deal, under 50 bucks and good amperage on the 12volt, i hope i dont necessarily need to buy one right now.

Also what kind of amperage should i look for on a Dual 12 volt psu if i want to run say... a 2.6 ghz athlon x2, 2*1 gig sticks OR 4*512 ddr600, and 2*ati 1950 pro 256 mb.

I ask this because im RARELY seeing a dual 12volt rail go over 20-25 amps, would a dual rail 20 amp psu be good enuff for 2 1950's?, i see that the 12v rail requierments tend to be 30+ amps for newer grfx cards but im guessing that is for a single rail psu.

Thanks!
 
24 amps seems really weak for a 650W, not suprised if it's going for 50 bucks. You really do get what you paid for especially when it comes to PSUs.

It is highly unlikely that you will be able to run CF without a new PSU. Best thing to do now is to look on the CF webpage on the ATi site and look for the certified PSU list.

I have Tagan 530W with dual 12V rail provides 20A max each rail, though the combined ampage can never exceed 32A. The dip in voltage is common as long as it stays in the +- 6% range. My 12V is usually 11.95V when idle and will dip to 11.75V sometimes when gaming.
 
24 amps seems really weak for a 650W, not suprised if it's going for 50 bucks. You really do get what you paid for especially when it comes to PSUs.

It is highly unlikely that you will be able to run CF without a new PSU. Best thing to do now is to look on the CF webpage on the ATi site and look for the certified PSU list.

I have Tagan 530W with dual 12V rail provides 20A max each rail, though the combined ampage can never exceed 32A. The dip in voltage is common as long as it stays in the +- 6% range. My 12V is usually 11.95V when idle and will dip to 11.75V sometimes when gaming.

tagen=epower good units, can get them for 40-50bucks for the 20+20amp units, some can uncap the rails(cant remmber what its called) to deal with high load times, good stuff.

my buddys using an epower 500watt for his x1900xtx CF rig and a fortron 450watt(16+18amp) for his 7950gto sli, works great, quility over flashy=the win.
meaning that ur better off with a psu thats rated lower but high quility then one rated high but of poor quility.
 
what the heck do you mean 24 amps is low for a 650 watt, its one of the highest amps i found on newegg for single rails!! the highest was 37 amps, second was 28 then mine, so dont gimme no crap about quality the more comon ones i see are 15 amps for single rails, you obviously didnt pay attention that its a single rail psu or are to ignorant to realize that 24 amps is pretty good for single rails. now what i was asking is not the damn quality of MY psu but if those small dips in volts may lockup my comp, you have only managed to insult my psu and my intelligence on picking out hardware, and ive done a lot of looking around and found that my voltage is very stable.
:(
This particular psu is actually quite good, mirror shine finnish, overvoltage/load protection and 120mm quiet fan. AND FYI I know it is impossible to run crossfire on this, which is why i was asking what would be a good amperage on a dual 12v psu.
:(
Now if you still intend to help me then what do you recommend for amperage on a dual 12v psu for a crossfire system.
:(
 
Duel rail 18-22amp 12v rail should suffice for crossfire. Ati has lowered their original requirements due to confusion between Total PSU Amps and individual rail amperage requirements. If you have a lot of HDD/dvd/cd Etc you might want to go up to 24 amps on the 12v rails for best results with extreme overclocking.
 
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sweet thanks....

thats all that i wanted
:shadedshu
 
what the heck do you mean 24 amps is low for a 650 watt, its one of the highest amps i found on newegg for single rails!! the highest was 37 amps, second was 28 then mine, so dont gimme no crap about quality the more comon ones i see are 15 amps for single rails, you obviously didnt pay attention that its a single rail psu or are to ignorant to realize that 24 amps is pretty good for single rails. now what i was asking is not the damn quality of MY psu but if those small dips in volts may lockup my comp, you have only managed to insult my psu and my intelligence on picking out hardware, and ive done a lot of looking around and found that my voltage is very stable.
:(
This particular psu is actually quite good, mirror shine finnish, overvoltage/load protection and 120mm quiet fan. AND FYI I know it is impossible to run crossfire on this, which is why i was asking what would be a good amperage on a dual 12v psu.
:(
Now if you still intend to help me then what do you recommend for amperage on a dual 12v psu for a crossfire system.
:(

My bad, didn't mean to insult your PSU nor your intelligence.

Like I said, dip in voltage is normal and should not cause any instability as long as it stays within -+ 6%.
 
I dont trust anything to do with PSU's :p

2.6 Ghz P4 800FSB Northwood @ 3Ghz
1GB PC3200 RAM @ PC3500
1x 80GB 7200RPM HDD, 1x 40GB 7200RPM HDD
9800 PRO 128mb (soon to be X800XT PE 256mb w/ arctic silencer (yes i have done this be4))
4x Dual layer DVD burner
Tv tuner card
1x 60mm fan, 1 HUGE LCD on the front of case, 2x 40mm fan, 1x exhaust fan blower
1x internal memory card reader

ALL on a 200W w/ 12A on the 12v rail :p...if thats not overkill, i dont know what is. And yeah, i do game on it a lot, never crashed before

...Terenth, you should be right with that PSU, i dont see anything wrong :)
 
what the heck do you mean 24 amps is low for a 650 watt, its one of the highest amps i found on newegg for single rails!! the highest was 37 amps, second was 28 then mine, so dont gimme no crap about quality the more comon ones i see are 15 amps for single rails, you obviously didnt pay attention that its a single rail psu or are to ignorant to realize that 24 amps is pretty good for single rails.

The PC power and cooling Silencer(610) is rated 49A @ 12v @ 40C.

However, You seem to have a strange obsession with a single rail PSU, which implys you don't understand why manufacturers have gone to a multi-rail system.

Having 2 12v's works like this... 12v line 1 powers CPU/GPU. 12v line 2 powers HDD/CDROM/etc.

When 12v line is rated around 13A and 20A is necessary, its *supposed* to pull the extra 7w from the secondary 12v line.

Giving you the multi-rail PSU's with sky high ratings.

24A for a 600+ watter is rather low(granted, it is a single rail)..My 350w Antec has ~19A..... but 49A for a 610 is pretty high. ;)

However, a 2.5ghz A64, and an x1950pro, I would definatly want a strong PSU backing it up... I'm not sure about the brand (never heard of it) but assuming it holds its ratings like it SHOULD, it may run...


However, back on subject...

The voltage fluctuations reported Via mobo software should NOT be used.

Use a digital multimeter. :)
 
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My PSU has 24a on 12v rail, I got it for free with case! Does the job for me :)
 
:/ i dont have obsessions........ i just didnt like the fact that he dissed my psu LOL, i just get a little confused when they require 30 amps on the 12v rail when dealing with dual and quad 12v rail psu's, b/c 20 on a dual 12v rail doesnt seem to be enuff if those rails are seperate. i do believe if i had lets say 1 grfx card per 12v rail it would be enuff @ 20amps, but i suppose then this dual 12v 20amp rail psu would essentially be rate 40 amp 12v rail???? add em up right? and a quad 12v @15 would be 60amp 12v rail max??? which would be over kill.

Keep in mind i had a x850/800 crossfire setup at one point which i can promise was a larger amp draw then 1 1950pro
 
:/ i dont have obsessions........ i just didnt like the fact that he dissed my psu LOL, i just get a little confused when they require 30 amps on the 12v rail when dealing with dual and quad 12v rail psu's, b/c 20 on a dual 12v rail doesnt seem to be enuff if those rails are seperate.

They are, but aren;t seperate.

IIRC, 12v1 can pull from 12v2, but 12v2 cant pull from 12v1.

Assuming your PSU is laid out with a bit of brains..... CPU+mobo+GPU would get 12v1, and everything else, 12v2...

I'd be interested if someone knew where a nice multi-rail FAQ was.. it brings up questions like:

Is it effecient... can they really be added up? and how are most PSU's setup rail wise... (plugs, go where? I.e. GPU on 12v2? what about SLI psu's?)
 
yea ive been wondering wtf is wrong with these ppl not explaining whether sli cables have anything to do with the rest of the 12v rails and amps... id like the sli's to be on their own 12v rail and with their own freaking amps.... but that is just fantasizing in a fantasy world where shit happens that doesnt ever happen here... cuz its too good for us... bastards....
 
btw this is a review on my PSU from Newegg

"""""Great Power Supply
Reviewed By: N/A on 11/23/2006 Reviewed By: N/A on 11/23/2006 Rating + 5Rating + 5Rating + 5Rating + 5Rating + 5
Tech Level Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week


Pros: Great Power Supply, Tons of connectors.

Cons: none!

Other Thoughts: amazing, have this powering my GeForce 8800GTS and a nForce 680i mobo, it runs cool and quiet."""""
AN 8800 FING GTS!!! EAT IT PPLS MWAHAHAHHAHA ..... i have no obsessions.....
 
Due to SLI being somewhat new, most PSU manufactures still only list total amps of PSU available. Most video vcard manufactures have switched over to amps per rail for sli compatable mobo's/vid cards. This was also what caused ATI's problem when listing required amps for 12v rails. Half the engineers recognized the issue and wanted to list amps per rail and the other half just wanted to list total amps of PSU requirements. I still say if you are going to run Duel X1xxx ATI comp or 7xxx or 8xxx Nvidia series go with 12v rails of 18 to 22 amps per rail and you should still have enough power for everything else. To check start game and measure voltage at and of rail (after all components ar at last component) if rail V mainains a 12v(+), and does not go below 12v then you are ok. IF it drops below 11.8 or so you probably don't have enough amps on the rail.
 
btw this is a review on my PSU from Newegg


AN 8800 FING GTS!!! EAT IT PPLS MWAHAHAHHAHA ..... i have no obsessions.....

Now if only 99.99% of newegg reviews weren't full of shit? :laugh:
 
lol, well twas wat he tsaid... 8800gts.... id believe it... its only 1 grfx card and i had 2 power hunger x8xx's in here at one point WHICH btw... (i knew it wouldnt work) at first i had a 450wat psu with this comp, i didnt know wat brand or model or how much of anything besides it was a 450watter... i also origionally thought that it had overvoltage and shit protection in case i over loaded it it would shut down... WRONG!!!! all it was was bang bang bang in cs: source, then i heard BAAAANGGG and a big flash behind my comp.... i had a feeling it wasnt counterstrike doing the banging this time... flatout fried the mofo. thats when i decided i never will ever use a psu w/out overvoltage/load protection and all those safety feature goodies again :D
 
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