PSU for future setup

[malik22]

Hi guys im building a new pc in december for a 30inch monitor and need some advice on a psu.

The build will have
Antec 900
X58
I7 920@4.2ghz
3x2gb ram
and for gpu i will be getting
the 395gtx or whatever they call the g300 dual card I want two in Sli so I assume I need a psu of more than a 1000w.

[Dragood]

I think with a Corsair 850W PSU you'll be fine

[malik22]

are you sure for Qaud gpus i would of thought I needed something with 1000w atleast.

[SoulsCollective]

Please don't get quad-SLI. The scaling is horrible to non-existent to in some cases imposing a performance penalty (for both SLi and Crossfire - four GPUs of either red or green is really a waste for anything other than synthetic benching), and nVidia cards actually lose out to ATi at 2560*1600. You'd be much better off getting three HD5870s if you want extreme graphics performance at those high resolutions.

As for PSU, you really won't need anything more than a decent kilowatt PSU with a sensible rail distribution or a large single rail - I'd look at the Enermax Revolution 1050, or a Corsair HX-1000.

[chuck4456]

It's not about the watts anyway.
It's about AMPS.
You need a high amp single rail power supply.
CORSAIR is good but I have seen that obtaining any rebates from them will take a congressional act.

[malik22]

Ok thx for the advice guys are the thermaltake 1200w any good?

[SoulsCollective]

It's not about the watts anyway.
It's about AMPS.
You need a high amp single rail power supply.
CORSAIR is good but I have seen that obtaining any rebates from them will take a congressional act.

Well, careful there.

Agreed that amperage is more important than total rated wattage, but really the distinction is somewhat misleading - what we're trying to say is that the distribution of the power sensibly across the different voltages and across (one or more of) the rails is more important than saying "1000W" - because that could be 400W of 5V power, 400W of 3.3V power and only 200W of 12V power - which would be stupid in a modern PC.

Also, you don't "need" a large single rail. This has been done to death; there's nothing inherently superior about a large-single-rail design as opposed to a split-rail design beyond the convenience factor. The Corsair HX-1000 is actually composed of two 500W units, but it's still a great PSU.

As for rebates, I can't comment - Corsair or resellers have never offered rebates down here in Australia.

Ok thx for the advice guys are the thermaltake 1200w any good?

They're fairly good, yes - but you don't need one. You're not going to use 1200W of power ever, so it's silly to get a unit with that high wattage rating - running a PSU far below the maximum rating starts to impose an efficiency hit. You want your peak power usage to be at about 80% of the PSU's maximum continuous rating for peak efficiency. With three 5870s and an i7 920, I'd imagine that your maximum draw would peak somewhere around the mid-800s, which would put you in the peak efficiency zone of either the HX-1000 or the Revolution 1050, either of which I would say are higher-quality units than the Thermaltake 1200W. Remember, there's more to a PSU than total output - you also want clean, stable power.

[koc]

Enermax Revolution 1250W , rock solid stable and can support up to 4 GPUs

[dctokyo]

Corsair 850W PSU and you'll be fine

[ann1985]

are you sure for Qaud gpus i would of thought I needed something with 1000w atleast.

[Computurd]

dude get a zues 1200M that is the 500 lb gorilla!

[dctokyo]

dude get a zues 1200M that is the 500 lb gorilla!

+1,forgot about that one, that is a very nice Silverstone PSU, I feel that the Corsair 850W should be OK, but as Computurd mention, if you really wish to be 100% safe then the Silverstone Zeus 1200 will be the way to go.