Corsair 400w & single 4870 in a HTPC?

[eno]

Alright I jumped on a $90 4870 to replace the 9800GT that I was going to use in my not silent HTPC. Plan on doing some Dirt2, L4D2 and maybe some Crysis on the 60" Sony. I wasn't planning on upgrading but figured I could sell my 9800GT on Craigslist and upgrade for cheap. So with my current system I know I am on the edge for upgrading the PSU. Since I spend too much already and try to keep my upgrades as cheap as possible to justify the upgrade I figured I will try to run this Corsair 400watt & Asus 4870. Here are my system specs

Q9300 @ 2.5ghz stock
2x2gb Adata DDR3 1333mhz
WD Black 750gb w/ AAM enabled for silent use
Creative Xfi PCI
Hauppauge 1800 TV Tuner
2x60mm Exhaust fans slowed down with a Vantec controller
80mm Antec Tri Speed BLUE LED cooling the CPU (@ medium speed)

Asus 4870 will be the new upgraded part and hoping to keep using the hardly used Corsair 400watt. This Corsair did replace a OCZ 600watt power supply that had high pitch noise to it. I wanted the Corsair for quiet , quality and cheap. Think it will work and do you think if not the OCZ 600watt (4x 18amp) is better suited then the Corsair 400watt (1x 30amp)? On paper it is obvious the OCZ looks better suited for the role but I know brand quality has alot to do with final output and wonder if the OCZ is really that much better suited then the higher quality Corsair on 1 big 30amp rail. Thanks for taking the time to read my long winded post and question.

eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite v2.5
Minimum PSU Wattage: 349 W
Recommended PSU Wattage: 399 W @ 100% 356 W @ 90%

Corsair Power Supply Test stated the 450 W Corsair PS is the lowest model they would recommended for a Intel Quadcore , 1 HD and 4870.

 

[dualsmp]

The Corsair 400w should be plenty of power.

 

[edplayer]

You will be fine. When gaming you should be under 250 watts measured from the wall

 

[Qbah]

My friend is running a HD4870 on a Corsair CX400 and an Athlon II 250 with plenty of power to spare. You'll be fine.

 

[eno]

Thanks for the feedback & opinions. I decided to test the system without the video card since I already removed the 9800GT. I plugged it into a Watt Meter and then connected via remote desktop(also needed to remove nvidia drivers still) to the system. Even right now with a 2nd hard drive that I am only testing for another PC the system only runs around 80-90watts headless. Add in the 4870 and I bet another 150-200watts maybe so I should be pretty close to those numbers in the graph. I will update the post for future readers on what total wattage I will be running with my current rig for comparison sake for the random googleler.

At what watt usage should I consider upgrading? If I am hitting 350watts at the wall during gameplay,etc.. ?

 

[MangoX]

You're fine. It depends on your PSUs efficiency. So with a 80%+ efficiency power supply pulling 400w at the wall, it's only actually loaded to 320w (400*0.80=320). Now if your system starts pulling 450w+ from the wall I would be a little concerned. It's not always a good idea to load your PSU to 100% capacity for long periods of time. Even with a brand name unit.

 

[eno]

Well this Asus 4870 sure is a warm running card. From the looks of it , it runs cooler then other 4870's. With standard 50% (fairly noisy) fan speed it idles around 53c in a case that doesn't breath all that well (2x 60mm exhaust fan & 120mm PSU fan exhaust).

I set the fans to 25 percent fixed and then ran Dirt2 for a few laps and the card hit 82c. I think I will leave the cool auto fan adjust from the Asus software and leave it to run max fan speed once it goes over 65c and to stay quiet under 55c.

Power from the wall is idle around 150watts and right now running furmark it is hanging around 274watts max. Hope this Corsair 400watt will run steady with that load.

 

[bryanW1995]

the 400 cx will take care of your rig with no problems at all. furmark uses more power than any game does, so you should be quite a bit lower than that during actual usage. also, corsair is notorious for UNDERstating their psu's capabilities. that particular model puts out 30a and is 80 + certified.

only knock I give it is only 1 - 6 pin pci-e cable. unit is powerful enough for two, but they are just using an overabundance of caution.

also nice to know that corsair has a rep on our forums. I've spoken with him before (about extra cables on my hx 520), his name is yellowbeard, pm him if you have any questions.

btw: I've run all my rigs on DC 24/7 for years, so my psu's really take a beating. the corsair is not only very reliable but also by far the quietest I've used.

 

[dualsmp]

Well this Asus 4870 sure is a warm running card. From the looks of it , it runs cooler then other 4870's. With standard 50% (fairly noisy) fan speed it idles around 53c in a case that doesn't breath all that well (2x 60mm exhaust fan & 120mm PSU fan exhaust).

I set the fans to 25 percent fixed and then ran Dirt2 for a few laps and the card hit 82c. I think I will leave the cool auto fan adjust from the Asus software and leave it to run max fan speed once it goes over 65c and to stay quiet under 55c.

Power from the wall is idle around 150watts and right now running furmark it is hanging around 274watts max. Hope this Corsair 400watt will run steady with that load.

Furmark will pull more power than any game will, so the PSU will use a more realistic 240-250 watts with even the most intense games. Consider the PSU is about 84% efficient, so your only using 200-210 watts (DC) which is perfect since most PSU's run at peak efficiency at 50% load.

 

[eno]

Furmark will pull more power than any game will, so the PSU will use a more realistic 240-250 watts with even the most intense games.

You are spot on. Crysis, Dirt2 , Need4Speed:Shift all run around 250watts for system load. Super happy with this $43 upgrade(sold my 9800GT for $50).