Modular PSU

Eye seven

Eye seven

Eye seven

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Joined
19 Feb 2009
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338
Hi,

I am putting together a new build i7 PC but am having problems trying to find the correct PSU. I will probably go with the Antec 1200 case as I will need some storage and room, along with an OC i7, 6 gb RAM, 3 hard drives for starters, 2 dvd's and a single GPU but may well go for a second at some point. So knowing that I have 2 real questions.

1) I want to go modular to keep cables to a minimum. But what power rating would be good enough to run the above specification with a bit of redundancy built in? Quiet would also be good.

2) The Antec 1200 is quite a big case - and I want to keep my cabling as out of the way as possible. Will the standard cable lengths ln the PSU allow me to route the cables as I would wish on such a large case without having to use extension cables? Are there PSU's out there with a longer cable run than others that also fit the first criteria?

Many thanks for your responses.
 
Cant answer your first query as Im no PSU expert, however whilst not a definitive answer for part 2, I've had 3 psu's in my antec 1200, an Antec Quatro 1000 , a Jeantech truepower 750 and a Coolermaster real power 700, and found that for good cabling etiquette, they all required the use of 24 pin and 8 pin power extensions to motherboard.

Not sure if other psu's have sufficient length cable to over come this problem, I'm sure others more experienced will advise, however if the worst comes to the worst a set of 24 and 8 pin cables should set you back about £10 on overclockers
 
That 1000w looks like a monster and the price I hope indicates the quality. Over time is hardware becoming more power hungry or are we turning the corner and have peaked with power usage. Seems like CPUs are getting better but GPUs are getting hungrier. Was just thinking about the future and the power needs of a PC in say 3 years time. What do you guys reckon - more speed less power or more speed with an increase in power requirements?
 
A good quality 500W PSU will be enough for your system. Have a look at the Coolermaster, Corsair, Zalman and BeQuiet range.
 
Eye seven said:
That 1000w looks like a monster and the price I hope indicates the quality. Over time is hardware becoming more power hungry or are we turning the corner and have peaked with power usage.
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both, in fact. The newest generation of cards are more efficiant than the last gen. it just so happens speed is being increased exponentially. if you look at the leading cards only then yes, power usage is going through the roof.

however, if take two cards - roughly the same speed - from two generations, you'll see the newer tech is more efficiant. my 4830 for example, is not a great deal slower than my old gtx but it uses nearly 90w less under load. 30w less than an 8800gt, even. so it consumes less power and runs cooler as well.
 
icey_haj said:
A good quality 500W PSU will be enough for your system. Have a look at the Coolermaster, Corsair, Zalman and BeQuiet range.
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Rubbish. 500W is nowhere near enough for all this, presuming he gets two GPUs as stated.

You're looking at a 750W at the absolute minimum for two decent graphics cards, 3 HDDs and 2 DVDs.
 
Steve2000 said:
Rubbish. 500W is nowhere near enough for all this, presuming he gets two GPUs as stated.

You're looking at a 750W at the absolute minimum for two decent graphics cards, 3 HDDs and 2 DVDs.
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If you care to look at my post above yours, I've stated that he needs more than 500W if he is to go SLI.
 
It's a good idea to get a PSU that is not much lower than 20% load on idle and 50-80% load (higher peaks are ok) at full sustained system load, that should put it in it's best efficiency range.

Also take into account the larger PSUs tend to be louder. which could be an issue, so going over the top could be a noisy mistake. :)

What GPUs are you looking at?
 
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One small point i'll add is that i recently bought the OCZ gamextreme 700w PSU from overclockers. I had little time to choose and buy but thats another story. Afterwards i noticed that there was an OCZ modxtreme (modular) 700w for about the same price. I was gutted! but only for about 5 minutes untill i realised that the gamextreme 700w gets really good reviews and the modxtreme equivalent get bad reviews. My point is that although modular is a good thing, it might be a bigger price difference than it first appears.
 
Modular does add more that can go wrong/be faulty, though they are miles better now than when they first came onto the market, with lots of issues with bad/lose connectors.
 
GPU wise is a very good question. I think I will be making the purchase in the summer so I am hoping the next generation of cards are out by then. A 5870 (if there is to be such a named card) I guess is where I would be heading initially - or whatever the evolution of the 4870 would be. That is assuming it will be out by the summer.
 
Nobodys-Inn said:
Cant answer your first query as Im no PSU expert, however whilst not a definitive answer for part 2, I've had 3 psu's in my antec 1200, an Antec Quatro 1000 , a Jeantech truepower 750 and a Coolermaster real power 700, and found that for good cabling etiquette, they all required the use of 24 pin and 8 pin power extensions to motherboard.

Not sure if other psu's have sufficient length cable to over come this problem, I'm sure others more experienced will advise, however if the worst comes to the worst a set of 24 and 8 pin cables should set you back about £10 on overclockers
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Just a further update on what I said previously, just installed my fourth PSU this time a Tagan BZ 900, so far seems the quietest psu ive had in ages, and at last I was able to get rid of my psu extension leads, as the tagan ones reach the sockets no problem, even routing behind motherboard.

Now all I need to do is sort out my sata cabling, thats the price you pay for having 8 hard drives installed tho I guess :D
 
Nobodys-Inn said:
Just a further update on what I said previously, just installed my fourth PSU this time a Tagan BZ 900, so far seems the quietest psu ive had in ages, and at last I was able to get rid of my psu extension leads, as the tagan ones reach the sockets no problem, even routing behind motherboard.

Now all I need to do is sort out my sata cabling, thats the price you pay for having 8 hard drives installed tho I guess :D
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Hadn't even looked at the Tagan but the user feedback looks great. I like the fact the modular cables are screw in - looks like a very safe idea. Thanks very much for the info.
 
Eye seven said:
Hadn't even looked at the Tagan but the user feedback looks great. I like the fact the modular cables are screw in - looks like a very safe idea. Thanks very much for the info.
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Have to say that after only 6 hours use Im impressed with it, I was dubious after reading some comments on here, and everyone seems to recommend Corsair. Tagan even included a screwdriver and a pair of anti static gloves as well as a velcro case to store unused cables, so on first impressions im sold.

You watch it will go bang tomorrow :o
 
I have the Be Quiet! 750W modular, it is as the name suggests very quiet, it also has good cable lengths although I did need to buy an 8 pin extension cable for the mobo (3 quid from OCUK) but that was mainly due to the routing on my antec 900. Critcially for a 2 GPU system the PSU comes with 4 pci-e 8 pin connectors and cables on the PSU, Be Quiet! PSU's rated below the 750W I mention only come with 2 pci-e connectors as far as I'm aware (something to consider if going for a multi GPU system).
 
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http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-147-CM&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1103

Has a huge amount of cables, Four 6 pin / Two 8 pin PCI-e connectors, so will guarantee fitting 2 graphics cards in, with cables to spare. You won't need anymore than 850W, as you won't draw anywhere near this, but does give you a bit of headroom. People seem to think that they need more power than they actually do and end up buying extremely powerful PSU's that cost the earth, like the corsair 1000W :p

As above, be quiet, zalman and tagan are all good and will power 2 garphics cards easily.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-022-BQ&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1083

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-024-TG&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1100

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-017-ZA&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1102
 
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