PSU help needed

257 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by PTRMAN, Mar 11, 2009

PTRMAN

Discussion Starter · Mar 10, 2009

Hi all. My Thermaltake Power Express 650W (which powered two of my 9800GX2s on my folding rig) blew out after two power failures at our home yesterday.

I got it NIB but through a forum, so no receipt = no RMA.

Wondering if I should replace it and the still-working OCZ GameXStream on the folding rig with one larger unit. Looking to run everything off one PSU - requires mobo, HDD, OD, CPU and min of 3x 6-pin AND 3 x 8-pin to power the GPUs. Wattage calculator sites I've seen don't seem to go higher than an 8800 GTX, so I don't know how much I'd need. The only thing that rig does is fold 24/7, with a tiny bit of surfing for checking folding results. Is 1200W enough? Open to any suggestions.

PS - based on the failure of the Thermltake (we typically have 5-10 brief outages per year) and a Newegg complaint about how a power outage with this same Thermaltake blew a mobo and 2 VGAs I'm not sure I'm interested in just replacing this, although it worked just fine.

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soulsonicforce

· #2 · Mar 10, 2009

1200 watts is huuuuuge overkill. Heres a good wattage calculator, courtesy of your good friends at antec:

http://www.antec.outervision.com/

I would get a psu thats 700 watts or above. I guess you could get a 1200 watt psu, if you must. If it doesent have enough connectors, just use adapters.

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parityboy

· #3 · Mar 10, 2009

Quote:

Folding = AMD 4200+ Brisbane @ 2.5Ghz / OCZ Rifle / MSI K9A2 Platinum / 2GB Corsair DDR2 800 / 3 x 9800GX2 / OCZ GameXStream 650W + Thermaltake 700W SLI / WD Caviar 80GB

Based on the fact that you have (lol, had) basically 1350W to draw on, I'd say you might want to get yourself a more solid unit than the TT. A Thermaltake ToughPower 850, a Corsair HX750 or HX850 would be good choices. An 850W would probably power your whole system by itself.

There are others of course: PP&C, Cooler Master, Enermax, Antec, SilverStone DA series; all good solid units. Check HardOCP for PSU reviews, their testing regime seems to be the harshest.

If however, you wish to plan for future upgrades, you may wish to purchase a 1KW PSU from the get go, for when you replace those GX2s with GTX295s...

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killerhz

· #4 · Mar 10, 2009

Corsair 850 $99 AMR

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PTRMAN

Discussion Starter · #5 · Mar 10, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by soulsonicforce

I don't need any of the fan power leads for fans - the folding rig runs nekkid. However, I've never seen an adaptor to convert a fan power lead to an 8-pin VGA lead. At least, I've never gotten one with my PSU purchases. Where does one look for them?

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sdla4ever

· #6 · Mar 11, 2009

750W PSU can supply power for GTX 260's in SLI they should work great for you! mines a great one! also corsairs are rock solid!

edit: also if power problems are normal in your area maybe by a small charge protector for it? i have one for my serveer here and it just shuts the PC down nicely and doesnt cut power to it.

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PTRMAN

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 11, 2009

That Corsair 850 deal looks good. Comes with 4 x 8-pin, so presumably can convert the fan leads to 6-pins for power the 3 x 9800GX2s?

Looks like I'll be a 3 x Corsair PSU guy!

Thanks for the heads-up killerhz! I just pulled the trigger on the Corsair.

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PTRMAN

Discussion Starter · #8 · Mar 11, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdla4ever

Just noticed I hadn't updated my sig in a while - I've got a Corsair 750TX in my main rig running everything, including 2 extra case fans I added. I haven't had any problems with it.

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