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Athlon64 3500, Geforce 6800ultra - Which power supply?
Subject says it all. I hadn't really planned on buying a new power
supply (I currently own a 420W semi-generic), but when I think about the 6800 Ultra's original recommended wattage, plus the fact that I'll be trying to overclock the Ultra, ram and cpu, I begin to suspect that I may need something more. This may be incorrect. Feel free to enlighten. Assuming I do need something more, what should I get? It looks like a regular, non-elite 480W can be had for $75 or less. Or for as much as $150. A lot of variety with power supplies, most of which I suspect is the manufacturers taking advantage of pricing ambiguity. I can, for example, understand why a 6800 Ultra costs 25% more than a 6800 GT, but the advantages provided by one power supply which costs 100% more than an alternative are totally unknown to me. I don't need the ultimate power supply.. that I know of, anyway. Who knows? Maybe it really is a good idea for some reason. Again, enlightenment would be appreciated. And would 480W be enough, or would there be a risk of me taxing even that? Thanks as always. |
#2
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On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 20:08:40 -0700, Marc Brown wrote:
Assuming I do need something more, what should I get? It looks like a regular, non-elite 480W can be had for $75 or less. Or for as much as $150. A lot of variety with power supplies, most of which I suspect is the manufacturers taking advantage of pricing ambiguity. I can, for example, understand why a 6800 Ultra costs 25% more than a 6800 GT, but the advantages provided by one power supply which costs 100% more than an alternative are totally unknown to me. I don't need the ultimate power supply.. that I know of, anyway. Who knows? Maybe it really is a good idea for some reason. Again, enlightenment would be appreciated. And would 480W be enough, or would there be a risk of me taxing even that? I'm not going to argue the advantages, if any, of an expensive PSU, but hell would have to freeze over before I paid more than $25 for a PSU. My current 600W was $24. My old 400W wouldn't even keep the system from crashing after less than a minute. I bought 3 new PSU's, 500W ($12), 550W ($15), and the 600W ($24). All 3 ran my A64 3000+ system fine. So if you have to buy a new PSU, I wouldn't get less than 500W in a cheap PSU. Oh, the 500W and 600W are Lead Power, and the 550W is a Power Magic. -- Abit KT7-Raid (KT133) Tbred B core CPU @2400MHz (24x100FSB) http://mysite.verizon.net/res0exft/cpu.htm |
#3
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Let me just say (without knowing the rest of your system specifics, that
there is a hugh difference between various power supplies. Quality of components used, cooling, and most importantly, the real power output as temps begin to rise. For that reason, and because I run multiple hard drives and optical drives on a completely overclocked system, I use PC Power and Cooling. I also run my second rig with a Antec 550. Then again, you may be ok with what you have. "Marc Brown" wrote in message om... Subject says it all. I hadn't really planned on buying a new power supply (I currently own a 420W semi-generic), but when I think about the 6800 Ultra's original recommended wattage, plus the fact that I'll be trying to overclock the Ultra, ram and cpu, I begin to suspect that I may need something more. This may be incorrect. Feel free to enlighten. Assuming I do need something more, what should I get? It looks like a regular, non-elite 480W can be had for $75 or less. Or for as much as $150. A lot of variety with power supplies, most of which I suspect is the manufacturers taking advantage of pricing ambiguity. I can, for example, understand why a 6800 Ultra costs 25% more than a 6800 GT, but the advantages provided by one power supply which costs 100% more than an alternative are totally unknown to me. I don't need the ultimate power supply.. that I know of, anyway. Who knows? Maybe it really is a good idea for some reason. Again, enlightenment would be appreciated. And would 480W be enough, or would there be a risk of me taxing even that? Thanks as always. |
#4
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#5
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Marc Brown wrote:
Subject says it all. I hadn't really planned on buying a new power supply (I currently own a 420W semi-generic), but when I think about the 6800 Ultra's original recommended wattage, plus the fact that I'll be trying to overclock the Ultra, ram and cpu, I begin to suspect that I may need something more. This may be incorrect. Feel free to enlighten. Assuming I do need something more, what should I get? It looks like a regular, non-elite 480W can be had for $75 or less. Or for as much as $150. A lot of variety with power supplies, most of which I suspect is the manufacturers taking advantage of pricing ambiguity. I can, for example, understand why a 6800 Ultra costs 25% more than a 6800 GT, but the advantages provided by one power supply which costs 100% more than an alternative are totally unknown to me. I don't need the ultimate power supply.. that I know of, anyway. Who knows? Maybe it really is a good idea for some reason. Again, enlightenment would be appreciated. And would 480W be enough, or would there be a risk of me taxing even that? If you want a quality psu that will last... pc power and cooling all the way. |
#6
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When it comes to power supplies, higher quality units really are worth the
extra cost -- there really is a performance difference. I'd think that a high quality 420 would probably be enough for you, and that a high quality 480 would give you some headroom. I'd guess that anything above this would be overkill, even if you were using multiple drives. A high quality (like an antec) 480 or even a 420 would be better than a low quality 550. My advice would be to get something like an Antec TruePower 480. Larry "Marc Brown" wrote in message om... Subject says it all. I hadn't really planned on buying a new power supply (I currently own a 420W semi-generic), but when I think about the 6800 Ultra's original recommended wattage, plus the fact that I'll be trying to overclock the Ultra, ram and cpu, I begin to suspect that I may need something more. This may be incorrect. Feel free to enlighten. Assuming I do need something more, what should I get? It looks like a regular, non-elite 480W can be had for $75 or less. Or for as much as $150. A lot of variety with power supplies, most of which I suspect is the manufacturers taking advantage of pricing ambiguity. I can, for example, understand why a 6800 Ultra costs 25% more than a 6800 GT, but the advantages provided by one power supply which costs 100% more than an alternative are totally unknown to me. I don't need the ultimate power supply.. that I know of, anyway. Who knows? Maybe it really is a good idea for some reason. Again, enlightenment would be appreciated. And would 480W be enough, or would there be a risk of me taxing even that? Thanks as always. |
#7
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"Marc Brown" wrote in message
om... " A lot of variety with power supplies, most of which I suspect is the manufacturers taking advantage of pricing ambiguity. I can, for example, understand why a 6800 Ultra costs 25% more than a 6800 GT, but the advantages provided by one power supply which costs 100% more than an alternative are totally unknown to me. " Read the introduction of this Antec TruePower 550W review. http://www.mikhailtech.com/modules.p...wcontent&id=21 |
#8
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"Marc Brown" wrote in message om... Subject says it all. I hadn't really planned on buying a new power supply (I currently own a 420W semi-generic), but when I think about the 6800 Ultra's original recommended wattage, plus the fact that I'll be trying to overclock the Ultra, ram and cpu, I begin to suspect that I may need something more. This may be incorrect. Feel free to enlighten. Assuming I do need something more, what should I get? It looks like a regular, non-elite 480W can be had for $75 or less. Or for as much as $150. A lot of variety with power supplies, most of which I suspect is the manufacturers taking advantage of pricing ambiguity. I can, for example, understand why a 6800 Ultra costs 25% more than a 6800 GT, but the advantages provided by one power supply which costs 100% more than an alternative are totally unknown to me. I don't need the ultimate power supply.. that I know of, anyway. Who knows? Maybe it really is a good idea for some reason. Again, enlightenment would be appreciated. And would 480W be enough, or would there be a risk of me taxing even that? Thanks as always. PSU is one of important component in a PC. Not everyone think of PSU when purchasing or place on top of the list. Depending on that individual, PSU is the main component supply power to all components inside your PC. Quality PSU will help your PC run cleaner and longer which depend on how it use and it environment that it use at. You can get away with a with cheap PSU and might last forever. But getting a good known manufacturer like Antec or Enermax etc. You can safely know it will it a good quality PSU. Using cheap PSU is like a gamble / risk. Having a good quaility PSU will prolong your components. Again, it really depend on that individual and what to use for and the value it apply to. CapFusion,... |
#9
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http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.p...7&page=1&pp=15
"Marc Brown" wrote in message om... Subject says it all. I hadn't really planned on buying a new power supply (I currently own a 420W semi-generic), but when I think about the 6800 Ultra's original recommended wattage, plus the fact that I'll be trying to overclock the Ultra, ram and cpu, I begin to suspect that I may need something more. This may be incorrect. Feel free to enlighten. Assuming I do need something more, what should I get? It looks like a regular, non-elite 480W can be had for $75 or less. Or for as much as $150. A lot of variety with power supplies, most of which I suspect is the manufacturers taking advantage of pricing ambiguity. I can, for example, understand why a 6800 Ultra costs 25% more than a 6800 GT, but the advantages provided by one power supply which costs 100% more than an alternative are totally unknown to me. I don't need the ultimate power supply.. that I know of, anyway. Who knows? Maybe it really is a good idea for some reason. Again, enlightenment would be appreciated. And would 480W be enough, or would there be a risk of me taxing even that? Thanks as always. |
#10
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Marc Brown wrote:
Subject says it all. I hadn't really planned on buying a new power supply (I currently own a 420W semi-generic), but when I think about the 6800 Ultra's original recommended wattage, plus the fact that I'll be trying to overclock the Ultra, ram and cpu, I begin to suspect that I may need something more. This may be incorrect. Feel free to enlighten. 6800 Ultra power usage report: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...v-power_2.html Table of power usage at http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video...0u_table-b.gif So right off the bat, it's going to be eating ~55W off the 12V line, and ~23W off the 5V line. Add in the CPU at 90W, thrown in the regulator efficiency at ~80% to get ~115W, and you're already up to at least 14A on the 12V and 5A on the 5V line. Hard drives, once spun up (they'll only spin up when your GPU isn't working), consume about 0.5A off the 12V and ~1A on the 5V. Add in the motherboard (southbridge and other chips have to be powered), case fans (small usage off the 12V, ~0.2A for a normal fan), usb devices, etc etc and you can easily get to 18A from the 12V under gaming conditions. So the minimum you should be looking for is 20A on the 12V, though I'd feel much safer with 23A or so. As long as the 5V line can supply 20A or so you should be fine, as not too much stuff uses 5V nowadays. [...] -- Michael Brown www.emboss.co.nz : OOS/RSI software and more Add michael@ to emboss.co.nz - My inbox is always open |
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