850w Power Supply - Do I Need to Calm Down?!

mikeym

mikeym

mikeym

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I'm looking at specifying various components towards a Z77 / Ivy upgrade. My current PSU (Enermax Infiniti 720w) is also making some noises and has been for a fair few months now, so I'm thinking I should get it replaced. Before I do decide to replace it I will take it out and give it a good clean using compressed air - any other suggestions? I'd rather not take it apart if it can be avoided...

My system will more than likely be Z77 UD5H, 3570k overclocked as far as I can get it stable, 8gb RAM, 4 internal mechanical hard drives + 1 external mechanical HD + Internal 128GB SSD, 2GB 7850 or 7870 (possibility of crossfire down the road), BluRay RW, DVD RW, Silverstone FT02 with standard fan config + Noctua NH-D14, soundcard... dont think there's anything else worth mentioning.

Now, I've been looking at 850w PSUs (Antec HCP, Enermax Platimax & Seasonic Platinum 860) mainly to futureproof whatever I decide to do with future upgrades and probably, more than anything, to go one better than what I currently have! I'm aware that I will probably receive advice to lower my sights but would be interested for opinion on what is a reasonable size and possible models for a quiet, efficient (Platinum is probably over the top - would I see any great savings / benefit of gold over silver over bronze?) and modular PSU for my needs...

£200 does seem excessive and is probably overkill but the Antec HCP seems OK price-wise, albeit from another supplier.

Thanks in advance...
 
I'm about to get a new PSU today, going to get a AX850 unless some last minute research tells me not to.

ALSO - NEVER OPEN A PSU!!!!!!!!
 
Well, the current trend is less power, not more. the 7850 uses very little power (125W?). 850W is excessive even for crossfire / SLI.

I have a corsair AX850, which is already overkill for my system, although it's a good PSU, and works pretty much fanless most of the time. I got this over a seasonic due to availability, and ended up saving a bunch of money in the process.

Realistically, a Bronze / Silver / Gold PSU (XFX XXX, Corsair HX, Enermax and Seasonic) will be plenty efficient for your needs. If you want 'futureproof' with the latest NVdia monster (the 680 ain't it yet), then a good 850W will have you covered, but no need to spend £200 on one. A XFX XXX is 1/2 that, a corsair AX is £150, little less for HX. Platinum PSUs are really top of the range, if you want the best, then a Seasonic / XFX platinum, but they are pricey for not much benefits over standard Gold / Silver.
 
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olivier renault said:
Well, the current trend is less power, not more. the 7850 uses very little power (125W?). 850W is excessive even for crossfire / SLI.

I have a corsair AX850, which is already overkill for my system, although it's a good PSU, and works pretty much fanless most of the time. I got this over a seasonic due to availability, and ended up saving a bunch of money in the process.

Realistically, a Bronze / Silver / Gold PSU (XFX XXX, Corsair HX, Enermax and Seasonic) will be plenty efficient for your needs. If you want 'futureproof' with the latest NVdia monster (the 680 ain't it yet), then a good 850W will have you covered, but no need to spend £200 on one. A XFX XXX is 1/2 that, a corsair AX is £150, little less for HX.
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How much did the AX850 cost you?
 
Dark Light said:
ALSO - NEVER OPEN A PSU!!!!!!!!
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as a general rule, yeah - but if you know what you are doing, and you do iit safely, there shouldnt be a problem

the reason why the general answer is not to open it is because iit has capacitors that hold enough charge to kill you
 
Get yourself a Coolermaster 850 as in my sig. Cost me around £110 4-ish years ago and still going strong. Whisper quiet and still giving out the same power levels as when new. If It blew tomorrow I'd have no hesitation in buying another. Best PSU I've ever had in twenty plus years of building PC's.
 
Just bought an ax850, it seemed good spec from reviews I read and even if it is a bit overkill it will be fanless under 170 Watts load, ~10 decibels under 425 Watts, <20 decibels up to 595 Watts, rising to ~40 decibels @ 850 Watts, according to the packaging.
 
The new generation cards are very good when it comes to power consumption so I do think your looking at a bit too much. A good quality 750W power supply will be more than enough for overclocked dual 7870s.

Corsair Professional Series AX750 High Performance 750W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply

The Corsair AX series are very good. Here are some reviews.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=236

http://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/corsair-ax750-power-supply-review/

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=es&rurl=translate.google.es&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.pc-max.de/artikel/netzteile/corsair-ax750-750-watt
 
This is what I used as a guide. I don't know how accurate it is but it seems quite up to date with things like AMD 79xx GPU cards etc. Just rechecked mine as I was a bit worried and it came out as just over 700W required for 7970 crossfire, 1 Sata HDD, 1 Flash SSD, i7 2600K OC'd 5Ghz, couple of PCIe x1 cards, 4 x 140mm fans.

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
 
thenewoc said:
Only a guide, whatever it says you'd be wise to go for the next model up that exceeds the recommendation...
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No, as one might say 600w, whereas another could say 800w.

So you can't use one, I suggest looking up reviews for the key parts (processor/gpu/etc) and see how much power they use in the power usage section.

Generally one GPU = 500-650w
Two = 650+
Two high end (680/7970/580/etc) = 750+ minimum
 
Well it seemed a lot more on the money than using Corsair's site which suggested an AX1200. Anyway just one source of information to judge as you please, as with anything you should take several opinions into account.
 
thenewoc said:
Well it seemed a lot more on the money than using Corsair's site which suggested an AX1200. Anyway just one source of information to judge as you please, as with anything you should take several opinions into account.
Click to expand...

1200w is definitely them trying to drag all the money out of you they can!
 
That's what I thought too but it did worry me for a moment until I checked it against that calculator to get a second opinion.
 
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