General PSU question -- excess wattage

Jul 29, 2006
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I know this is a noob question, I'm sorry! I'm in the middle of planning a system, and a trusted advisor suggests I get the Fotron 700W PSU. Yes, 700W. His argument: it's only $30 more than the 500W version, and I'll never have to worry about inadequate power.

* If I'm only actually using 300-400 watts, is this 700W supply going to be sucking electricity up anyway? Or does it only consume as much as the system needs? I'm willing to spend $30 now for peace of mind, but I don't want unnecesary heat generation / power consumption.

* Is there any set up that would actually use 700W vs. 500 or 600? Or should is the a substantially superior brand of PSU I should be looking at?

Current system plan (roughly):
Conroe E6600 (OC'd)
P5W-DH Deluxe mobo
GeForce 9750GX2 (probably OC as well)
2 hard drives (currently just 7200 rpm, nothing fancy)
1 optical drive
various fans (not finalized)
sound care (not finalized, hopefully high end)
1gb RAM (might overclock)
fan controller

Potential upgrades would be faster harddrives, a second optical drive, another GB of ram, and (the big one) a second GeForce 9750GX2. I know the latter will require a different mobo -- that upgrade would be far in the future if I ever do it.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice!
 

996GT2

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2005
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Well, you're running a 7950GX2, overclocked E6600, a number of drives, and a lot of other components. A Fortron 700W will do you well for that task and will give you room to upgrade later on, even if your system does not use all of that power now. And to answer your question, your PSU does not draw 700W all the time, only when the demand warrants it. And if you were to add another 7950GX2 in the future, I can see where that demand might come in ;)


Also, since you can afford expensive components like an E6600 and 7950GX2, I strongly suggest you get 2 GB of RAM.
 
Jul 29, 2006
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Thanks for the advice! I'm thinking about 2 GB ram, but I've read that there may not be a very substantial performance increase unless I do a lot of multitasking.. I am not a power user when it comes to applications, just games.

Right now I'm sneaking in just under budget at $2k, but most things are still estimates at this point
 

996GT2

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2005
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Well, for a $2000 budget, 2GB RAM is almost a necessity. Since you are a gamer, you'll definitely appreciate the MUCH faster load times from having 2 GB RAM. It will also speed up load times for other apps and boost overall performance. And it only costs about $60-70 more than 1 GB, so the price isn't too much of a factor either.
 
Jul 29, 2006
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Those are all good points.. thanks for all that. I'll try to fit it in, right now I have just $100 budgeted for the RAM. $2k can go pretty fast, and I'm splurging on the processor, GPU, and mobo. PSU too, it seems.

Not to carry on a RAM discussion in the cooling forum, but if you've got any kit suggestions I'd be grateful!
 

996GT2

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2005
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Tell you what, check your private messages. If you need any help just PM me so you don't post off-topic here :)
 

VooDooAddict

Golden Member
Jun 4, 2004
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Originally posted by: djmihow
That system demands 2 Gigabytes of Ram.

Agreed. You don't want to dump all that $$ on the 7950GX2 and get held back by a lack of RAM.



On the powersupply...

I'd be more concerned with the brand, PS cooling, and getting one with Active PFC then I'd be with the raw wattage numbers. I.E. it's best get opinions about specific PS models then to ask about Wattage.

I'm running a Vantec 480W (or might be a 450, trouble remembering) and powering:
- Dual XEON 2.666 (P4 based XEONs so sucking alot of juice)
- ATi 9800NP
- 4 x 250Gig 7200RPM WD IDE (With a dedicated Promise 128meg RAID 5 add-in Card)
- 2 x 160Gig 7200RPM Samsung SATA (RAID 0)
- 2 x Gig RAM (overvolted by .1-.2 --- I do this for all my builds almost superstisiously)
- 2 x NEC 3500A Burners
- 6 x 80mm Bright LED case fans (Not crazy about lights but the 6 pack of LED was cheeper)

When I tried to add some spare raptors as a new RAID 1, I ran into power troubles.

.... Still wishing I'd spent $20-$30 on the next step up in wattage in the Vantec line.
 
Jul 29, 2006
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Originally posted by: VooDooAddict

On the powersupply...

I'd be more concerned with the brand, PS cooling, and getting one with Active PFC then I'd be with the raw wattage numbers. I.E. it's best get opinions about specific PS models then to ask about Wattage.
So it looks like I'm going up to 2GB Ram, thanks to everyone for their advice, especially 996GT2.

With the PSU, I've been researching the Fotron Source 700W a little more. Most of the reviews are positive but there were some issues raised about its 12V rails, apparently they are each rated at 15A, and commentors have said that some high end mobos require 18A, and nVidia recommends at least 27A for the GeForce 7950 (I'm guessing that 27A total, not on an individual 12V rail).

Is this something I should be worried about?

Aside from the wattage, Fotron has excellent efficiency, noise reduction, active PFC, and generally superb surge/spike protection which was the prior selling point for me..
 

AyashiKaibutsu

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2004
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My alt tabbing is much faster on my new system. Seeing as I'm using a celeron D for the moment, I'm guessing it's because I went from 1 gig to 2 gigs of ram. Definitely worth the price to not skimp on ram.
 

cheesehead

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
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If I recall, computer PSUs are generally based on a "switching" design. The power use should be equal, unless you're drawing enough from the 500w PSU to cause a voltage sag. (And you don't want this).