Proof that small psus do work :)

[JSt0rm]

I have a 2500 a 6970 1 ssd and 3 regular disks running off a 500watt basiq

 

[ensign_lee]

As a counterexample,

My rig draws close to 650W according to my UPS.

i5-2500k
ATI 6970 x2
(miscellaneous other HDDs, SSD, RAM, etc).

So...what have we learned?

Everyone's rig is different and sometimes you do need MOAR POWER!!!!

(I don't see the point of the original post)

 

[Gillbot]

lol. That 980x is quite the power hungry beast. That said X58 doesn't make matters any better either.

Well, to top that one I fired up a skulltrail with twin QX9775's and a Radeon HD4870 with a 270w PSU. My power meter said it was hitting 300w+ on screensaver but it fired up and ran!! And No, I didn't leave it that way. It was just a quick post test. It has a nice PCP&C Silencer in there now.

 

[Arcanedeath]

I've had the PSU in my Sig since May of 2007 and it's been on mostly 24/7 since then powering my main rig, still runs like clockwork Its a Pre OCZ PC Power & Cooling Seasonic based unit and it still solid 4+ years later, I'm amazed it's lasted as long as it has. It's had 3+ HDD 7+ Fan's and dual optical drives with fairly power hungry systems attached it's entire life.

So there is something to be said for overbuying
I was planing to run 8800GTS (the 640mb ones based on G80 not G92) SLI when I got it but ended up with only 1 card so had too much power but it served me well

 

[Hulk]

It would be interesting to see some kill-a-watt numbers from a few high end rigs while fully loaded. Assuming 85% efficiency we could end the debate and see what the big rigs really require in terms of power.

I have a circa 2006 Seasonic unit that has been going strong and continues to be silent.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I have an APC UPS that has my main server on it, and a Poweredge 1650 acting as firewall. Also 2 switches and a wifi router on that UPS. The main server also has F@H and lot of VMs on it, so disk IO is quite high and cpu is pegged at 100% all the time. It's a core2quad. 8GB of ram and 6 drives total.

The UPS says I'm using 316w, just to give a rough idea.

 

[sangyup81]

meh, I'm happy with my 600w power supply powering an overclocked Phenom II and 2 ATI HD 4770s in crossfire running BOINC on CPU and GPUs 24/7

 

[Red Squirrel]

Never hurts to have way more than you need though. Best to run it way under spec, than close to it.

Big PSUs are also fun for doing stuff like electrolysis or making screw drivers ridiculously magnetic to the point where they repel each other in the tool box. :awe:

 

[beginner99]

I somewhat agree with OP but there is more to it. I have a 700w psu. but it was tested also here. it has 90% efficiency even at 100w usage. So if you don't loss efficiency a high wattage psu is fine IMHO.

Much bigger problem is that low wattage psu just come with too little connectors and usually too short cables. The optical drives is a pain. usually need a separate cable because the individual connectors are too closely spaced.

A good cable would have 3-4 SATA power connectors where the last one has a much bigger spacing so it's possible to attach all our drives with 1 cable.

 

[yottabit]

I had an i5 750 + 5770 rig on a 300W PSU, I also no have a Athlon II x2 250 + 9600GT rig on a 300W PSU, no problems

Remember draw at the wall != power supply rating