Graphics Cards with *two* 6-Pin Power-Connectors

[swaaye]

IMO you don't need more than a 600W with a single video card. You could power even a GTX 295 or HD 4870 X2 with such a PSU.

The typical 7200RPM HDD only pulls about 10W. Don't know about 15k drives, but yeah I'm sure they pull more. Rather a waste of money if you ask me. Noisy, hot, soon to be completely obsoleted by SSDs.

[swaaye]

Anyway, who needs 1000 Watts for a Desktop system? Even a Quadcore CPU with one of the latest high-end GPU's won't need that much...

My friend bought it for two reasons I imagine. 1) it was on sale so seemed like a bargain 2) 1000W is impressive sounding. He wasn't aware of other factors at the time, like overall quality, noise, or efficiency.

There are a few sites that I really suggest taking a look at if you're looking for PSUs. These guys have really cranked up the quality of the PSU reviews on the net.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/
http://techreport.com/case+power/
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/

And there's this great article from the folks at Tom's Hardware that gives measurements on GPU power consumption and other power related tips.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-radeon-power,2122-6.html

[DJ Bobo]

@ swaaye
It's like you're linking to reviews that you don't read. If you look at the overall results, you'll usually find that the fan gets exponentially louder when it passes the 50% cap. You'll rarely find something that is always quiet or always loud.
So generally, the rule of thumb is: don't pass the 50% cap! Because not all PSUs get tested (far from that!) and their availability in different countries varies a lot.

I'm ready to bet that the 1KW PSU of your friend will get substantially louder if it ever passes the 500W wall.
Reminds me of myself changing the fan of my 300W PSU. I replaced the original 80mm fan with a "silent" one which had about 2000rpm. Guess what? It was almost exactly as loud as the original! Because it seems like the original fan is actually a 3000rpm model that goes down to 2000 when unloaded! Had to replace it with an even slower one (1500rpm) to have it virtually silent. But then the airflow has become very light, so loading this thing will sure lead to its death.

By the way, PC Power & Cooling and OCZ belong together :p

[Shinigami-Sama]

But then the airflow has become very light, so loading this thing will sure lead to its death.


mount a 120mm fan under it to make it a push-pull
its about 15min mod if you the couple peices of stuff you need to do it

[DJ Bobo]

@ shinigami
Thanks but sounds too complicated for me. Replacing the 80mm fan was like playing Lego, but what you're suggesting, no~, that sounds like surgery!

[swaaye]

It's like you're linking to reviews that you don't read. If you look at the overall results, you'll usually find that the fan gets exponentially louder when it passes the 50% cap. You'll rarely find something that is always quiet or always loud.
Oh I have read most of the reviews on those sites. You are right that lots of PSUs get loud if you hit them with a few hundred watts of load. They do vary on that though.

...reviews are hard to find...
If a person can't find a review, he should go look for some other form of critique. I wouldn't buy anything that doesn't get thoroughly tested now that there are such reviews readily available. The review sites I listed cover a good portion of the globe, too. Anandtech is European for the most part for PSU reviews. Jonnyguru is USA. TR is USA/Europe.

PSU reviews have gotten so much better in the past year or two. It really is great. It took too long.

I'm ready to bet that the 1KW PSU of your friend will get substantially louder if it ever passes the 500W wall.
He bought one of the crap OCZ FSP-based 1010W units. It's a really a poor unit. Apparently it can't handle more than about 800W. It is about the same physical size as my few-year-old OCZ 600W Gamexstream even though it's supposedly 1010W (most kW PSUs are longer). It is very loud the moment you power it on. It's loudest PSU I've heard in years. I think the only PSU I've heard that was louder was my 300W PC Power & Cooling Turbocool from 1999 when it had its original high speed 80mm (swapped the fan about 7 years ago).

His PC only pulls about 200W at full bore too. 3 GHz Wolfdale + Radeon 4850. The PSU was just a bad choice that he made because it was on sale.

By the way, PC Power & Cooling and OCZ belong together :p
Well, not too many complaints about my working 10 year old PCP&C Turbocool. It was loud with the speedy stock fan because they rated the thing for up to 50C at full load. The Silencer line was also around back then but I didn't care much about PC noise in those days.

The PCP&C Silencer 420W that I bought a month ago was made by Seasonic. OCZ seems to use a few different companies and they certainly vary in quality. My ~3 yr old OCZ 600W and my friend's OCZ 1010W were both made by FSP.

[DJ Bobo]

@ swaaye
Believe me, you don't have to tell me about checking reviews and opinions, I do that all the time. I'm probably worse than women when it comes to shopping, I take a ve~ry long time to decide on components, check this, check that, hmm, may be this one's better, may be not, oh there is this one, no, this one's cheaper, etc etc. Just plain awful!
As for the PC of your friend, well, of course it doesn't need a 600W PSU, I would have recommended a 450W PSU (65 for CPU + 100 for GPU + 50 for other components = 215W < 50% of 450W) or a 550W to cover for an eventual upgrade to a quad core. I guess he should change the fan of his 1KW unit with a 1000rpm 120mm model, they cost nothing (about 5€ only) and with 1000rpm probably a perfect balance between noise and airflow.

[swaaye]

@DJ Bobo
Yeah I've been considering changing out his fan for him. I don't have any qualms about doing that to my PSUs. I could just 7v volt the thing too.

It's great that you post right after I get home from work and want to tweak a few things in the post I put up hours ago. ;)

I try not to come off as an ass on forums. I really don't like forums much in that way.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Some update:
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7239/95312744.jpg
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6830/88333514.jpg
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4315/74031114.jpg
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/2055/29424123.jpg
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/9205/61016221.jpg
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8281/35684779.jpg
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/7650/81882817.jpg

Works great so far. Thanks for help :)

[DJ Bobo]

Congratulations on your new setup.
I see you got the bequiet PSU. A little bit expensive for the wattage, but well, it's your money, isn't it? :D
And that Leadtek card seems to be one of the better GTX260 models. Seems to be quiet.
The only thing that doesn't fit is that boxed cooler of yours :p

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I see you got the bequiet PSU. A little bit expensive for the wattage, but well, it's your money, isn't it? :D

Well, the manufacturing quality of that PSU is superb, it really is "quiet" and the accessories are pretty nice too. So I think it was worth the money.

And that Leadtek card seems to be one of the better GTX260 models. Seems to be quiet.

My initial test shows that even under load the fan doesn't exceed 60% speed, which is audible but absolutely okay. In "idle" mode the fan is at 40% and you can't hear it.
Not like my Radeon X1950 XT, which was up at 100% fan speed after 1 minute of load and going crazy like a jet engine...

The only thing that doesn't fit is that boxed cooler of yours :p

:scared: