PSU for future build

[supremor]

So its about time for an upgrade and I really cant settle on what PSU wattage i'd need for the rig I plan on building. PSU calculators are giving me higher wattages than what most people say I actually need so i'd love some first hand advice.

Was thinking of something like this:
i7 950 / SB i7
4/6GB of DDR3
Crossfire 6950's or possibly 6970's
3 hard drives
and an old X-Fi XtremeMusic PCI sound card

was thinking about the Seasonic Gold X-750 or could I get away with the 650 for the 6950's? I plan on OCing the cpu but not the cards.

 

[Meghan54]

I'd think you'd be better off with the X750 than the 650 version. OC'ing a 950 will get you to 200+ watts very easily and quickly by itself....my 920 running at 4GHz is said to consume around 240-250W by itself.

Throw in a pair of 6950's and you'll be hitting well over 560W, and more likely over 600W of draw at full tilt/use.

The 750W should be adequate, but I tend to buy a little bigger so at my system's full draw, I'm hitting no more than 60%-70% or so of my power supply's rated capacity. Just trying to keep the power supply a little cooler (they tend to really heat up when used at 80% or higher of capacity), make it last longer (again, heat production), run quieter (again, directly related to heat production).......

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Click to enlarge.

This was running Furmark with 2 5870s and at 3.3Ghz for Rig3 in sig. Furmark will always draw the maximum amount for its test - I think there are only a few games out there that will draw the same amount as Furmark... maybe Crysis? but who plays crysis anymore? pfff...

Here is Rig3 at 3.49Ghz and 1 GTX 480 running Unreal Tournament III

click to enlarge

As you can see it doesn't draw nearly as much as one would think.

I bought my Watt meter reader at Lowes or Home Depot for ~ 20$ New Egg also has something similar:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-001-_-Product
16$

For some reason the Seasonic X 650 has a wider 90% efficiency range than the Seasonic 750w

750w
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story2&reid=192

650w
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story2&reid=169

A new REALLY good PSU is the XFX Black Edition:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-003-_-Product

Review - not the most efficient over the X 650w but the ripple suppression is AMAZING!
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=184

With a pair of 6970s you are getting slightly lower watt draw.

I found on some of my old 500G Seagate Network storage drives, each, were drawing ~ 7-10w per drive... I haven't really did any deducitve testing with the F3 Samsung 1Tb drives I am but I bet they are lower than 10w draw.

 

[supremor]

Well I went ahead and bought the Seasonic X-750 but one thing im abit weary about and yes this might sound stupid but is it ok bending (like near the connectors) the psu cables? my case is pretty small and not exactly made for cable management so i had to bend some of the wires a fair bit and im afraid it might damage them or something even though in just about every pic of a 'clean' case ive seen the cables were bent.

case is getting replaced for a nice full tower soon enough but in the mean time...

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Well I went ahead and bought the Seasonic X-750 but one thing im abit weary about and yes this might sound stupid but is it ok bending (like near the connectors) the psu cables? my case is pretty small and not exactly made for cable management so i had to bend some of the wires a fair bit and im afraid it might damage them or something even though in just about every pic of a 'clean' case ive seen the cables were bent.

case is getting replaced for a nice full tower soon enough but in the mean time...

Congrats on a nice purchase!