how much power?

[abe_1990]

hey guys, im not too sure what power supply i will need.

would a 750W psu be enough, for a quad core or dual core (not sure which particular one), and a 9800GX2, and 2 harddrives, and maybe 5 or 6 fans?

thanks

[Linchpin]

If it's a good brand 750w then it will be more than enough. Even something like a Corsair HX620w will be more than sufficient.

[abe_1990]

what about instead of the 9800GX2, i wanted to run 8800GT in SLI, or 9800GTX in SLI. would 750W still be enough? Just considering my options at the moment.

Also, the PSU i was thinking of was the Thermaltake Tough Power 750W Modular PSU. any comments on this particular PSU?

thanks

[George_o/c]

Yeah 750W is more than enough, even if you decide to use 2 x 9800GX2s and overclock a QX9650 @ 4.5GHz ... Visit jonnyguru.com and read carefully the Tt Toughpower 750W review, that PSU is just awesome, I've worked with it and it's really amazing ;)

But from my point of view, you shouldn't buy a psu by only taking into consideration if it's good enough for the system you have or upgrade to, but think of it as an investment ... Hence, you should buy a more powerful one (let's say Tt 850W, or Enermax Galaxy 850W) just in case of a future upgrade, a second card on SLi mode, 2 more HDDs etc, etc ;) I think you got the point. :)

[little_scrapper]

I have just REMEASURED my power from the wall yesterday, for some reason. When I load my machine down by running: Orthos, AdAware scanning primary HD, spybot scanning secondary HD, NOD32 scanning a data DVD on the IDE, PLaying movie with Power-DVD on my SATA DVD drive, PLaying music with media player, SpeedFan to look back at the temp, And then running 3DMark'06 demo for graphix pummelage.... I cannot seem to break 2 amps from the wall. That was my goal, 2 amps.

Anyways wall outlet measures 121VAC x 2.0 amps = 242 Watts. So under full load Im using less than 240 watts from the wall. My meter never went over about 1.96amps but allowing for spikes it could potentially do it and I may not see it.

At idle I barely break 1 amp from the wall so roughly 130watts at idle. and about .8 amps in sleep/standby(seems too high).

Even with a quad and another 8800GT in sli any half way decent 750 watt psu should be more than enough to handle the system.

I run a GA-965P-DS3
C2D @ 3.0GHz @ 1.36load (.02vdroop from 1.38 idle)
8800GT
2x1GB Ballistix DDR888 4-4-4-12 @ 2.0v
Audigy 2 sound card
2 DVD burners (1 IDE, 1 SATA)
2 HD's
6x120mm case fans

[boris_37]

I have just REMEASURED my power from the wall yesterday, for some reason. When I load my machine down by running: Orthos, AdAware scanning primary HD, spybot scanning secondary HD, NOD32 scanning a data DVD on the IDE, PLaying movie with Power-DVD on my SATA DVD drive, PLaying music with media player, SpeedFan to look back at the temp, And then running 3DMark'06 demo for graphix pummelage.... I cannot seem to break 2 amps from the wall. That was my goal, 2 amps.

Anyways wall outlet measures 121VAC x 2.0 amps = 242 Watts. So under full load Im using less than 240 watts from the wall. My meter never went over about 1.96amps but allowing for spikes it could potentially do it and I may not see it.

At idle I barely break 1 amp from the wall so roughly 130watts at idle. and about .8 amps in sleep/standby(seems too high).

Even with a quad and another 8800GT in sli any half way decent 750 watt psu should be more than enough to handle the system.

I run a GA-965P-DS3
C2D @ 3.0GHz @ 1.36load (.02vdroop from 1.38 idle)
8800GT
2x1GB Ballistix DDR888 4-4-4-12 @ 2.0v
Audigy 2 sound card
2 DVD burners (1 IDE, 1 SATA)
2 HD's
6x120mm case fans


How about this...

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

check it there. Then scale up a bit for any aging or upgrades :) enjoy