Overkill PSUs

Kaapstad · 28 May 2013 at 09:10

WuMyster said:
No doubt is a cheap 1000w PSU bad let alone a 100W one. Ill only be looking at the popular Corsair, Silverstone, XFX and Enermax ones.
As im reading all your helpful posts, im seeing that its all about efficiency. Not pulling enough wattage from the PSU will cause in a lower efficiency. Is this just about wasted wattage I will be taking?

You really need to work out what system you plan on using for the next 12 months and go from there as to which PSU to get.

olivier renault · 28 May 2013 at 09:20

Seasonic / XFX / Corsair / Enermax platinum series. If you gonna do Quad-SLI or whatever, you might as well get the best PSU you can get.

WuMyster · 28 May 2013 at 09:32

olivier renault said:
Seasonic / XFX / Corsair / Enermax platinum series. If you gonna do Quad-SLI or whatever, you might as well get the best PSU you can get.

Exactly what i listed. Ill get a 1KW PSU from them. It seems that the only downside to a overkill PSU is efficiency and if that just draws more power and costs me money then im not bothered at all!

Kaapstad · 28 May 2013 at 10:08

Some interesting reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus

WuMyster · 28 May 2013 at 10:23

Oh wow. I see. Im on the hunt for a platinum so with a lower wattage my system uses it looks like the PSU will still be efficient?

panyan · 28 May 2013 at 10:36

WuMyster said:
Oh wow. I see. Im on the hunt for a platinum so with a lower wattage my system uses it looks like the PSU will still be efficient?

I dont think there is any real point in that - platinum PSU's are a lot more expensive and the difference in % is minimal considering your going to be running it at way under maximum for the time being

panyan · 28 May 2013 at 10:37

this is the one i suggest you go with:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2465

Made my seasonic
Its on offer
It outputs the 1KW you want

WuMyster · 28 May 2013 at 11:10

Great recommendation mate. Ill add this to my choices!

spixelspixel · 28 May 2013 at 11:51

The new seasonic platform is one of the only high wattage ones that gives good efficiency at low loads. Check the low load efficiency results here. Not sure what other power supplies use it apart from the one in this review

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/CoolerMaster/V1000/6.html

If you have any doubts that you'll ever have 3/4 high end graphics cards then getting such a big psu is nothing more than a waste of money.

Not all 80plus platinum supplies give equal efficiency though, if you happen to buy one which gives poor efficiency at low loads (with your current system it will only be using 40-50w at idle and around 250 max load) then you'll end up getting 80 plus bronze effiency or even less on a platinum unit.

EDIT - Also one other thing to keep in mind that is unless you get a semi fanless unit, high wattage psu's are almost always louder (regardless of load). Since they need to handle higher wattages,they use fans with higher max rpm which in turn = higher lowest rpm.

WuMyster · 28 May 2013 at 12:09

I have no doubts at all that I will be going for the 4 gpus approach.
You say ill only be at 250W max load but after using a few PSU calculators, theyre showing me 600W of usage and recommending a 750W PSU. Adding two more 7950's would get me close to 1KW.
Not worried about efficiency at all really.
Ill most likely go with a semi fanless unit.

panyan · 28 May 2013 at 12:14

WuMyster said:
after using a few PSU calculators...

those overcalculate SO much

spixelspixel · 28 May 2013 at 12:27

WuMyster said:
I have no doubts at all that I will be going for the 4 gpus approach.
You say ill only be at 250W max load but after using a few PSU calculators, theyre showing me 600W of usage and recommending a 750W PSU. Adding two more 7950's would get me close to 1KW.
Not worried about efficiency at all really.
Ill most likely go with a semi fanless unit.

How many cards do you have now? 1 or 2?

Kaynar · 28 May 2013 at 12:32

The only overkill with PSUs is if you KNOW that you willl never own a SLi/Xfire system and still buy an expensive very high wattage PSU.

WuMyster · 28 May 2013 at 12:34

2 right now. Not sure if ill go quad with the 7950's but I will in the next generation.
Do bare in mind that I am running 6 HDs and ive heard that at some points when they start to seek, they can take up to 50W each. Im running 4 in RAID 0.
This is for a full WC loop if that provides anymore info.

Puppetmaster · 28 May 2013 at 12:54

spixelspixel said:
The new seasonic platform is one of the only high wattage ones that gives good efficiency at low loads. Check the low load efficiency results here. Not sure what other power supplies use it apart from the one in this review

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/CoolerMaster/V1000/6.html

If you have any doubts that you'll ever have 3/4 high end graphics cards then getting such a big psu is nothing more than a waste of money.

Not all 80plus platinum supplies give equal efficiency though, if you happen to buy one which gives poor efficiency at low loads (with your current system it will only be using 40-50w at idle and around 250 max load) then you'll end up getting 80 plus bronze effiency or even less on a platinum unit.

EDIT - Also one other thing to keep in mind that is unless you get a semi fanless unit, high wattage psu's are almost always louder (regardless of load). Since they need to handle higher wattages,they use fans with higher max rpm which in turn = higher lowest rpm.

Most decent PSU's will have fans that dont run all the time, only kicking in when its needed. My psu doesnt ramp up until about 40% load (so around 500w) and even then I cant hear it unless my ear is next to it.

WuMyster · 28 May 2013 at 13:08

Any coil whine on your Corsair? Im hearing that the digital series arent rebranded SeaSonics anymore which is what puts me off.

Puppetmaster · 28 May 2013 at 13:23

WuMyster said:
Any coil whine on your Corsair? Im hearing that the digital series arent rebranded SeaSonics anymore which is what puts me off.

The AX1200i which I have is made by Flextronics, Mine doesn't suffer from coil whine but that's not to say it doesn't exist on this range / the AX1200i.

Kaapstad · 28 May 2013 at 14:47

If you are going to use 4 HD 7950s, what mobo and CPU are you going to use. Also do you plan on overclocking.

WuMyster · 28 May 2013 at 14:54

I have 2 7950's but I doubt ill be running four of them. Im wondering about getting a 1KW now because I know for a fact I will run 4 gpus in the future (1 or 2 generations).
Ive currently got the two 7950's at 1GHz core clock but i cant remember the memory clock. Dont remember the voltage off of the top of my head. Was something like 1.15 i believe.
Always plan on OCing my CPU. I did have my 3770K at 4.5.

Kaapstad · 28 May 2013 at 15:57

WuMyster said:
I have 2 7950's but I doubt ill be running four of them. Im wondering about getting a 1KW now because I know for a fact I will run 4 gpus in the future (1 or 2 generations).
Ive currently got the two 7950's at 1GHz core clock but i cant remember the memory clock. Dont remember the voltage off of the top of my head. Was something like 1.15 i believe.
Always plan on OCing my CPU. I did have my 3770K at 4.5.

What I am trying to get at is you will probably need to switch to X79 to run 4 cards, this platform uses a lot more watts for the CPU than your 3770k. When overclocking a 3930k, it uses a lot of watts before you even think about GPUs.