500 Watts enough for my system?

[doodler85]

I hate asking this now, but do you guys think that 500 watts is enough for my current system? I already bought it, which makes me feel kind of foolish for asking, but I did some numbers and I'm a worried that I'll be cutting it kind of close with this setup.

I read that the Q6600 under full load takes 120 watts and the 8800 GTS is around 250. Not sure what my other components take but it all adds up, eh?

I appreciate your comments. If you recommend that I purchase a new PSU could you please make some suggestions and reasons why to choose them? Thanks!

Here's the breakdown:

-----

PSU:

ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT ATX12V 500W Power Supply - Retail

----

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R

EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6600

2x ---------
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ

2x ------
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology Black SATA Model SH-S183L

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

 

[Check]

I would say you are fine with what you have. The Enermax is a quality PSU and should be able to handle that load.

 

[doodler85]

We'll find out tonight if my GPU is working (that was an issue for another thread)

 

[LEDominator]

Originally posted by: doodler85
We'll find out tonight if my GPU is working (that was an issue for another thread)

did it end up working?

 

[doodler85]

We'll find out tonight, dammit!

 

[doodler85]

Eh. No luck. I think the GPU might be DOA.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Originally posted by: doodler85
Eh. No luck. I think the GPU might be DOA.

Rats, that sucks.

BTW, the 8800GTS 640 consumes closer to 100W, not 250W as you think. The Q6600 takes another 100W running four instance of Prime95 at stock speeds.

At stock speeds, you will likely be loading your PSU at around 50-60% of its maximum capacity which should result in a cool and quiet running PSU. People have differing opinions on how much a PSU should be loaded at maximum and I won't claim to know any better.

I do hope you get your rig up and running though.

 

[doodler85]

Hey, thanks prodigal. They're doing an Advanced RMA for me so I should receive a new card in a few days. Hopefully this one will work!

 

[doodler85]

Hey again,

I just got my RMA in today and it works! HOOORAAAAYY!

The first thing I noticed was that when I snapped it into the PCI-E slot, it stuck securely. There was no fiddling like with my first order. I'm not sure what was wrong with my first card exactly but it hated my motherboard for reasons unknown.

But what is known... is that I'm playing Company of Heroes and C&C3 tonight

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

[dclive]

FYI, I'm running the following on Acer's 300W PSU:
Q6600
nVidia 8800GTS/320
4 x 500GB HDD
4 x 1GB memory
1 x DVDRW
Hauppauge PVR-500 dual-tv tuner

...works great...

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: doodler85
Hey again,

I just got my RMA in today and it works! HOOORAAAAYY!

The first thing I noticed was that when I snapped it into the PCI-E slot, it stuck securely. There was no fiddling like with my first order. I'm not sure what was wrong with my first card exactly but it hated my motherboard for reasons unknown.

But what is known... is that I'm playing Company of Heroes and C&C3 tonight

Thanks for all your help guys!

I`m glad your happy!!

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: dclive
FYI, I'm running the following on Acer's 300W PSU:
Q6600
nVidia 8800GTS/320
4 x 500GB HDD
4 x 1GB memory
1 x DVDRW
Hauppauge PVR-500 dual-tv tuner

...works great...

And also sounds like an accident waiting to happen..

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: stevty2889

Originally posted by: dclive
FYI, I'm running the following on Acer's 300W PSU:
Q6600
nVidia 8800GTS/320
4 x 500GB HDD
4 x 1GB memory
1 x DVDRW
Hauppauge PVR-500 dual-tv tuner

...works great...

And also sounds like an accident waiting to happen..

Why?

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: stevty2889

Originally posted by: dclive
FYI, I'm running the following on Acer's 300W PSU:
Q6600
nVidia 8800GTS/320
4 x 500GB HDD
4 x 1GB memory
1 x DVDRW
Hauppauge PVR-500 dual-tv tuner

...works great...

And also sounds like an accident waiting to happen..

Why?

Thats very heavy draw on the 12v rail, unless your 300W PSU has an exceptionaly high 12v rail for a PSU of it's class, it's likely eventualy going to die from the strain. Not that it neccesarily will, I ran a fairly power hungry system on a 350w PSU for a while, but thats a lot of expensive components to trust to a 300W PSU..what is the 12v rail rated at?

 

[dclive]

It's a Lite-On 300W PSU.

There are several of us now running Acer E700s with Q6600 and various nVidia cards, including 8600GTs, 8800GTS/320s, and other cards. It works fine.

There are a variety of articles AnandTech itself has posted, showing usage of anywhere from 165 to 280 or so watts for an 8800GTS/640 (IIRC) system under heavy load; my own findings (and others that have posted here) with a Kill-A-Watt device (typical usage of about 250W at the wall, which means the system actually asks for about 200W or so from the PSU), with some usage up to 50W more than that when under heavy load (250W from the PSU, 290 or so W from the wall)....and I've got the above stuff in my system, so it's more heavily loaded than what most people would have. It's on 24x7, running Media Center (4 tuners, 2 in highdef), 4 drives, 2 VMWare sessions, and some gaming too.

It works great...

Various others have posted Acer E700 systems using around 220W (via Kill-A-Watt) or so with Q6600 / nVidia (don't remember which) ... works great....