Hello XeNoN89, a power supply such as the Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU will be absolutely fine for the system that you have specified. Though I would recommend purchasing the Corsair HX 620W model to give you that bit extra headroom.
To give you more of an idea of what sort of power consumption the system that you are looking at purchasing will be:
From what we can gather from sources so far, the maximum power consumption of the Nvidia GTX 280 is around 240 watts which equates to 20 amps. The Intel Q9450 at stock will pull around 100 watts which equals to 9 amps. Now, I am not 100 percent sure of the power consumption of the Intel Q9450 when overclocked. However, an Intel Q6600 overclocked to 3.3GHz draws around 150 watts which equates to 13 amps and is slightly more power hungry than the Intel Q9450 so if we use that as a rough guide. Then, if we add a couple of hard drives into the equation rated at one amp each and then some for he extra headroom, you are looking at around 38 amps.
The Corsair HX 520W would power the above system absolutely fine as already said. However, it does leave you little headroom if you for example, wish to add any more hard drives in the future and I would personally advise going for the Corsair HX 620W model which will be perfectly fine.
Its the same thing with the 8800GT, everyone recommends it no matter what, yet there are still better cards out there.
Hello icey_ha, Coolermaster power supplies are by no means poor units, they are actually pretty reasonable for the price. However, they aren't quite as good in comparison to the equivalent Corsair power supply units.
Take the Coolermaster Real Power 520w Modular Power Supply which can deliver 34 amps on the +12Volt rail. (Which is essentially one of the most important things you must look for when looking at purchasing a power supply unit because it provides power to the more demanding powered components in your system like the Processor, Graphics Card and Hard Drives) Compare that particular Coolermaster unit to the Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU which can deliver 40 amps on the +12Volt rail.
Now, why anyone would then recommend the Coolermaster Real Power 520w power supply over that of the Corsair HX 520W is beyond me.
People don't recommend the Corsair power supplies because they are so called "fan boys" or they want to annoy people but because they are extremely well made and reliable units.
Hello grs_link, I would be very much inclined to think that you may of had a faulty power supply unit because their is absolutely no way the Corsair HX 520W would struggle running a system that consisted of a AMD X2 3800+, Nvidia 8800 GTX and a couple of hard drives.
A single Nvidia 8800 GTX consumes around 170 watts which equates to 14 amps. Now, the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ will consume a maximum off 100 watts which equals to 9 amps. If we then add a couple of hard drives into the system rated at one amps each and then some for the overhead, the system will be pulling around 30 amps and even then, that's over compensating quite a bit.
they used to be solid psu's. the had some trouble around 2005 though, and the corsair Hx's came out some time mid2006. they they are back on track now from what ive been reading. perhaps we are just waiting for that next killer psu from them?
Hello james.miller, I'm sure you are aware that Enermax have released some newer type of power supply fairly recently, the Enermax Modu 82+ and the Enermax Pro 82+ series. Reading one of the reviews on Anandtech about them, which can be found
here, it would seem that they are brilliant power supplies and would certainly be a worthy purchase. Also, from what I can gather, the cabling is of slightly higher quality compared to the Corsair units and it would also seem that they are the quietest power supplies currently on the market.
Anandtech said:
The Enermax Pro82+ and Modu82+ both perform extremely well in our tests, and as such we are awarding both series our Gold Editors' Choice Award. Users can't go wrong with these power supplies, and silence (without going fanless) has been redefined today. Enermax truly has the quietest air-cooled power supplies in the market right now, and the prices (at least for the smaller versions at the moment) make these units relatively affordable and very attractive.
However, they are slightly more expensive in comparison to the the equivalent Corsair units.
