Which Seasonic PSU?

chrismox · 7 Feb 2006 at 16:37

I'm building a new PC with the following:

3700 San Diego
BFG 7800GTX
2 x SATA drives (RAID)
1 x IDE drive
2 x DVD drives

I'm going to buy a Seasonic PSU and was hoping the 430w would do the job - it's cheaper (obviously) and apparently quieter than the higher models - any thoughts?

It also seems the 430w lacks the "2 x EMI shielded PCI Express VGA connectors to support power requirements of latest SLI™ Technologies within upcoming coupled graphic card generation" the the 500w and 600w have - is this a problem?

kbc · 7 Feb 2006 at 16:53

With that quoted feature, are you considering SLi? If you are to go SLI, then I'd obviously go for the next one up.

Borden · 7 Feb 2006 at 16:54

That PSU should be fine.

This PSU Calculator should give you an idea (even though it doesn't have the options for your exact compnents).

Unless you're planning on going SLi then it shouldn't matter about the connectors.

semi-pro waster · 7 Feb 2006 at 17:00

It will be fine unless you wish to go SLi, if you do then you should be looking at 500w+ for the PSU.

chrismox · 7 Feb 2006 at 17:33

Thanks guys - not planning on SLI but didn't really want to be caught out in a year's time when all of a sudden I find everything needs more power.

The price and silence of the 430w seem to be winning the battle against future-proofing.

chrismox · 9 Feb 2006 at 20:20

There's an interesting article here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article28-page4.html

It seems to suggest that not only are high-power PSUs generally not needed by most of us, they're actually more inefficient during day-to-day use.

And I came so close to buying the 600w Seasonic in the "this week only" deal, seems like the 430w will be the one for me

Claw · 10 Feb 2006 at 01:25

This is a better PSU calculator, it has a lot more options to input.

Hope it helps

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