The 8 core showdown and analysis thread.

[413x]

If you're on a tight budget, and never plan on getting a second card (starting with a decent card to begin with) then opting for a lower wattage PSU is perfectly fine. Computers really don't draw as much power as people think, especially when stock.

If you've got no budget constraints, then yes. 100% agree, why buy a lower tier PSU when for the few quid more you wont be limiting your options down the line. Makes sense as most PSUs nowdays come with 0db fan (low loads the unit is passive)

My posts above are not telling people to buy low wattage PSUs, thought i would clarify that. I've chosen silence and only run 1 GPU regardless of more being in my system (only tested my second 290 to proove, to myself. That the 500w is enough! Was only loaded for a 3D11 run as well, wouldn't personally risk overloading for long periods)

Agree.
I would say for a single card and gaming 500 (I'd want 600 probably) is fine.
Even in a game it won't be using all the cpu and all the gpu all the time

But if you are transcoding video you don't want your psu sitting for hours and hours above its wattage limit

But if you are doing this you will know it hopefully

To be clear mine was at its limit for very long periods of time. It wasn't the actual psu that even gave out. It was t the physical connection

Still, I got my kw psu partly due to
The warranty
The Platinum
The possibility of sitting for long periods of time in the 'optimal' power draw band

 

[413x]

no i meant the mechanical drive... no need for more than 500gb

gpu is low.... yes because you'll sooner or later want to upgrade....i.e an R9 290 requires about 700W Overclocked and that card will be be pretty cheap next year.... but not for him because he'll need another psu as well.

You don't need a computer by this logic. You could save money and do it on pen and paper
If you need more to act as a tool/aid it is no different

I have TB after TB of storage space for blu ray rips.
I have a drive for pictures
I have 2 monitors to aid with productivity

I don't need any of it but it all helps

I think the need a argument is ridiculous

 

[james.miller]

Here we go, another one.



Not on about Mal, I was on about your own words!

Dont try to backtrack now.... Mal said 550w was way too small, you agreed with him then argued with me when i said he was wrong. I'm not being subjective at all, it's all there in in the benchtests straight up numbers. subjective is trying to use a dual gpu card to prove 550w isnt enough when i clearly stated it was enough for any single gpu.

James must be defending vyper as he is being subjective. You find some strange banding of people clubbing together here, anyway shall refrain and get on with something more constructive than arguing on forums with people like Phixsator has highlighted in his picture!

Like i said, not being subjective at all. subjective is also trying to tell everybody that a 500gb hard drive is enough for any for us, another point of Mal's you agreed with, by the way. Laughable that you think I'm trying to defend anybody, I'm just posting the facts. This isnt about why buy x when y is £20 more, this is about requirements pure and simple. I dont disagree that financially it makes little sense to buy smaller psus in some cases, but that wasnt and isnt the point mal is trying to make and it's Mals opinion that I am contesting.

gpu is low.... yes because you'll sooner or later want to upgrade....i.e an R9 290 requires about 700W Overclocked and that card will be be pretty cheap next year.... but not for him because he'll need another psu as well.

look :- ``750W or greater PSU required`` right here, just look at the Powercooler 290X
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-167-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

you'll need 700 to 750 watt with everything else in your rig... EVERYTHING ELSE....esp if you overclock the CPU as well

500W TO 600W is too low for future proofing, it's not cost effective, i'd go for 750w to 1000w

With over 3000 posts i can't believe you just did that, are you telling us you don't know they just put any old number up with those to cover their backs in case you get cheap and nasty PSU's?

Do you honestly believe the card pulls more than 500 Watts? don't be ridiculous!

A reference stock card pulls about 250 Watt's, overclocked they pull around 300.

^this, they are covering all bases. But, besides that, read the link i posted Mal. Its not difficult, even you should understand it. 524w at the wall was overclocked, with the r290x pulling 100w more than it does at stock. This is with an i7 3770k @ 4.8ghz. This is at the wall, meaning it's the entire pc including the psu. This is what i mean by needing more than a 550w psu if you are serious about overclocking.

It's all there in the review mal. READ IT.

 

[Mal X]

but you still need a decent PSU.... you need a bit of extra power just in case, so sorry i dont agree with you.....a 550 watt psu is still too low, it's right on the limit of that 524w which is what i was on about

i wouldn't go low to save money on the PSU and risk it failing, i'd save money by buying a much cheaper cpu...........only £50.

i would upgrade the PSU.......downgrade the cpu, upgrade the GPU, what is so hard about this that you dont understand !!!!

 

[james.miller]

but you still need a decent PSU.... my 7970 was a 650 watt OCZ, you need a bit of extra power just in case, so sorry i dont agree with you.

your 7970 doesn't mean anything, you clearly dont know what sort of power your pc requires. I've gone as far as providing the links and you still dont understand.

At least you said you need a decent psu for a single card, of course you do. But it doesnt need to be 1kw or anything near it.

 

[Mal X]

You don't need a computer by this logic. You could save money and do it on pen and paper
If you need more to act as a tool/aid it is no different

I have TB after TB of storage space for blu ray rips.
I have a drive for pictures
I have 2 monitors to aid with productivity

I don't need any of it but it all helps

I think the need a argument is ridiculous

no no.......i'm on about a gaming rig only, your needs are different to mine, i use my rig only for gaming/ surfing the web

 

[humbug]

562 Watts recommended, 512 Watts minimum (For my Rig which is higher than an Intel rig)

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

[Mal X]

your 7970 doesn't mean anything, you clearly dont know what sort of power your pc requires. I've gone as far as providing the links and you still dont understand.

At least you said you need a decent psu for a single card, of course you do. But it doesnt need to be 1kw or anything near it.

i know exactly what my rig pulls, you're not understanding at all.... you need extra power just to be safe and that's what i've always said.... because a 700W PSU has far stronger rails and will handle this 540 watts, far easier than a 550 watt psu will...........so if you follow this line of arguement ( it's not hard), then a 750 watt psu is far better for your requirements than a 550 watt is..... no you dont need a 1000 watt psu and i never said that.

But then again, if you can get a 1000w PSU for say £70, then yes deffo get it, because you're after reliability and strength of build, plus at a great price too....a PSU with about 25% more power than you need is about right to me

this arguement is stupid now

 

[Tonester0011]

Mal, what farmer supplies you with your copious amounts of bull ****?
I only ask, as my god...top grade stuff


Lol at you stating you need a decent PSU abd your closing sentence was a £70 1000w, must be good. It's 1000w!!

 

[Mal X]

562 Watts recommended, 512 Watts minimum (For my Rig which is higher than an Intel rig)

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

yes agreed, but so that you can sleep easy at night, make that PSU 700 Watts,
give yourself a bit of breathing space..... it's up to you

 

[humbug]

yes agreed, but so that you can sleep easy at night, make that PSU 700 Watts,
give yourself a bit of breathing space..... it's up to you

I do agree some breathing room is a very good idea, but really, even my rig wich is higher than most similar rigs because it has an overclocked 8 core AMD chip in it; pulls no more than 500 Watts, a 600 Watt PSU for most single GPU high end rigs is more than enough, even my rig

Saying that i have a SeaSonic built 750 Watt PSU.

 

[Mal X]

Mal, what farmer supplies you with your copious amounts of bull ****?
I only ask, as my god...top grade stuff


Lol at you stating you need a decent PSU abd your closing sentence was a £70 1000w, must be good. It's 1000w!!

yea but you see bargains like this on ebay all the time dont you, so it's hard to say no...the only risk you take is that it's usually 2nd hand, but this is another arguement

 

[gpuerrilla]

Dont try to backtrack now.... Mal said 550w was way too small, you agreed with him then argued with me when i said he was wrong. I'm not being subjective at all, it's all there in in the benchtests straight up numbers. subjective is trying to use a dual gpu card to prove 550w isnt enough when i clearly stated it was enough for any single gpu.

Like i said, not being subjective at all. subjective is also trying to tell everybody that a 500gb hard drive is enough for any for us, another point of Mal's you agreed with, by the way. Laughable that you think I'm trying to defend anybody, I'm just posting the facts. This isnt about why buy x when y is £20 more, this is about requirements pure and simple. I dont disagree that financially it makes little sense to buy smaller psus in some cases, but that wasnt and isnt the point mal is trying to make and it's Mals opinion that I am contesting.

I do not follow. My inclusion of components is based on svyper stating I overspend, which by your and tonesters logic is flawed as on the previous page we agree that it's not up to anyone to dictate what they use their PC for. If you read that properly james.miller then that is why I included the 7990 regarding the PSU. Backtracking? I am speaking of the components I have and tested with them. See below:

O...K.

To be fair it would be best as your basis for aguments is shocking at best. I will divulge that my PSU came free with my GPU which originally was a 7990. I have since RMA'd and currently have a 290X and a Seasonic which for November 2013 cost me £399.

But hey I over spend on everything according to you, which so far is all my components at the cheapest rates you could have got them for.

How on earth this lead to arguing over PSU wattage over a fictional system is beyond me other than if it is to last 8+ years it would definitely not be a 500w one.

In case you missed it james (and read some of his previous comments):

you've spent too much on a gfx card. Anything above 770/280x is not needed. The only reason is you only want higher res at the cost of much higher cost to gfx ratio... 1080p is still very good at max settings visually so not much point in spending stupid amounts on higher res when in a couple of years mid range cards could probably do 4k ...

At least you're looking for deals. Below is a scenario of if i had to choose the "opposite" side right here right now...(even though it's silly to do so as there are very soon gona be new tech)

1080p gaming is still very very good at the moment so that's the current strategy

8 year long term build:

2-3 year gfx change and about 5 year until needing cooler and ability to overclock otherwise only with non-k version saving more money and only buying thermal paste...

8 year+ strategy 1080p (currently) gaming...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £169.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £99.98
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-D3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £67.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £46.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £38.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Zalman ZM-F3 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin £4.99
Total : £823.01 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 

[Mal X]

I do agree some breathing room is a very good idea, but really, even my rig wich is higher than most similar rigs because it has an overclocked 8 core AMD chip in it; pulls no more than 500 Watts, a 600 Watt PSU for most single GPU high end rigs is more than enough, even my rig

Saying that i have a SeaSonic built 750 Watt PSU.

yea but saying all of this, is the problem that i usually go over the top buying gear anyway

i mean i brought that AMD 7990 and i didn't need it did i....esp for an old i5 rig ( not the rig in my sig).....i refuse to scrap the i5 rig i've had it too long and feel quite attached to it.

my biggest mistake by far, was to get the Haswell 4770 in my new build, i'm quite cross with myself for that, that was a really careless buy

 

[Mal X]

I do not follow. My inclusion of components is based on svyper stating I overspend, which by your and tonesters logic is flawed as on the previous page we agree that it's not up to anyone to dictate what they use their PC for. If you read that properly james.miller then that is why I included the 7990 regarding the PSU. Backtracking? I am speaking of the components I have and tested with them. See below:

Svyper is trolling the forum, he has been for the last week.

1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99.......and that's supposed to be a budget build, you can get an i5 for 50 quid off ebay............ what a joke that is

 

[james.miller]

I do not follow. My inclusion of components is based on svyper stating I overspend, which by your and tonesters logic is flawed as on the previous page we agree that it's not up to anyone to dictate what they use their PC for. If you read that properly james.miller then that is why I included the 7990 regarding the PSU. Backtracking? I am speaking of the components I have and tested with them.

the 7990 is a DUAL GPU card. what are you doing trying to use to argue a point against me when ive kept saying single gpu, single gpu.

In case you missed it james (and read some of his previous comments):

I haven't mentioned or commented on anything Svyper1 has said in this thread. Yet of course im defending him some how.

As far as the '8 year plan' goes, do you think gpus are going to get any more power hungry then they already are between now and then? I mean, in the last 10 years ive not had a rig that pulls >500w (only ever had single gpus so 7990 owners need not comment). Do you think my power consumption is going to double in the next 8?

Shall i get my power meter out and show you how close my i5/7950 is to my old e6600/8800gtx was in power consumption? i think that might actually shock you.

 

[Hagar]

This thread has been totally hijacked and derailed in the last three pages, a good informative thread, polluted by brown stuff.

 

[JonSmith]

Bear in mind that the consumption at the wall is higher than the power the PSU is actually supplying. A 450W PSU supplying its full amount will draw about 500W from the wall.

 

[413x]

no no.......i'm on about a gaming rig only, your needs are different to mine, i use my rig only for gaming/ surfing the web

If it's just gaming I agree you can get closer to the limit

If tdp of a system (everything) is 550w I would have no problem in saying a 500w decent brand of psu is sufficient (better a good 500w than unknown 750w)

But it's not just mining. Anything that requires sustained load you need to think about

But just gaming.. I agree that tdp will almost never be reached

However you will be sitting in the uncomfortable band with efficiency, and stress.
It usually isn't worth quibbling about the money to push 100w clear of your tdp

 

[Svyper1]

ok what did i miss? umm being called a troll, some arguments, psu's umm the usual ... k

note: I don't intend anyone to need to defend me, i appreciate any "defending" but seems to me james is just saying that 550w is fine for single gpu...

anyway...

just to give you my own "8 year build plan" I still have. About half way now. I had to buy a cooler to overclock only a few months back and also my stock cooler had degraded as it was doing 65-68 idle 0_0...

Ive slowed down my gaming so i'm not upto speed on gfx, I bought an h80i at bargain ££ - new - so im ok with that to extend my cpu for more years... The games i do play are fantastic at max settings 1080p.

i7 870 @ 3.6 (oc from 2.93)
8 GB 1333mhz DDR3
GTX 460
128 GB SSD
500 GB HDD
80 GB HDD
H80i Cooler
3x 120mm fans

all on a 4/5 year old CX600W

I was going to get a GTX 760 but i'm waiting now that new tech is coming...
loving the h80i - halved all temps ^_^