Need new 600w psu for power hungry system ? $200 budget

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J

jose

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,079
2
81
Hi everyone,

I just rebuild my old P4C system to the new Opteron 170 system in my sig. The Antec 550w EPS (36A) won't cut it any more. I don't get the bios startup screen unless I disconnect 2 of my scsi drives.

So can you guy recomend a beef psu ? I won't get a pc & power because they are too loud.

I'd like to find a 600-700w quality psu. I do have a CM Stacker case that can take 2 psu's but I'd rather stick to one psu..

I really need one that has extra headroom for expansion. ie. add 2 more scsi drives & 1 more video card.

If I can't find a good psu for < $200 then I may get another psu to power my mobo & video and use my current to power the cdroms, 3 - 120mm fans, 4 - scsi hd's.

thanks for the help.

Regards,
Jose
 
J

jose

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,079
2
81
Well I've found :

Antec SP500w $69 17A + 19A I could use this just for the mobo and my other Antec 550EP for the cdrom/hd's

For high power I found these:

Fortron 700w $170 15A, 15A, 15A, 15A 4 rails

Enermax 620w $175 22A, 22A dual rail

Xcilo 750w $189 18A, 18A, 18A, 18A 4 rails

Right now I think the Xcilo is the best at the > 600w unit but I don't have any experience w/ it.

The low powered Antec 500w is cheap at $68 but I'd like to have only 1 psu if I ever change case.

What do you think ? any opinions on the Xcilio ?

Regards,
Jose
 
m1ldslide1

m1ldslide1

Platinum Member
Feb 20, 2006
2,321
0
0
I thought I remembered an article benchmarking some hardware here at anand where the reviewer mentioned off-hand that the OCZ Powerstream 620W PSU was the best you could get, besides the PCP for $600 or whatever. I think these OCZ's are in the $140 range on the egg.
 
S

snoturtle

Golden Member
Apr 28, 2001
1,609
1
81
a question for you as I am supried that that psu isn't working for you

Do your drives all spin up at the sametime?
have you tried stagard(sp?) spinup?
each drive spins up on its own and not all 4 drives at the sametime
 
J

jose

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,079
2
81
No they are staggard.

It's random, sometimes I'll get the bios screen, sometimes I won't ...

Does anyone know if the Xclio has a 8 pin connector ? the new mobo "DFI SLI-DR Expert uses a 24 pin, 8 pin & 4 pin floppy.

Here's what I need connected:

1 - pci-e 7900
3 - floppy connoctors (livedrive, floppy & mobo)
2 - dvd writer
3 - 120mm case fans
1 scsi tape drive
4 scsi hd's (2 - 15k & 2 10k's)

And I'd like some headroom to Oc'd and add extra hd's ..

Regards,
Jose
 
J

jose

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,079
2
81
The fortron only has 15A rails and the Xclio has 18A rails.

the Xclio is made by channel well same as antec..

Regards,
Jose
 
J

jose

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,079
2
81
The seasonic has 2 - 18A rails not much difference from my current psu. (36A)

There's nothing wrong w/ my current psu, I've had it for little over a year. It was running a P4 3.6 w/ a 6800GT agp . Not a single problem.

Only changed my mobo & video card.

Regards,
Jose
 
M

Matthias99

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2003
8,808
0
0
Originally posted by: jose
No they are staggard.

It's random, sometimes I'll get the bios screen, sometimes I won't ...

Does anyone know if the Xclio has a 8 pin connector ? the new mobo "DFI SLI-DR Expert uses a 24 pin, 8 pin & 4 pin floppy.

Here's what I need connected:

1 - pci-e 7900
3 - floppy connoctors (livedrive, floppy & mobo)
2 - dvd writer
3 - 120mm case fans
1 scsi tape drive
4 scsi hd's (2 - 15k & 2 10k's)

And I'd like some headroom to Oc'd and add extra hd's ..

Regards,
Jose
Click to expand...

Honestly -- the components you are describing are not going to come close to pushing the PSU you already have. You do NOT need a 600+W PSU to run four SCSI hard drives (100W during startup, maybe) and a 7900GT (~75W IIRC). Either your current PSU is bad, or you have loaded everything onto one rail by mistake, or the problem is actually something else.
 
J

jose

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,079
2
81
This is a single rail unit .. 35A on the +12v rail. I have seperate molex connectors from seperate lines connected to the Y-pci-e cable.

If I unplug 2 of my drives that are on a Y cable, then no problem. I had the same problem w/ a BFG6800GT on another of my systems, but that system only has 1 - 120mm fan, but does have 4 - 10k scsi drives.

What happens is , from a cold boot I don't get any video. If I do a re-set then I'll get the bios screen. It's not a case of whether I have enough power after startup, but the "Initial" cold boot video problem w/ the pci-e video card.

I'm not that excited about multi rail psu because you don't actually add all the 12v rails and get their total. It's always less.. But I guess it's better than having to have 2 psu's in your case.

Regards,
Jose
 
M

Matthias99

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2003
8,808
0
0
Originally posted by: jose
This is a single rail unit .. 35A on the +12v rail. I have seperate molex connectors from seperate lines connected to the Y-pci-e cable.
Click to expand...

You lost me in there somewhere. Which "Y-pcie-e cable" are you referring to?

What happens is , from a cold boot I don't get any video. If I do a re-set then I'll get the bios screen. It's not a case of whether I have enough power after startup, but the "Initial" cold boot video problem w/ the pci-e video card.
Click to expand...

This -- to me -- sounds more like a possible issue with the motherboard than the power supply. Or that maybe you've managed to load the PSU in a weird way that is making it not power up properly the first time.

In any case -- you have nowhere NEAR 35A worth of load on your +12V rail. It's possible the issue is your PSU, but it is NOT because you need a 600-700W model.
 
thecoolnessrune

thecoolnessrune

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2005
9,673
583
126
Honestly, if you think its a PSU issue, get a PC P&C 510 SLI-PFC. I calculated that if juiced everything up to max your barely doing 600. A rock solid 510 PSU like that one will definitely be more than enough to fuel your system. But I still think it is something other than the PSU.
 
T

tjpark1111

Senior member
Oct 5, 2005
287
0
0
if u would care to read the OP, he said that he wasn't gonna buy a PC P&C. I agree that it is highly improbable that you're using that much power, so I would just RMA the PSU(still in warranty?)otherwise, get an S12-600.
 
J

jose

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,079
2
81
The Y-pci-e cable is the 6pin to 2 molex video card cable that you plug into the back of the video card.

Yes , It all runs fine if I disconnect 2 hard drives.. It will power on a cold boot w/ zero problems. But I need to have all 4 hd's plugged in and don't want to have to reset every time I cold boot.

Everyone, please explain why the same psu worked w/out problems for over a year w/ my prior P4 / 6800gt agp ..

I have nothing against PC Power & Cooling execpt they are loud...

Regards,
Jose
 
H

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
11
81
The Supermicro PWS-0060 is cheap and has oodles of power (46A on +12V), but unfortunately there are two caveats: the first being that it has no PCI-E or SATA connectors, though that's easily remedied with an adapter, and second, it's probably noisy (80mm fan on a server-application PSU). If you're so inclined, you could probably reduce the PSU noise by replacing the fan, or by using a quiet outboard 120mm fan.

The Fortron Epsilon FX-600GLN provides at least 35A on the +12V rails and up to 42A depending on how much power is drawn from the +3.3V and +5V rails. It IS quiet and is very efficient (about 85% with the output 200W or more). I'm not sure if it could handle two more SCSI drives and another video card. Output good through 35 degrees Celsius (temperature of its intake), probably decreases above that point.

The FX700-GLN (at 25 degrees) provides at least 44A and up to 50A depending on how much power is drawn from the +3.3V and +5V rails. Like its less-powerful sibling, it is quiet and efficient, but it suffers from a drastic thermal de-rating curve; 10W per degree above 25 degree Celsius (intake temp) until it hits 35 degrees, at which point it provides the same amount of power as the FX-600GLN.
 
A

alimoalem

Diamond Member
Sep 22, 2005
4,025
0
0
Originally posted by: Howard
The Supermicro PWS-0060 is cheap and has oodles of power (46A on +12V)

The FX700-GLN (at 25 degrees) provides at least 44A and up to 50A...but it suffers from a drastic thermal de-rating curve; 10W per degree above 25 degree Celsius (intake temp) until it hits 35 degrees, at which point it provides the same amount of power as the FX-600GLN.
Click to expand...

the supermicro sounds good.

because the fortron is rated at 25 degrees, do you know your temps jose?
 
J

jose

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,079
2
81
My system is down so I can't take any temps, but it never overheated w/ the 3 - 120mm fans in the Stacker case. my room temp is 74F .

I'm going to swapout my powerstream 520w and see what happens.

Regards,
Jose
 
H

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
11
81
Originally posted by: jose
My system is down so I can't take any temps, but it never overheated w/ the 3 - 120mm fans in the Stacker case. my room temp is 74F .

I'm going to swapout my powerstream 520w and see what happens.

Regards,
Jose
Click to expand...
Well, a case temp of 35 degrees C is far from overheating, but it's enough to cause a 100W drop in max output for the FX700-GLN.
 
O

Operandi

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,508
0
0
Originally posted by: jose
Everyone, please explain why the same psu worked w/out problems for over a year w/ my prior P4 / 6800gt agp ..
Click to expand...

Nobody is going to be able to answer a question that specific but as Matthias99 pointed out you are nowhere near maxing out your current PSU.

Something defiantly seems to be wrong, probably the PSU but possibly the MB.

Bottom line is you don't need a 600 watt PSU to run your system.
 
bob4432

bob4432

Lifer
Sep 6, 2003
11,726
45
91
can you look into the psu and see any "oozing" caps? the problem may be your psu, but not the power amount, i know antec had some bad 430W units....maybe some of their other models were effected too
 
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