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Reccomended PSU for SLI GTX 480's?

n1ckkk

n1ckkk

n1ckkk

Associate
Joined
21 Nov 2009
Posts
42
Location
Across the Pond, USA
Hi guys I'm going to make the plunge as soon as these cards are released (April 9-16) here in the U.S. and grab one GTX 480 and then pick up another later this year for SLI Mode.

As far as Overclocking goes, I plan to OC them both to the EVGA OC version. @ 725/1450

Other specs:

i7 930 OC'ing to 3.8ish - May upgrade to Cheaper 6-cores If I get money later this year
6gb Mushkin 1600mhz - 6-6-6-18
Asus Rampage III Extreme

As for my power concerns...

I really want to get the XFX 850w because it looks like a cool Unit, but I was wondering if the SLI will hold up on that Unit as well as the OCin'g i'll be doing with my CPU and on the two cards.

as for heat, I have the HAF 932 with 10 fans... should be pretty good airflow.

so can anyone tell me if the XFX unit will do the job, or what other unit I should pick up. Was also thinking of the OCZ Gold 1000W and the two Enermax PSUs but they are expensive.

thx
 
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Personally, I wouldn`t go for a air cooled GTX 480 especially if you plan to overclock them.

I`m considering going GTX 480 but it will only be the water cooled versions if I do.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 480 Hydro Copper *** looks interesting but not yet available for pre order on OcUK as yet.
 
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i personally think watercooling is all hype from 2-3 years ago. its expensive, dangerous, tedeous and a complete waste of time. I think that people are over reacting about heat issues. yes they run hot... but number one they are designed to withstand the heat and number two.. if youre spending 500 or even 1000 for two then youd better have a good setup.. ie a good mobo with good spacing like the rampage III extreme which slis at slots 1 and 3 and a good case like the haf 932. So IMO watercooling isnt needed if you arent stuffing two in a hp factory case.. as for the psu reccomendation i was thinking OCZ Gold 1000w anyone got anything better?
 
n1ckkk said:
i personally think watercooling is all hype from 2-3 years ago. its expensive, dangerous, tedeous and a complete waste of time.
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So watercooling 480s reduces their load temps from 90deg to 60ish allowing more room for overclocking as well as reducing the overall temp in the case allowing better temps & o/cs for other components. Oh and it reduces the fan noise on 2 x 480s from a aircraft taking off levels to almost silent. If you use non conductive cooling fluid like Feser1 it's not in the least bit dangerous. Once set up it's no more tedious than normal cooling and delivers significant advantages in terms of noise temperatures and potential overclocks.

Other than that it's a complete waste of time, sure...:eek:

If you're going to o/c sli 480s on air you better have some awesome airflow through the case, oh and a set of headphones :)
 
Athanor said:
So watercooling 480s reduces their load temps from 90deg to 60ish allowing more room for overclocking as well as reducing the overall temp in the case allowing better temps & o/cs for other components. Oh and it reduces the fan noise on 2 x 480s from a aircraft taking off levels to almost silent. If you use non conductive cooling fluid like Feser1 it's not in the least bit dangerous. Once set up it's no more tedious than normal cooling and delivers significant advantages in terms of noise temperatures and potential overclocks.

Other than that it's a complete waste of time, sure...:eek:

If you're going to o/c sli 480s on air you better have some awesome airflow through the case, oh and a set of headphones :)
Click to expand...

I honestly could care less about noise. People always cry about sound, but honestly when you're gaming you won't hear a damn thing. As far as idle goes, atleast I know my system is actually being cooled very well.
 
Dunno, some fan setups are pretty noticeable and by all accounts the 480 is pretty loud, let alone two, my old system you could hear even when gaming, and if you're playing seriously, you want to be able to hear as much as possible.
Its also a pain if the system is loud and you sleep in the same room.
 
n1ckkk said:
I honestly could care less about noise. People always cry about sound, but honestly when you're gaming you won't hear a damn thing. As far as idle goes, atleast I know my system is actually being cooled very well.
Click to expand...

If you could care less about sound, it means you care somewhat, to enable you to care less.

So, how much do you care about sound?
 
Apparently there's 900w being drawn from the wall, full system at load according to HardOCP, so to give yourself some headroom then you'd probably want to go for a quality 1200w unit, something like the enermax revolution 1250.
 
You'll need at least 800W, a fire extinguisher and a flame retardant blanket.
 
I would say 350 watts for each card. 300 watts for you CPU and 150 watt for the rest of your system.

I would be looking for at something like a 1250 watt PSU for an overclocked 6 core system and two overclocked GTX480's.
 
The thing is, in tests all the people kept their fan speeds on the 480 GTX as auto. If you ramp the fan speeds up to 100%, though it is bloody loud, the temps drop like a rocket.

I'll quote another page here:
I saw temperatures over 100 degrees Celsius using Furmark with the fan speeds on auto. Bump the fan speed to 100% and you get temperatures in the mid 60C range. However, you do have a noise penalty when doing this.
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From:
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/nvidia_gtx480/16.htm

I'm not sure how bad it will be in SLI, but if noise is no issue for the guy I don't think it matters.
 
Sylver123 said:
Personally, I wouldn`t go for a air cooled GTX 480 especially if you plan to overclock them.

I`m considering going GTX 480 but it will only be the water cooled versions if I do.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 480 Hydro Copper *** looks interesting but not yet available for pre order on OcUK as yet.
Click to expand...

there gonna be atleast a 100 dollars more so there probily gonna be 100 quid extra in uk but its probily the only way to go with 480s to have a nice cool and quiet system
 
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