Power Supply Unit questions

[Maluno]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
you declare????? rofl......big talk for somebody still in diapers...rofl

Wow... I was agreeing with every word you said up until this point... I was even going to support your argument. Kinda immature don't you think?

 

[tooltime]

i buy antec. personal choice here. i figure for a few more bucks you get a better psu and the psu is an important part of any rig

 

[rescuecheck]

I've always wondered about this, maybe someone can answer my questions.

If a person has a 1000 Watt power supply, is that the equivelant of running let's say a 1000 Watt light bulb continuosly while the PC is powered?

Or....

If a person's PC's components add up to a total of 400 watts, but they have a 1000 watt power supply, does the 1000 watt power supply consume only 400 watts?

What's the correct answer?

 

[Athfar]

Originally posted by: rescuecheck
I've always wondered about this, maybe someone can answer my questions.

If a person has a 1000 Watt power supply, is that the equivelant of running let's say a 1000 Watt light bulb continuosly while the PC is powered?

Or....

If a person's PC's components add up to a total of 400 watts, but they have a 1000 watt power supply, does the 1000 watt power supply consume only 400 watts?

What's the correct answer?

To my understanding a PS will only consume power based on what is used... IE: if you have a 1000 watt powersupply and some skimpy system it will only use the power required to run the skimpy system lets say 200watts.

Just for information, I've read this whole flame war and have yet to come to a conclusion. I just ordered a case and was stupid to not check the power supply connector that came with it, and well its a 20-pin.

So, my question is, with everything stock (not overclocked) with the following configuration is it possible to lose negligable performance with a 20-pin connector?

AMD X2 4400
Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI
Geil Value 2GB (4x 512mb)
XFX 7800GTX 256MB
2 x 250GB HDD
1 x DVD Burner

I don't plan on using SLI... it just happens to be that the NF4 Ultra board with options I want is a SLI board. Who know's I may win the lotto though.

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: Athfar
So, my question is, with everything stock (not overclocked) with the following configuration is it possible to lose negligable performance with a 20-pin connector?

AMD X2 4400
Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI
Geil Value 2GB (4x 512mb)
XFX 7800GTX 256MB
2 x 250GB HDD
1 x DVD Burner

I don't plan on using SLI... it just happens to be that the NF4 Ultra board with options I want is a SLI board. Who know's I may win the lotto though.

YES! High-end CPU and high-end GPU. Do NOT run that off a piece of ****** came with case no name nonATX 12v PSU. That is just asking for heartbreak because that is considered user negligence and I certainly wouldn't expect your warranties to be worth the paper they're printed on once they know what PSU you're using.

And why did you cripple your system with 4x512MB? You'll be forced to run 2TMA which is a readily apparent performance hit.

As for PSU power draw, I'll quote myself from another thread to give you an idea. Actual 'wall' draw is bolded.

Originally posted by: ribbon13

Originally posted by: Googer
Ribbon, when you quoted me you omited some importatnt points. Especially where I said that I misread part of the specifications and did not see the negative symbol. I do not think you understand my point. The Seasonic is a $50 selling for $99. For that kind of money you can do better. I only recomendd the Sparkle/Fortron PSU becasue it reprented the best value for the guy asking about it on the opening thread.

I didn't omit anything important. (Anyone who so desires can read the thread for themselves.) You just harped on the 3.3v/5v needing to be isolated rails to be a quality PSU, which is male bovine excrement. And the Seasonic would pay for itself over the FSP550 given time. $115 (S12-500) vs $117 (FSP550PLG-SLI)

Let's assume average of 7 hours per day on a midrange (130w) gaming computer in California for this.

(for my own reference)
1 kWh is equal to 3.6 MJ, or 3.6 x 10^6 J
1 W = 1 J/s

Once we calculate kilowatt hours used per day, it's trivial to work out the annual power consumption.

Ignoring peripherals->
Basis assumption1: Computer drawing 130W @ 68%eff (191W) / 7Hrs/day
Basis assumption2: Computer drawing 130W @ 84%eff (155W) / 7Hrs/day

watts * seconds * minutes * hours == joules
1. ( 191*60*60*7) = 4813200J
2. ( 155*60*60*7) = 3906000J

1 KWh is 3600000J
1. ( 4813200 / 3600000 ) = 1.337KWh
2. ( 3906000 / 3600000 ) = 1.085KWh

According to the EIA the average price per KWh in California is 12.93c

12.93 * 1.337 = 17.28741c per day / $63.10 per year
12.93 * 1.085 = 14.02905c per day / $51.21 per year.

With the Seasonic saving $11.89 per year, over its rated lifetime (MTFB 100k hrs) it will save him $135.73 over the FSP. Paid for itself.

 

[Athfar]

Originally posted by: ribbon13

Originally posted by: Athfar
So, my question is, with everything stock (not overclocked) with the following configuration is it possible to lose negligable performance with a 20-pin connector?

AMD X2 4400
Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI
Geil Value 2GB (4x 512mb)
XFX 7800GTX 256MB
2 x 250GB HDD
1 x DVD Burner

I don't plan on using SLI... it just happens to be that the NF4 Ultra board with options I want is a SLI board. Who know's I may win the lotto though.

YES! High-end CPU and high-end GPU. Do NOT run that off a piece of ****** came with case no name nonATX 12v PSU. That is just asking for heartbreak because that is considered user negligence and I certainly wouldn't expect your warranties to be worth the paper they're printed on once they know what PSU you're using.

And why did you cripple your system with 4x512MB? You'll be forced to run 2TMA which is a readily apparent performance hit.

As for PSU power draw, I'll quote myself from another thread to give you an idea. Actual 'wall' draw is bolded.

Well its not a "no name" it is a Thermaltake PSU Thermaltake Soprano I'm sure its not the best by any means, but it can't be horrible.

As far as your suggestion on the memory. It is actually more efficient to run 512mb x 4 when the latencies on the memory are lower. For $20 more I can get 1GB sticks but they are higher latencies.

This is not my PC I am building and yet my question is still not answered. Saying that I will be heartbroken by the power supply is somewhat unlikely. Nor does "****" conduct current or even convert AC to DC current.

None the less thanks for the response...

 

[ribbon13]

You're quite wrong on the memory situation there my friend. 2GB@2-2-2-5-2TMA will be slower than 2GB@3-4-4-8-1TMA.

The PSU will likely not supply enough 12v current to run your system with stability. If you run into any problems you won't get support from anyone till you actually have a PSU that meets the requirements of your platform. You need an ATX12v 2.01 PSU for that motherboard.

 

[Athfar]

Well, I just built the thing yesterday, and it has been working like a champ... I even ran 3Dmark 03 / 05 / and Aquamark a few times... So I guess the PSU isn't that bad.

Another interesting point is that the motherboard came with 4 of the pins covered, which leads me to think that even though it may not be designed to run on 20-pin it certainly supports it.

Have a nice day!

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I calculated that 432 watts would be the minimum. I reccommend the PC P&C Turbo-Cool 510 SLI. That should have much more than enough power.

 

[EatSpam]

Get a Zippy/EMACs 400W+ and you'll be in great shape.