The Fermi Thread - Part 3

[ryboto]

A system with my specs in a firingsquad review pulled around 410w from the wall:

i7 920 overclocked
6gb ddr3
radeon 5870 stock
2 hard drives
1 ssd (in mine, at least =p)
several case fans

So, a GTX 480 with a 250w TDP, and let's say 240w real-world draw... compared to the 5870 with a 170-180w draw if I recall correctly, would make you hit around 470w... so as was said above, with an Earthwatts 500w you're going to be pushing it: it will run but it will definitely be hitting the PSU hard, I wouldn't count on overclocking the vidcard at all. I think the quad you have is a little lighter on power draw, but same difference for the most part.

Um, can you link me to that? Xbit shows the real power draw of a 5870 to be more like 130W,. I'd be surprised if an overclocked i7 used even 150W. 500W should be fine for a q9650 and a 250W video card. The 9650 uses around 60W at stock, so even if it's OC'd and consumes 100W, he still isn't going to push the limits of the PSU.