Overclock.net banner

My Enermax 1250W not enough? need help!

1K views 31 replies 17 participants last post by  Nexus6 
#1 ·
I am in this little complicated situation, was putting my first watercooling rig together (took it appart and add some wc parts) and at first I could turn on the pc with my tri-sli setup intact, so then I ended up putting/connecting all the other remaining parts together and when I turned on the pc again my rig only read 2 cards and not three, and my sli configuration got all messed up (see sig for my setup). The main question I have is, since I converted my aircooled rig into a watercooled rig was the juice not enough??? below is the specs on everything connected to the psu. Ran the rig again with 2 cards and everything ran 100%

intel i7 950 @ 4.13ghz @ 1.35v
Asus Rampage III Formula
12GB Corsair dominator DDR3 1600mhz
(3) GTX480s at stock
(1) intel X25-M 80GB SSD
(3) optical drives
NZXT fan controller/temp monitor
(9) Noise Blocker 1700rpm PK3 140mm fans
(1) Noise Blocker 1400rpm 120mm fan
EK-DCP 4.0 pump
(6) 8" inch cathode lights

with all this make the 1250w psu not run 100% causing 1 video card to not recieve power? (troubleshooted that 1 card was indeed not running on power since I touched the card (cold) while playing a game and the other 2 were super hot)

Should I just get a 1500watt psu??? or trouble shoot something else??

right now the rig is running fine with 2 cards in sli (already checked all three cards one by one and they all work, checked the pci-e sockets with different card configurations, all work and check all the 8 and 6 pin power connectors and they all work too, its only when I add the other card system wont see 3rd card and that card is cold as ice.

***note: ran rig in another case with everything except I only had 4 fans running, 1 optical drive, it was aircooled and had an additional harddrive, everything ran with no problems***
 
See less See more
#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grim Reaper;11748531
Your PSU should still be enough, did you try reinstalling the drivers? Or perhaps the 3rd PCI-E lane got disabled accidentally by those lane switches? My R3E has it so your Formula might too, go check.
well I do know that all three gpu lanes work coz I tried them out one at a time and in sli configurations ex: 1st/3rd 1st/2nd 2nd/3rd all work, its just when I try running in tri-sli with putting all the cards in different configurations it just shows that 2/3 cards are powered on and 1 is turned off, no matter where I place each card in a different slot with a different configuration there will always be one card that is off and if my rig has a lane switch, how could I turn it back on, do I go into bios or something???
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by grizzlyblunting;11748557
or get a good 1200w...

you shouldn't be at the of that PSU limit yet.. something is out of wack or your psu is a POS...

I believe the Antec Quattro is the most recommended 1200w psu
You obviously don't know much about PSU's now do you.
rolleyes.gif
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeeK671;11748582
well I do know that all three gpu lanes work coz I tried them out one at a time and in sli configurations ex: 1st/3rd 1st/2nd 2nd/3rd all work, its just when I try running in tri-sli with putting all the cards in different configurations it just shows that 2/3 cards are powered on and 1 is turned off, no matter where I place each card in a different slot with a different configuration there will always be one card that is off and if my rig has a lane switch, how could I turn it back on, do I go into bios or something???
 
#11 ·
I started reading the original post.... then I looked at your sig rig. Im still drooling.
eek.gif
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grim Reaper;11748531
Your PSU should still be enough, did you try reinstalling the drivers? Or perhaps the 3rd PCI-E lane got disabled accidentally by those lane switches? My R3E has it so your Formula might too, go check.
tried reinstalling the drivers and since my rig is still new I also went ahead and reformatted and reinstalled my OS and I still have the same problem. Its just when I first got the initial parts (wc) connected and booted, everything was all fine, all 3 cards showed at the control panel, then I shut everything done and added everything else and now I'm only showing 2 cards with 1 not even powered on..
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by grizzlyblunting;11748557
or get a good 1200w...

you shouldn't be at the of that PSU limit yet.. something is out of wack or your psu is a POS...

I believe the Antec Quattro is the most recommended 1200w psu
I believe a Enermax would be a slightly better power supply, though I am not 100% sure of that. I do know enermax offers some of the best power supplies available. To be quite honest, the computer you have there shouldn't pull much more than 1000 watts. Are there any bios settings that would make you unable to use the third card. Is your tri-sli bridge damaged by chance?
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by dude120;11748727
I believe a Enermax would be a slightly better power supply, though I am not 100% sure of that. I do know enermax offers some of the best power supplies available. To be quite honest, the computer you have there shouldn't pull much more than 1000 watts. Are there any bios settings that would make you unable to use the third card. Is your tri-sli bridge damaged by chance?
with regards to the power, I had a feeling that somehow the psu is strong enough. I could check in the bios if there is a setting regarding that card in a bit and with regards to the bridge, tried 2 other bridges (trouble shooted) and the bridges work fine, but still no 3/3 cards...
 
#17 ·
To be sure it's not the PSU, move a couple of parts to a secondary unit if you have one around, like the water pump perhaps, then try it. If it works like that, then it may just be too much power use on startup. You could also try grabbing another molex-pcie adapter and putting that onto another molex set, and running the 3rd card entirely on molex adapters, or put one on each of 2 of the 480s.
 
#18 ·
Did some research online regarding 3 way sli with GTX480s on a basic system and the card configuration peaks near 1000watts if not abit higher with only the cards, so if that's the case adding all the other stuff to the psu (cpu,mb,drives,pump,etc) I don't really think 250watts would be suffecient enough.

Another thing when I had my rig running on Aircooling, in another case, I didnt have that many things connected to it and my 3way worked 100% with no hiccup, and when I moved to watercooling and only added the basics (cpu,pump,ssd,and 3 cards) the rig showed 3 cards in tri-sli and then when I connected everything else (10fans,3opticaldrives,fancontroller/temp monitor, and 6 cathode lights, and also OC the cpu to 4.1ghz) that's when everything started acting funny.

And just to help troubleshoot this problem, again, see below

1) All three cards still work (tried them 1 by 1 and all ran fine)

2) All PCI-E gpu slot still work, checked bios and all three have a reading (plus ran 1 card in a different slot and card is powered and showing at the control panel)

3) Checked PSU with all its cables (with just 2/3) works, its just when I put 3 cards 1 card doesnt recieve power and *************sometimes 2/3 cards are not recieving power (new update just checked last night)***** :(and only 1 shows on the control panel

Hope this helps further guys,

Thanks in advance!
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by allikat;11749790
To be sure it's not the PSU, move a couple of parts to a secondary unit if you have one around, like the water pump perhaps, then try it. If it works like that, then it may just be too much power use on startup. You could also try grabbing another molex-pcie adapter and putting that onto another molex set, and running the 3rd card entirely on molex adapters, or put one on each of 2 of the 480s.
In other words are you saying that the 8pin and 6pin single cable (that is not giving power) might be sharing with the other components?
 
#21 ·
Yeah, when they said 1000w peak, they meant the entire system wattage, not just the GPUs. Your PSU, assuming its not broken, would run your system just fine.

You need to do as allikat said, and try to offload a GPU onto another PSU. If it is the PSU, its not for lack of wattage, but the PSU is simply running far under spec. This is odd since that PSU is very good, and even better than the Antec Quattro recommended earlier.
 
#22 ·
first off sorry for the caps.. MY TRI-SLI SETUP IS GOOD AGAIN! =) I'm happy to say that my rig is up and running normally again with all three cards showing. And what I'm about to tell you all would make me less of a noob! lol

This is how it happend, I just came home, feeling miserable seeing my nice rig only running on 2 way sli, so after days of reading what you guys have posted, doing some research on any similar issue on the web, troubleshooting for hours on in, I decided to try something that I should have just tried in the very beginning. As I was caefully inspecting each 8pin/6pin cable from one end to the other end that connects to the psu, I noticed something very familiar. As I looked closer to the end where the cable connects to the psu (10pin), I noticed closely that 1/10 pins was pushed back just slightly. So my instincts said to just carefully put back the pin in place with the 9 other pins so all of them were aligned. Then I slowly but firmly reconnected the cable that I thought was bad and connected the 3rd card back into place again. I then pressed the on button and awaited the result, with all the nervousness and sweat I patiently waited for my 8 second boot up and at first everything was black then I thought noooooo, but suddenly a miracle happened before my eyes. I praised God for the sight that I saw that was infront of my own fragile eyes, all three monitors lit up and I quickly logged on and inspected the control panel and noticed 3! GTX480s! woot!

That was my noob story... lol

Thanks though for everything guys and merry xmas!
 
#23 ·
Quote:


Originally Posted by GeeK671
View Post

first off sorry for the caps.. MY TRI-SLI SETUP IS GOOD AGAIN! =) I'm happy to say that my rig is up and running normally again with all three cards showing. And what I'm about to tell you all would make me less of a noob! lol

This is how it happend, I just came home, feeling miserable seeing my nice rig only running on 2 way sli, so after days of reading what you guys have posted, doing some research on any similar issue on the web, troubleshooting for hours on in, I decided to try something that I should have just tried in the very beginning. As I was caefully inspecting each 8pin/6pin cable from one end to the other end that connects to the psu, I noticed something very familiar. As I looked closer to the end where the cable connects to the psu (10pin), I noticed closely that 1/10 pins was pushed back just slightly. So my instincts said to just carefully put back the pin in place with the 9 other pins so all of them were aligned. Then I slowly but firmly reconnected the cable that I thought was bad and connected the 3rd card back into place again. I then pressed the on button and awaited the result, with all the nervousness and sweat I patiently waited for my 8 second boot up and at first everything was black then I thought noooooo, but suddenly a miracle happened before my eyes. I praised God for the sight that I saw that was infront of my own fragile eyes, all three monitors lit up and I quickly logged on and inspected the control panel and noticed 3! GTX480s! woot!

That was my noob story... lol

Thanks though for everything guys and merry xmas!

I'm glad to hear that everything did end up working. You should file a complaint for poor quality cables
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by YangerD;11762244
I'm glad to hear that everything did end up working. You should file a complaint for poor quality cables
biggrin.gif
thanks =P actually I think the whole cable thing was my fault because recently there was a pc gaming convention and I rushed to put my wc rig together and I think when I had to transfer the guts from one case to the other I accidently pulled on that one cable a little to hard. Merry xmas btw!
 
#26 ·
yea I figured Enermax was good, hence I bought the Galaxy 1250watt! =)

speaking of my psu, since some of you guys mentioned that my psu is more than enough for my setup, was just wondering if I add (4) harddrives, (1) more SSD drive, (12) 120mm fans, OC my 3 cards and add a couple more cathode lights, would my psu still be enough??? <<<<planning on watercooling my cards and add some more cooling to my cpu>>>>>>

happy new year everyone!
biggrin.gif
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top