Will my PSU cut it???

[techboie]

Antec NeoHE 500(bought around 2.5 years back)

to power:

Core i7 highly volt oced
1 HDD
2 DVD RWs
4850 X2(May upgrade in another 6 months)
3 RAM DDR3 sticks
2-3 USB devices


Or do I need something more? What is the minimum needed?

 

[theAnimal]

It should be enough.

 

[conlan]

Min. PSU requirements as per Sapphire for the 4850x2:

?650 Watt or greater power supply with one 2x3-pin PCIeR power connector and one 2x4-pin PCIeR power connector is required (1K Watt with two 2x3-pin and two 2x4-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX? technology in dual mode)1 ?Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU for a list of Certified products

Also, the 4850x2 requires 6 and 8 pin PCI-E connectors. If your PSU has these you might get away with it, but why take the chance.

 

[spacegoast]

You probably could run it, but if you plan on adding more HDD's and high overclocks, etc. you will cutting it very close.

 

[yh125d]

Ugh. Min. requirements from the manufacturer mean nothing.


That said, a 500w PSU that's 2.5 year old should probably replaced before you put this much stress on it, although it should have no problem handling it new

 

[conlan]

Originally posted by: yh125d
Ugh. Min. requirements from the manufacturer mean nothing.

I respectfully disagree.

Sure the Manufacturers overstate the needed Wattage to run a component for liability and other reasons.

They also know more about their products and their recommendations should be at least considered.

I'm glad to see that folks are finally realizing they don't need huge PSUs and that quality is better than quantity. However, as is often the case, we tend to over compensate.

IMHO, Just because a 300W PSU will run a system that draws 275W at the wall means we should. We still should consider peak operating efficiency of the PSU as well as future upgrade paths.

 

[techboie]

more replies please...

 

[OddJensen]

I think you'll be "shoe horning" it with that PSU. You could try running the system and make it work, but personally I'd just as soon invest in something better. A highly OC'd i7 will need a lot of juice and the HD4850x2 will draw its share, so I'm sure you'd be pulling well north of 400W with the system.

 

[Ayah]

Yeah, if you're gonna be "highly" overclocking an i7, you're probably going to want something beefier to give you some leeway. And if you intend to upgrade graphics card(s) too, you're really going to want a beefier PSU to overclock them as well.
Hell, I have a Corsair 750W with an old overclocked K8 Opteron and SLI rig.
With a precious i7, I'd probably go with something similar at the minimum.

Edit: But if you really wanted to keep that PSU, I don't see any problem why you couldn't, but you'd be cutting it close.

 

[techboie]

Will a 6 months old GP650 with 42A@12va line be enough? Reviews say it matches tagan in terms of quality. Costs $90.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Tom's Hardware has an article with basically the same setup as yours: http://www.tomshardware.com/re...-phenom-ii,2119-9.html

They are using a PCP&P 750W and total system power consumption at load with an overclocked i7 920 and HD4870X2 is around 430W (at the wall). So, yes the GP650 will probably work just fine. However, I would try to get a PSU with about 50A or more on the +12V rail and achieves maximum efficiency in the range between 250W and 500W. I think you should look at the Corsair 650W TX power supply.

edit:
And here an AT forum user says his overclocked i7 rig with two GTX260s (comparable in power to a single HD4870X2) consumes 700W at the wall. So yeh, you should definitely look at something with more power, like the Corsair I mentioned.

 

[techboie]

The thing is that I have already bought the GP650. Also, it costs like Rs.4400 while Corsair TX650 is like Rs.7000, more than 50% more.

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: conlan

Originally posted by: yh125d
Ugh. Min. requirements from the manufacturer mean nothing.

I respectfully disagree.

Sure the Manufacturers overstate the needed Wattage to run a component for liability and other reasons.

They also know more about their products and their recommendations should be at least considered.

I'm glad to see that folks are finally realizing they don't need huge PSUs and that quality is better than quantity. However, as is often the case, we tend to over compensate.

IMHO, Just because a 300W PSU will run a system that draws 275W at the wall means we should. We still should consider peak operating efficiency of the PSU as well as future upgrade paths.

Example:

In several reviews of the GTX295, the test setup often looks something like 3.6+gHz i7, 6gb DDR3, hard drive, optical, etc. Most of these reviews show the entire rig pulling 425-475w from the wall, which would be ~350-375w DC. NVIDIA recommends 680w MINIMUM, nearly double the actual power needed by a very high end rig.

I'll say again, manufacturer ratings mean nothing.

 

[techboie]

I need to be 100% sure that a GP650 is better than an old NeoHE 500 and its 42A @ 12va lines are enough to power the following:

Core i7 @ 4GHz 1.4V+
3 sticks oced ddr3 ram
2 hdds in raid
4850X2
2 dvd rw
2-3 usb devices

 

[cusideabelincoln]

As far as being more powerful, yes it certainly is better than the NeoHE 500W. As for build quality, efficiency, noise, or stability, I doubt it is; but it's hard to know without finding a review for the specific power supply mentioned.

 

[techboie]

There are some reviews out there. The thing is whether the PSU will be powerful enough or not?

 

[Ileader36]

With my current system, my old Antec Smartpower 2 500w couldn't cut it, but was fine with Old system which comprised Pentium M cpu @ 2.7ghz, 5 hdds, and same video card.
The e5200 pushed it over the edge, and it had no dodgy caps either, still working fine in old comp.