30A combined on 12V enough for 8800 GTS?

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
I've got an Enermax Liberty 400W. The rest of my system consists or will consist of:

Opteron 185 (hopefully 12x250 when I get it) w/ Freezer 64 Pro
2GB PC3200 (4x512)
TForce 6100-939 MicroATX
SB Live 5.1
2 DVD drives
2 SATA hard drives
2 60mm fans, 2 80mm fans
Bunch of USB devices . . . nothing too power intensive though . . . printer, scanner, external hard drive (powered), mouse, keyboard, etc.

The Liberty has 30A combined, two rails of 20A.

Will that be enough or do I need a beefier power supply? Even the 620W Liberty only has 36A combined, it seems crazy to me to lay out another 150 bones for six more amps on the 12V rail.

I really like modular cables. It's kind of tedious sorting through all the power supplies at Newegg, since they don't list the combined 12V rail amp reading, you have to click on each power supply, then look through the pictures for the label with the specs, because some of the specs on the front page don't have all the ratings.

Note that the 8800GTS specs call for 26A combined.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,342
10,859
136
Theres two answers here.. First will the GTS work with your current PSU & the answer to this is almost certainly yes because a decent 450 watt model is enough to run an 8800GTX with your system.

Second, though is the question of wether its a good idea & thats a little less certain because we would need to know the exact power draw your system requires under load which seems to vary quite a bit depending on the exact components. I'd say go ahead & give it a try running with the Enermax 400, but if you see any signs of instability under load (crashing, freezing in 3D applications) look to the power supply first.
 

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
Well, I did some research, and I'm thinking I may get an Antec NeoHE 550. It's got comparable specs to my Liberty, is reasonably priced, has a nice setup on the modular cables, and has a whopping 42A combined on the 12V rails.