CORSAIR 520watt with 480GTX....

[The Halk]

According to Anand's Bench it'd be 600W on the wall so 530W would cut it. So yes, a 600W will do the job. As long as it's a capable 600W and not a 450W badged as 600W.

 

[w3bbo]

W3bbo you're spreading PSU hysteria.

The PSU he has is fine, it's got plenty of room for overclocking his CPU. He isn't "going to suffer overvoltage protection coming into play".

The PSU isn't the single most important part of the PC, this isn't 2004 any more. Virtually all PSUs are capable - the old designs with barely any 12V rail are long gone. The main difference between them is how close to the real rating they are, and how efficient/cool/noisy they are.
The hysteria that's spread about PSUs is ridiculous.

Up to it's limits for 24/7 usage? What nonsense are you talking about? The load figures are for a high end CPU running one of these 480s in Furmark - software specificially designed to get an unreasonably large power draw. Not only is he not going to run Furmark 24/7 he's also not even close to the max of the PSU.

Have you ever reviewed psu's on a professional basis?
Have you ever seen them blow up (and yes I do mean blow up in a **** storm of sparks and fire?).

I have. I'm not willy waving, I'm just speaking from experience.

We are not talking about cheap no name psu's from years ago either. It's not hysteria, its fact. If you run a psu to it's maximum wattage it will give up the ghost much sooner that it would if you bought a psu with a little more headway. I would NEVER advise anyone to run expensive hardware on a psu that was reaching it's limit. I still maintain that the psu is the most important component in a pc, modern or old. Old PSU's and new PSUs are still very similar by design. Sure there are more safety features in the better brands than of old, better quality components etc but a PSU that is run on the ragged edge is still capable of letting go and taking other hardware with it.

Saying his psu will be fine regardless is based on asumptions that he won't be adding multiple usb devices, won't be overclocking, won't be adding cathodes or multiple fans etc. How many hard drives or optical drives will he be using? What other peripherals will he be running from USB power? All of these little things add up.

Advising him that it will be fine without knowing everything about his setup or intentions without pointing out the dangers is both reckless and dangerous. While I have no doubts it will power up and will most likely bench/game/ act normally etc for how long I would not like to say.

 

[The Halk]

It's hysteria, not fact.

Your argument could be made on any PSU and any setup. You insinuate that the PSU he has is less than excellent, and you insinuate he's using it at maximum capacity.

1) The PSU he is using is excellent.
2) At maximum possible power draw he's drawing 80% of the rated power.
3) He isn't going to own a PC to run Furmark 24/7/365

He's going to run a PC which most of the time will draw between 150W and 400W of power from a PSU rated, and tested all over the world, to supply 520W. Even if he chooses to run Furmark he's going to still be well under the rated supply capacity.

 

[w3bbo]

Ignorance is bless I guess.

I never said the psu was not excellent or insinuated as such? Corsair PSU's are among the best available. I am simply stating running ANY PSU close to it's theoretical limit is not a good idea.

Please tell me how you came to the conclusion he pc will be running at 80% of rated (peak?) power?

From what I can make out he has:

Overclocked Q6600 G0 @3ghz (assumed apx 1.3v - 130w load)
4GB DDR2
4 Hard drives (7200rpm assumed)
P35 motherboard
GTX480
Soundcard (Asus - assumed xonar PCIe 4x)

I think it is fair to also assume he has at least 3x120mm fans running (CPU, intake and exhaust). It's also fair to assume he has a minimum of 2 USB devices (Keyboard/mouse). There will most likely be more than this to take into consideration but I have used the bare minimum as an example.

This setup according to online psu calculators (which have actually been quite accurate compared to various systems I have used with much more accurate 'realtime' monitors) would draw around 570w (assumed 90% load when gaming). Unfortunately, I don't have the exact spec he has at present so cannot accurately predict how much power draw his pc would use.

However, I think this clearly demonstrates his setup exceeds his current psu rating and like I have said previous. His 520w may run it fine for a while but for long term use - I wouldn't risk it thats for sure.

I'm hardly creating hysteria. If I was creating hysteria then I would be shouting from the rooftops he needs a 1kw psu or his house will burn down. Clearly I am not. I am just stating and WARNING of the dangers of running a psu on the edge of it's capacity, even one of a quality brand such as Corsair (please do not 100% rely on OVP as a safety net!).

 

[[TW]Fox]

However, I think this clearly demonstrates his setup exceeds his current psu rating and like I have said previous. His 520w may run it fine for a while but for long term use - I wouldn't risk it thats for sure.

I have the same PSU as him and ran almost the same spec but with an overclocked GTX280 instead of a 480 for 2 and a half years without a single problem with the PSU.

 

[w3bbo]

I have the same PSU as him and ran almost the same spec but with an overclocked GTX280 instead of a 480 for 2 and a half years without a single problem with the PSU.

A GTX480 pulls some 70w more than a 280 though m8. He's already running a gtx280.

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying his pc will go up in smoke as soon as he plugs in the 480. It will likely be fine, at least for a while but the more stress he puts on the psu, the more likely it is to fail and as I have shown, he will most likely be running the psu above spec or at the very least very very close to it.

 

[The Halk]

I get the 80% from Anand's bench, which I consider way more accurate than the old PSU calculator spreadsheets/web scripts.

Anand has used an overclocked quadcore on the i7 platform. That particular PSU at that particular from the wall power draw is around 88% efficient according to JonnyGuru.

That means that systems PSU is being asked to supply 421W of power. In the same position the OP's Corsair would be asked to supply 421W of power.

Now that is an unusually high load. Anand has the same setup running Crysis drawing 421W from the wall, which is some 370W from the PSU when it's under the most stress it will normally come to.

Hard drives don't actually use that much power, nor do 12cm fans. 4 hard drives is going to be 25W or so - and I'm pretty sure Anand's rig had to be running some kind of hard drive to run benchmarks! 4 fans adds another 8W to things at worst. If he does have a soundcard and Anand doesn't, then it's another 10W.

At most he's going to add 50W, and that's being really generous.

So we've managed to get to, in Furmark, 470W drawn from a PSU rated at 520W. When he runs a benchmark specifically designed to consume power.

When the PC is idle I'm sure everybody agrees the PSU is no concern at all.

When he's gaming it'll be something like what, 400W? Hardly an issue. Even in the very long term.

 

[krooton]

From what I can make out he has:

Overclocked Q6600 G0 @3ghz (assumed apx 1.3v - 130w load)
4GB DDR2
4 Hard drives (7200rpm assumed)
P35 motherboard
GTX480
Soundcard (Asus - assumed xonar PCIe 4x)

I think it is fair to also assume he has at least 3x120mm fans running (CPU, intake and exhaust). It's also fair to assume he has a minimum of 2 USB devices (Keyboard/mouse). There will most likely be more than this to take into consideration but I have used the bare minimum as an example.

This setup according to online psu calculators (which have actually been quite accurate compared to various systems I have used with much more accurate 'realtime' monitors) would draw around 570w (assumed 90% load when gaming). Unfortunately, I don't have the exact spec he has at present so cannot accurately predict how much power draw his pc would use.

System in my sig comes up with 540w in the popular calculator.

However, from the socket, running Orthos and Furmark, I only draw 420w. Assuming 80% efficiency, my system is only actually using 340w at load!

 

[[TW]Fox]

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying his pc will go up in smoke as soon as he plugs in the 480. It will likely be fine, at least for a while but the more stress he puts on the psu, the more likely it is to fail and as I have shown, he will most likely be running the psu above spec or at the very least very very close to it.

I think that like most people in this thread you are simply guessing and you have no evidence at all to support your opinion

 

[Fluke?]

Hi Guys,
sorry to derail the thread a bit but what's the concensus on a GTX470 being powered by an Antec Truepower 480?

The Specsheet seems to suggest the 12v rail can handle 28A but I'm a bit of a noob with PSU terminology so...

Otherwise the rest of the system is fairly basic:
E6600 @ 3.2
4gb Kingston DDR2 PC8500
2x HDD 7200
1x DVDR

Cheers.

 

[The Halk]

That's a very old design of PSU - one of the first ones when CPUs moved to 12V. As a result it's really weak on the 12V line - it'll onlty supply 336W. (Wattage = Amps x Volts). It's also likely your PSU is around 5 years old, which may mean it's not able to do what it was able to do when it was younger. Additionally PSUs back when that was all the rage were much less efficientg and considerably less refined.

The good news is that your CPU draws very little power, relatively speaking. Around 60W less than the i7 Anand uses in his bench stats. Meaning you are within the 12V that your PSU supplies.

What's unknown is how an old PSU will survive 5 years down the line, for a job it wasn't really designed for (but is rated for).

Personally I'd want to replace it because it'd be quieter, cheaper in the long run (efficiency) and safer.

However I don't think information exists which could give you a definitive answer if your PSU is best used for that or not. In fact if anyone does try to offer you a solid opinion I'd discount everything they said.

 

[w3bbo]

I think that like most people in this thread you are simply guessing and you have no evidence at all to support your opinion

...and unlike you I am warning the OP of running a system that will stress his psu which at best might bring stability issues to his overclock and worse, possibly damage his hardware.
I see now why your popularity in motors precedes you.

The more a psu is stressed, the more ripple will be created, especially as the majority of the consumption will be on the 12v rail(s). PSU ripple can have an effect on overclock stability and indeed pc stability in general, really bad ripple will damage hardware. As good as the corsair unit is (perhaps the best sub 600w psu out there), these voltage fluctuations cannot be avoided. Most modern psu's offer protection from this and will shut down before damage occurs, however there is no guarentee of this and one only has to read some of the harrowing tales of pc destruction on the net to realise this protection is not the safety net many believe it to be.

I don't need evidence when I have years of experience both testing hardware on a professional basis and as a hobby. I'm not saying I'm right and everyone here is wrong, I'm saying in my experience running a psu close to it's limit (within 10%) is asking for trouble in the long term, maybe even sooner and the OP would be better served investing in a more powerful psu sooner rather than later if for nothing else but peace of mind.

 

[Fluke?]

*SNIP*

Thanks for the reply bud, looks like a new PSU too sometime soon then.

 

[The Halk]

...and unlike you I am warning the OP of running a system that will stress his psu which at best might bring stability issues to his overclock and worse, possibly damage his hardware.
I see now why your popularity in motors precedes you.

This is where you have got things wrong. I have explained above why he isn't running close, or even near to the limit.

The more a psu is stressed, the more ripple will be created, especially as the majority of the consumption will be on the 12v rail(s). PSU ripple can have an effect on overclock stability and indeed pc stability in general, really bad ripple will damage hardware. As good as the corsair unit is (perhaps the best sub 600w psu out there), these voltage fluctuations cannot be avoided. Most modern psu's offer protection from this and will shut down before damage occurs, however there is no guarentee of this and one only has to read some of the harrowing tales of pc destruction on the net to realise this protection is not the safety net many believe it to be.

I don't need evidence when I have years of experience both testing hardware on a professional basis and as a hobby. I'm not saying I'm right and everyone here is wrong, I'm saying in my experience running a psu close to it's limit (within 10%) is asking for trouble in the long term, maybe even sooner and the OP would be better served investing in a more powerful psu sooner rather than later if for nothing else but peace of mind.

This is where you're right.

I'm not arguing that stressing a PSU increases the chances of the PSU going. In fact I don't think anyone is.

My problem is that you're coming out with this in response to someone who just isn't in that situation. I hope you accept my explanation of the power usage he's going to be doing, short of him getting the gear and plugging in a wall meter I can't think of any other way.

 

[jigger]

w3bbo is right, its dodgy to run that rig with that PSU.

 

[Bobmunkhouse]

So the deal for the 480gtx is back on....did anyone get this card with mine or similar psu? I chickened out last time....

 

[EdGey]

I have the same PSU, and I've been considering getting the 480 myself.

The PSU is not something I would be worried about. I think its more than capable of running the 480.

I have 2 HDD's and a highly overclocked Q6600.

 

[chaparral]

The PSU is not something I would be worried about. I think its more than capable of running the 480.

I have 2 HDD's and a highly overclocked Q6600.

BANG !!!!!! ................Oops

 

[MikeHunt79]

The more a psu is stressed, the more ripple will be created, especially as the majority of the consumption will be on the 12v rail(s). PSU ripple can have an effect on overclock stability and indeed pc stability in general, really bad ripple will damage hardware. As good as the corsair unit is (perhaps the best sub 600w psu out there), these voltage fluctuations cannot be avoided. Most modern psu's offer protection from this and will shut down before damage occurs, however there is no guarentee of this and one only has to read some of the harrowing tales of pc destruction on the net to realise this protection is not the safety net many believe it to be.

Hi, I have not read any tales of pc destruction as a result of overloading a psu myself, I wouldn't mind seeing some tho so are there any links?

I have also have had the experience of a few Pc Psu's die, and not once was any hardware other damaged. WinPower And Tagan both went bang,'both out of warranty, plugged in replacement psu and my hardware was fine.

The fuse blew in the Winpower, and the primary side smoothing cap let go in the Tagan... After replacing this cap with a better quality component The Tagan is now working again.

I would be very interested to see if an hx520 has ever damaged someones hardware at all, even if run close to it's specified output power for extended periods of time...