Help with Power Supply <$100, Stable Power

[modestninja]

Hey, I've been looking to get a power supply for my new Core2Duo rig that may go *Crossfire* (I was using SLI to refer to two gpus generically) in the future, so I was looking for something with a decent amount of wattage. The other criteria would be $100 or less (a little flexible if I need to be) with good efficiency and rock solid rails. Being really quiet or pretty isn't a necessity.

I came across this PS: Sparkle FSP650-80GLCR at E-Wiz and according to the only review I could find, it seemed to do pretty well (although it wasn't a final production model).

How is this PS? Is there any other that people would recommend in my situation? I'm aware of the Seasonics, but the only one near my price range is the S12 500W and I'm not sure that would be enough juice for an Crossfire system.

Thanks in advance for any help.

EDITED for clairity.

 

[Zepper]

Enhance ENP-5140GH or ENP-5150GH from eWiz.com via Froogle (saves a buck or so over going direct to eWiz). Not very pretty, but I don't think you can beat their value for money. See the review of the 5140 on http://www.jonnyguru.com
Enhance has been making good switching PSUs for a long time but mostly OEM. Silverstone PSUs et al. are made by Enhance. Just recently started back in the retail channel under their own name. They are as good as or better than anything short of a Zippy/Emacs (http://www.zippy.com) or Seasonic, IMO.

.bh.

 

[Baked]

Actually, I think the Enhanc ENP PSUs are damn good looking. The whole unit is jack black, with matching fan and grill, none of those fruity LEDs and mirror finishes. The wires are not sleeved, but with proper wire management, you should have no problem hiding them from view.

 

[Baked]

ugh...

 

[modestninja]

A couple questions...

It looks like the fan on the PSU is pointing either down or up when most PSU will vent the air out of the case. Is this in fact the case? Or is there something I'm missing?

Also, I noticed on the ewiz.com site that they have the:
Enhance ENS-0560G 600W EPS SLI 2Xeon Power Supply $102.48
Enhance ENS-0565 650W EPS SLI 2Xeon Power Supply $95.79

Are these going to be better if I go crossfire in the future? Or are these PS not as efficient or stable as the E5150GH?

Thanks for all the help.

Also, any comments on the Sparkle PS I mentioned initially?

 

[Baked]

PSU fans are pointed inward to cool the components inside and exits from the back of the PSU.

The ENP-5140GH and ENP-5150GH are 80+ efficiency and Active PFC powersupplies. The 5150GH can handle crossfire and SLI.

The ENS are server type PSUs and are not as efficient as the ENP powersupplies.

I'm running my current system w/ the ENP-5150GH. Very stable and quiet. Highly recommended.

 

[dBTelos]

What kind of SLI are you going to have? 7900gtxs or what.

 

[modestninja]

At this point it's one x1900xt 512mb, but thinking that Crossfire might be a possibility a year or two down the line.

 

[Zepper]

Actually, I was thinking more of my own which is an older server-grade unit. Ordinary nickel-plated box with unsleeved cables long enough to locate the PSU in another room...

But the 51x0s are pretty good looking - still unsleeved pigtails though. But at that price point, and with their general top-ranking goodness, who cares?

.bh.

 

[modestninja]

Originally posted by: Zepper
Actually, I was thinking more of my own which is an older server-grade unit. Ordinary nickel-plated box with unsleeved cables long enough to locate the PSU in another room...

But the 51x0s are pretty good looking - still unsleeved pigtails though. But at that price point, and with their general top-ranking goodness, who cares?

.bh.

Also, I didn't think it looked ugly at all and even if it did, it really doesn't matter to me. I don't go for that windowed case look and I'm pretty good at routing my cables to keep them out of sight.

The more I read the more I like the ENP-5150GH...

Out of curiosity, how much power would my planned system of:

e6600, 2gig ram, x1900xt, 320gig SATA HD, 1xDVD RW, 1xDVD Drive, and 5 fans,

consume?

Also, if you added in another x1900xt how much would that add?

Thanks for all the help BTW.

 

[Bobthelost]

Consume or what PSU would you want for it?

You're looking at a power draw of around 200 - 250W from the wall when you're gaming. I'm afriad i'm too lazy to get the exact measured numbers.

Another X1900XT? Chuck in another 120W http://xtreview.com/review134.htm that's for the X1900XT and not including inefficencies which pretty much cancel each other out (XTX is overpowered version of the XT after all). So that'd bring you up to 350W or so worst case from the wall. This changes if you overclock of course.

I doubt you're going to go crossfire with X1900XTs, in a year or so we'll be looking at DX-10 so by going crossfire all you'll do is see the greyed out eyecandy boxes you're not allowed to run.

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: modestninja
Also, I didn't think it looked ugly at all and even if it did, it really doesn't matter to me. I don't go for that windowed case look and I'm pretty good at routing my cables to keep them out of sight.

The more I read the more I like the ENP-5150GH...

Out of curiosity, how much power would my planned system of:

e6600, 2gig ram, x1900xt, 320gig SATA HD, 1xDVD RW, 1xDVD Drive, and 5 fans,

consume?

Also, if you added in another x1900xt how much would that add?

Thanks for all the help BTW.

Use this PSU Calculator and see how much watts your components add up. I usually add another 100W to the total for the headroom. You should be fine if you don't OC, 'cause that adds a lot more watts.

 

[acegazda]

The enhance 5150gh is an excellent power supply, you're planned rig above will use 436w according to the psu calculator, meaning it needs about 33amps on the 12v rails combined. The 5150gh as of now, cannot do that. However, in september, they are releasing a revision 4 that has 36amps combined on the 12v rails. As for now, the enermax liberty 500w can do that, so can the seasonic 500w, but just barely for the seasonic s12.

EDIT: There were a couple posts while I was typing, so I guess if you want more headroom you can consider the ocz gamexstream 600w in addition to the 600w versions of the s12 and liberty.

 

[modestninja]

Well, after giving it some thought, I don't care about SLI or Crossfire... Like Bobthelost with DX10 cards coming out, it just won't make sense, especially since I want some headroom for overclocking and in order to get that I'm going to need a beast of a PS.

Thanks for all the help. I think I see a 5150gh will probably be in my near future.

 

[modestninja]

@Baked

To hijack my own thread. Was it hard to get the DS3 to work with your ram? I've got the same ram and am now looking at the DS3 or P5b to go with it and my e6600 and have read that both boards have had lots of problem with OCZ pc2-6400 ram. I noticed you had a healthy OC (beyond what I hope to start with) too. How have you liked the DS3?

 

[Zepper]

I'd say it would be around 200-250W load on the PSU total. If you really want to know, you could get a P3 Kill A Watt. Multiply watts from wall by your efficiency factor to get approx what system is actually using. Use 75% eff. factor for the 5140/5150.

.bh.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Zepper
I'd say it would be around 200-250W load on the PSU total. If you really want to know, you could get a P3 Kill A Watt. Multiply watts from wall by your efficiency factor to get approx what system is actually using...

Interesting!

I used the Calculator link that 'Baked' supplied. I *think* it's pretty accurate! It calculated 414W for my system rig. With his headroom recommendation, that would be 514W -- sounds prudent to me...

Now... I'm using an old Minuteman 300 UPS. Even with new batteries, it won't keep up with my rig, if the power goes out. The only thing I use it for is conditioning, e.g. filtering the power going to my rig. The thing is, it has an LED output load meter on it... and my rig idles at approx 200W. That's just the 'box', not the monitor, and so forth. When I do ANYTHING intensive, it pegs the display (300W). It's VERY possible that this thing is actually using 414W at 'the wall'... maybe more.

Anyway... this is hardly a high tech setup -- but I keep seeing ppl on this site recommending 380W power supplies, or whatever -- other saying you'll never use 550W, so you're just wasting your money -- et cetera.

How can this be?

Personally, I *think* 500-550W is *probably* the norm these days. I certainly wouldn't recommend less than that, unless I was punking someone. Is that what 'you guys' are doing -- horsing around with the n00bs?

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: Zepper
I'd say it would be around 200-250W load on the PSU total. If you really want to know, you could get a P3 Kill A Watt. Multiply watts from wall by your efficiency factor to get approx what system is actually using...

Interesting!

I used the Calculator link that 'Baked' supplied. I *think* it's pretty accurate! It calculated 414W for my system rig. With his headroom recommendation, that would be 514W -- sounds prudent to me...

Now... I'm using an old Minuteman 300 UPS. Even with new batteries, it won't keep up with my rig, if the power goes out. The only thing I use it for is conditioning, e.g. filtering the power going to my rig. The thing is, it has an LED output load meter on it... and my rig idles at approx 200W. That's just the 'box', not the monitor, and so forth. When I do ANYTHING intensive, it pegs the display (300W). It's VERY possible that this thing is actually using 414W at 'the wall'... maybe more.

Anyway... this is hardly a high tech setup -- but I keep seeing ppl on this site recommending 380W power supplies, or whatever -- other saying you'll never use 550W, so you're just wasting your money -- et cetera.

How can this be?

Personally, I *think* 500-550W is *probably* the norm these days. I certainly wouldn't recommend less than that, unless I was punking someone. Is that what 'you guys' are doing -- horsing around with the n00bs?

*throws self off bridge*

Read the PSU calculator again, it says you need a 414W PSU Since the 5v and 3.3V rails are nearly always under utilised, and since that thing is slightly conservative in it's power calculations this may explain the incongruety (i know there's a word that sounds like that).

As to your case:
If you've got a crap PSU it may have efficency of as low as 65-70%, in which case your computer is drawing around 130W at idle. Factor that into your peak useage and you're probably not even breaking 250W from the PSU. (If you're overvolting that northwood it'll suck down the amps). Power draw as you're measuring it, with your UPS (or "the wall") is irrelevant for any reason other than billing, if you had one that supplied the exact right amps on the right rails you could use a 250W PSU (of course no such thing exists). Then there's the chance that you've got a non PFC PSU, which means you've got a capacitive load and a higher apparent load than you're really using.

How can this be? We know better than you

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
Power draw as you're measuring it, with your UPS (or "the wall") is irrelevant for any reason other than billing...

Um... isn't that what Zipper just recommended measuring?

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
How can this be? We know better than you

LoL! Who's 'we'? Who's 'you'? And, what did 'they' do with the middleman?

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
Power draw as you're measuring it, with your UPS (or "the wall") is irrelevant for any reason other than billing...

Um... isn't that what Zipper just recommended measuring?

It is indeed, he then said:

Multiply watts from wall by your efficiency factor to get approx what system is actually using.

Since you neglected that important stage i decided to help you out. What PSU are you using?

 

[crspyjohn]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931

very good

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: crspyjohn
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931

very good

*cough*

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
*cough*

Heh! Gotta agree!

If you have to go the *cough* Antec route, at least get a Neo HE 550. It's made by *ahem* Seasonic...

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
It is indeed, he then said...

Hey, check out them idiots at Seasonic...

 

[Zepper]

Hey Vin,

The Power Angel is the P3 Kill A Watt in a diff case for Seasonic - so you get to pay more for it. Check my review of the P3 Kill A Watt here: http://www.techimo.com/reviews/ in the Power Supplies section.