i7 build -- power supply question

[Crunkenstein]

I'm nearing completion of my i7 build (ordering today/tomorrow), which is as follows (mostly copied from some kind soul on the message board)

Case: COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Black/ Silver Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail

HD1: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - OEM

HD2: OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - Retail

GPU: 2X SAPPHIRE 100269SR Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

Mobo: EVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

RAM: OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3P1600LV6GK - Retail

CPU Cooler: XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - Retail

So far, my power supply I have chosen is the "CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail", but I am unsure how much power my computer needs...I plan to overclock once I figure out exactly how to do so (total n00b here in that department) but can a 750W power supply handle all of these items? Do I need a bigger one, or should I even drop down to a smaller one?

Big thanks in advance, everyone on the board has been a tremendous help.

 

[mpilchfamily]

The 750W should be fine but if you want to be on the safe side then move up to the next model. Go for Corsairs 850W PSU.

 

[jkresh]

as long as you stick with a good brand (corsair is a good brand), then their is little reason to go with a smaller psu (outside of cost, or if your load is so low that its hurts the efficiency of the psu (usually < 20% is an issue)). My guess is you will likely be drawing somewhere between 400 and 600 watts at 100% cpu and gpu load (depending on your overclock, how many fans you have ...) so 750 should be fine, but it probably would not hurt (except for your wallet) to move up to the 850.

 

[Googer]

From the looks of it, you are after a power rig, I'd suggest the PC Power and Cooling 860 with ESA.
https://shop.pcpower.com/produ...ool_860_ESA/index.html

 

[theAnimal]

Originally posted by: Googer
From the looks of it, you are after a power rig, I'd suggest the PC Power and Cooling 860 with ESA.
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/products/description/Turbo_Cool_860_ESA/index.html">https://shop.pcpower.com/pr......860_ESA/index.html</a>

Overpriced and very loud.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: theAnimal

Originally posted by: Googer
From the looks of it, you are after a power rig, I'd suggest the PC Power and Cooling 860 with ESA.
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/produ...ool_860_ESA/index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/products/description/Turbo_Cool_860_ESA/index.html">https://shop.pcpower.com.........ESA/index.html</a></a>

Overpriced and very loud.

x2

For that price you can get the new (or upcoming) 1250W Enermax that made 80Plus Bronze and got a 9.9/10 review on jonnyGURU.

For less, you can get the new (more coming in a week or so) BFG 1200W EX-1200. (disclaimers apply)

For less, you can get the Corsair 1000HX.

All are modular, quiet and nice units.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: theAnimal

Originally posted by: Googer
From the looks of it, you are after a power rig, I'd suggest the PC Power and Cooling 860 with ESA.
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com.........ESA/index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/pr......860_ESA/index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/produ...ool_860_ESA/index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/products/description/Turbo_Cool_860_ESA/index.html">https://shop.pcpower.............x.html</a></a></a></a>

Overpriced and very loud.

Not exactly overpriced, you get what you pay for. He's going for a hot and power hungry i7, he needs a PSU that can keep up with both the power and heat demands. The Turbo Cool with virtually not line noise (ripple) does the job better than almost any other.

As for noise, I am sitting with in less than an arms reach of a 1KW PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool and my coolermaster CPU fan makes way more noise than my PSU. The 1KW-SR's noise level is on par with the old ANTEC Performance Series 430w it replaced.

Second, I have doubts either of you even owned a PC Power and Cooling Product and what you say is likely based on what someone else told you and not personal experience.

 

[Beanie46]

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: theAnimal

Originally posted by: Googer
From the looks of it, you are after a power rig, I'd suggest the PC Power and Cooling 860 with ESA.
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.............index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com.........ESA/index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/pr......860_ESA/index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/produ...ool_860_ESA/index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/products/description/Turbo_Cool_860_ESA/index.html">https://shop.pcpower.............ml</a></a></a></a></a>

Overpriced and very loud.

Not exactly overpriced, you get what you pay for. He's going for a hot and power hungry i7, he needs a PSU that can keep up with both the power and heat demands. The Turbo Cool with virtually not line noise (ripple) does the job better than almost any other.

As for noise, I am sitting with in less than an arms reach of a 1KW PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool and my coolermaster CPU fan makes way more noise than my PSU. The 1KW-SR's noise level is on par with the old ANTEC Performance Series 430w it replaced.

Second, I have doubts either of you even owned a PC Power and Cooling Product and what you say is likely based on what someone else told you and not personal experience.

Well, having owned a PCP&C 1KW PERSONALLY, and returning it after being unable to stand the leaf blower of a fan when the ps was under heavy load, I can comment on that...and the PCP&C Turbo Cool is LOUD when loaded.

And while I'll grant you that the TC 1KW is one of the best in ripple control, it is NOT one of the best in voltage regulation, esp. under load. That's probably due to the choice of using cheaper caps in the secondary compared to more modern designs out there....using Teapo caps is just not my expectation from a high-end power supply.

As for your contention that the TC 1KW is the top dog out there......well, guess it just depends upon your definition of what top is. While the TC line used to be probably the "best," I'd no longer place it there, given what has come to market since the TC 1KW was introduced in its single rail incarnation (which is a vast improvement over the horribly designed triple railed Turbo Cool 1KW version that was originally released....which was the progenitor of why PCP&C moved to a single rail design; poor rail layout and design of a multi-rail power supply. Guess it was easier for PCP&C to just dump the tri-rail design instead of fixing the design flaws of the tri-rail Turbo Cool 1kw power supply.)

Compared to the Turbo Cool 1KW, the Enermax Revo line has better voltage regulation, almost as good (within a few mV) ripple/noise suppression, vastly better efficiency, and operated quite well at 50C temps. You can also include in this list the Antec Signature line, the Seasonic M12D, among others.

Face it, the Turbo Cool line from PCP&C is an aging design and while has excellent ripple/noise suppression, its voltage regulation and efficiency are just too poor to compete successfully with the newer designs constantly hitting the market from Enermax, Corsair, Delta (Antec), Seasonic, and others. PCP&C's reign as being the top of the high-end power supply market is well over and gone, at least until OCZ has PCP&C's OEMs redesign their entire lineup....not to mention not being too good a value, either.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Beanie46

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: theAnimal

Originally posted by: Googer
From the looks of it, you are after a power rig, I'd suggest the PC Power and Cooling 860 with ESA.
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.............ml"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.............ml">https://shop.pcpower.............ml</a></a>"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.............x.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.............x.html">https://shop.pcpower.............x.html</a></a>"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.............index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.............index.html">https://shop.pcpower.............index.html</a></a>"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com.........ESA/index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com.........ESA/index.html">https://shop.pcpower.com.........ESA/index.html</a></a>"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/pr......860_ESA/index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/pr......860_ESA/index.html">https://shop.pcpower.com.........ESA/index.html</a></a>"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/produ...ool_860_ESA/index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/produ...ool_860_ESA/index.html">https://shop.pcpower.com.........ESA/index.html</a></a>"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/produ...ool_860_ESA/index.html"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.com/products/description/Turbo_Cool_860_ESA/index.html">https://shop.pcpower.com.........ESA/index.html</a></a>"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.............t;</a></a>"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.pcpower.............a></a></a></a></a></a></a>">https://shop.pcpower.............></a></a></a>

Overpriced and very loud.

Not exactly overpriced, you get what you pay for. He's going for a hot and power hungry i7, he needs a PSU that can keep up with both the power and heat demands. The Turbo Cool with virtually not line noise (ripple) does the job better than almost any other.

As for noise, I am sitting with in less than an arms reach of a 1KW PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool and my coolermaster CPU fan makes way more noise than my PSU. The 1KW-SR's noise level is on par with the old ANTEC Performance Series 430w it replaced.

Second, I have doubts either of you even owned a PC Power and Cooling Product and what you say is likely based on what someone else told you and not personal experience.

Well, having owned a PCP&C 1KW PERSONALLY, and returning it after being unable to stand the leaf blower of a fan when the ps was under heavy load, I can comment on that...and the PCP&C Turbo Cool is LOUD when loaded.

And while I'll grant you that the TC 1KW is one of the best in ripple control, it is NOT one of the best in voltage regulation, esp. under load. That's probably due to the choice of using cheaper caps in the secondary compared to more modern designs out there....using Teapo caps is just not my expectation from a high-end power supply.

As for your contention that the TC 1KW is the top dog out there......well, guess it just depends upon your definition of what top is. While the TC line used to be probably the "best," I'd no longer place it there, given what has come to market since the TC 1KW was introduced in its single rail incarnation (which is a vast improvement over the horribly designed triple railed Turbo Cool 1KW version that was originally released....which was the progenitor of why PCP&C moved to a single rail design; poor rail layout and design of a multi-rail power supply. Guess it was easier for PCP&C to just dump the tri-rail design instead of fixing the design flaws of the tri-rail Turbo Cool 1kw power supply.)

Compared to the Turbo Cool 1KW, the Enermax Revo line has better voltage regulation, almost as good (within a few mV) ripple/noise suppression, vastly better efficiency, and operated quite well at 50C temps. You can also include in this list the Antec Signature line, the Seasonic M12D, among others.

Face it, the Turbo Cool line from PCP&C is an aging design and while has excellent ripple/noise suppression, its voltage regulation and efficiency are just too poor to compete successfully with the newer designs constantly hitting the market from Enermax, Corsair, Delta (Antec), Seasonic, and others. PCP&C's reign as being the top of the high-end power supply market is well over and gone, at least until OCZ has PCP&C's OEMs redesign their entire lineup....not to mention not being too good a value, either.

You must be kidding, Under 110% load the volatge drops 3% and at 100% load it hovers around 1-2% well above the Intel spec of 5%. Most PSUs at 110% load drop out of the 5% margin. PC Power and Cooling is used in Anandtech's, Tomshardware's, Maximum PC's, and many other benchmark rigs because it is the PSU of the highest standard, the one in which all others are compared to.

http://www.anandtech.com/casec...howdoc.aspx?i=3214&p=7

 

[theAnimal]

Read some reviews of the PSUs mentioned by Beanie46. jonnyguru.com and hardocp.com are a good place to start. There are plenty of newer PSUs which are more efficient with better voltage regulation than PC P&C TC, as well as being quieter and costing considerably less.

 

[supertle55]

http://www.antec.outervision.com/

Why not run a Power Supply calculator and see for yourself. I plugged in your setup and threw in some extra devices. Also included a 10% capacitor aging. It came out to about 621W. Bump that up to 20% capacitor aging it comes out to 677 watt. 750 is more then enough. Getting more then what you need is dumb. By the time you actually need more, you can buy a brand new spanking one and probably better by then instead of paying a premium to get much more power now.

I paid $60 for the Corsair 650TX. The Corsair 750W TX was $120. I'm guessing in a year or 2, the 750TX will be $60. I can pick a 750TX until then.