PSU choice

RobSheffield

RobSheffield

RobSheffield

Associate
Joined
24 Mar 2011
Posts
24
Location
Sheffield, UK
Hi folks

I currently run an 850W Antec PSU and im considering dropping down to a 650W or maybe even a 550W.

I run spec as below and wondered if anyone had any pointers. Reason for change is that electricity bill is quite high and power monitors point to my PC being the reason!

Antec 1200 case with additional side fan.
OCZ Vertex 40GB OS SSD
OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD
Gigabyte Z68X-UD4 Z68 Motherboard
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge)
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB HDD
WD 160GB backup drive
Corsair XMS3 8GB RAM
Corsair A50 CPU Cooler
DVD-ROM


Only play 2 games - World of Warcraft and World of Tanks. Generally run with fans to low with an onscreen GFX card temp readout, if it gets close to 80 degrees i turn the fans up a little (GFX card fan auto increases fan speed anyway) Looking to change the Agility 3 SSD to be the OS, and add a 120 GB Agility 3 and Blueray drive later this year.

Any thoughts welcome.
 
You'll only be using slightly less power from efficiency improvements.

Really not worth it I believe.
 
A PSU change won't affect electricity usage that much not noticablily anyway.

What GPU do you have?

You memntioned temps but not Name, as far as i can see.
 
Sorry, my bad, its a Gigabyte GTX460 SE.

IIRC the Antec PSU reduces power usage according to demand placed on it. Just been playing Warcraft with fans at minimum and found temp didnt go above 88 degrees. I would imagine all 7 fans use quite a fair chunk of the power.
 
So do most psu's...

They only draw what is needed from the wall, however the efficiency is relevant as a 100% efficient psu will use 1/2 the power of a 50% efficient one. However PSUs don't have even efficiency across the load range so you might see some improvement with one that has a lower rating watts wise but is more efficient in your particular power situation.
 
As you have a half decent PSU it's probably at least 80% efficient.

Even if you replaced it with a 90%+ PSU the savings you make would take a long time to pay for the cost of the new PSU.

Your system isn't a that demanding on power, I'd guess 60-80 W on Idle, 200-300 W underload (240 W average for wow) from the wall.

What is you PC usage, 24/7 or a few hours a day and how much of that is idle and heavy load?
 
You have a point about usage. Maybe 3-4 hours a day max, and in fairness neither game taxes the system that much. I used to run fans at max all the time. Running them all at around 50% today and seems to me the temps are sub 60 degrees
 
Hvae you considered using a fan controller which would ramp up the rpm as the temperatures increase.

I am sure that members here could give you a few recomendations.
 
Would they be able to control Case fans? I would guess so. I know the fans on the graphics card are under auto contol, not sure on the CPU fan and the case fans are controlled by switches and rheostat knobs on some.
 
Here is a list of fan controllers available from ocuk

The Lamptron FC Touch Fan Controller video review by HardwareCanucks


Of course you will have to check if this controller will do what you want and if it is compatible with your fans.

Once you get a feel for the capabilities of different fan controllers and the specifications that you will need/want you can then make a more informed descision.

Also check out the Overclocking and cooling section of the forum.

I think Stulid has the same motherboard, maybe he could tell you more about the mobo's fan control capabilities.
 
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