Which wattage PS is needed?

[turbohardtop]

I am building a HTPC/gaming rig. These are the parts I am planning to have in the platform. Please recommend a PS for this set up. Thanks.

Video: Nvidia 8800GT
MotherBoard: Abit IP35 pro
CPU: Q6600 Quad core
HDD: 2x Seagate barracuda 750GB hard drives
memory:4gig (2x2GB) I think.
DVD drives: 2x Samsung dvd burner drives
Case?

 

[MarcVenice]

qaulity 500w PSU. Antec earthwatts 500w, seasonic S12 II 500w for 80$ AR at newegg.com, corsair 450/550vx or 520hx. Look around at clubit.com as well for good deals ...

 

[mpilchfamily]

Key word there is Quality. Now if you don't get a quality PSU then it will not have the amperage your system will need from the +12v rail(s). Its the amperage on the +12V rail(s) that is more important then the total wattage. Not all PSUs place most of there wattage on the 12v Rail(s) as quality PSUs do.

 

[Sheninat0r]

I've already told you this... That's major overkill for an HTPC. It's a gaming computer at heart... Cut down the processor, vid card, think about a mobo w/ integrated graphics, way less RAM, one HDD, and one optical drive.

Then get a Corsair HX520, modular cables + quietness +quality = win.

 

[Lunyone]

Originally posted by: Sheninat0r
I've already told you this... That's major overkill for an HTPC. It's a gaming computer at heart... Cut down the processor, vid card, think about a mobo w/ integrated graphics, way less RAM, one HDD, and one optical drive.

Then get a Corsair HX520, modular cables + quietness +quality = win.

Was thinking the same thing. If he cut it down to a HTPC he could even get the vx450 for about $60 and that would work fine too. The system specs he listed about is quite a nice gaming rig, if you ask me, not a HTPC.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: turbohardtop
I am building a HTPC/gaming rig. These are the parts I am planning to have in the platform. Please recommend a PS for this set up. Thanks.

Video: Nvidia 8800GT
MotherBoard: Abit IP35 pro
CPU: Q6600 Quad core
HDD: 2x Seagate barracuda 750GB hard drives
memory:4gig (2x2GB) I think.
DVD drives: 2x Samsung dvd burner drives
Case?

Anything over 300W would be plenty. Source for this: Anandtech's own reviews, detailing actual power requirements for nVidia 8800GTX and similar high-end systems, which logically would require far more power than the 8800GT you mention here.

 

[MarcVenice]

And I disagree, if you look at these charts for example: http://www.extremetech.com/art.../0,1697,2217143,00.asp

Perhaps running 3dmark06 and 2 instances of orthos give unrealistic figures, it be nice to see the power consumption when they run Crysis for example, but still, I doubt it will be that far off.

For all I care people use crappy PSU's which come with some crappy cases, but if they want advice, I would feel bad if they followed my advice, and had their PSU die on them. Wouldn't you ?

 

[dclive]

Two different sites, two different ways of measuring, perhaps. The increase suggests ExtremeTech is using a Kill-A-Watt or some similar device to measure power used at the wall, which is not the same as what the computer draws through the PSU. Do you see any writeup of how they do it?

 

[John]

Marc, the url you posted is fubar. Here's a working one: http://www.extremetech.com/art.../0,1697,2217143,00.asp

I really wish reviewers would list the psu so that you have a better chance of accurately calculating the load on the psu.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Power consumption can vary by 20-25 watts depending on MB. The same with PSU. If you have a PSU that's 82% efficient at 300 watts and an Abit IP35 Pro (four phase), then the maximum load should not exceed 300 watts with one HDD and optical drive.

For reference, my Abit IP35-E test rig with one 80 GB HDD, one floppy drive, 2GB DDR2 800 RAMs @ 2.0Vdimm, one 120 x 38mm medium speed Panaflo, one 7300 GPU, one TruePower Trio 550, and one E4300 @ 3.49GHz/1.465Vcore draws 132 actual watts under Orthos large mode. Add 90 watts for a high end GPU and another 100 watts for quad (north of 3.7GHz). Final load is still under 330 watts.

 

[soydios]

whoa, that's a helluva lot of hardware for an HTPC. keep the 8800GT for HD-DVD/BluRay decode offloading from the CPU, but everything else can drop a lot. you only need 2GB of RAM and an E6550. a quad-core processor will just sit with 3 cores idle 95% of the time, and 2 cores idle for the rest. those idle cores will just be dumping waste heat into the system, and raising your electric bill. RAM draws power too, and if you aren't gaming or doing intense multitasking (Photoshop + Lightroom + 20 tabs in Firefox), you don't need more than 2GB for Vista.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: soydios
whoa, that's a helluva lot of hardware for an HTPC. keep the 8800GT for HD-DVD/BluRay decode offloading from the CPU, but everything else can drop a lot. you only need 2GB of RAM and an E6550. a quad-core processor will just sit with 3 cores idle 95% of the time, and 2 cores idle for the rest. those idle cores will just be dumping waste heat into the system, and raising your electric bill. RAM draws power too, and if you aren't gaming or doing intense multitasking (Photoshop + Lightroom + 20 tabs in Firefox), you don't need more than 2GB for Vista.

My current HTPC, after the Quad was moved to VMWare duties:

AMD Athlon32 running at 2300 actual mhz (3200+ in marketing lingo)
1.5GB RAM
300GB PATA HDD
500GB SATA HDD
Geforce 5200 AGP video
Shuttle nForce 2 motherboard
Hauppauge PVR-500 (dual-analog-tuner)
HDHomerun (www.silicondust.com) dual-digital-tuner

Having 4 tuners recording at once - no problem - even on this old box..... streaming HD-video to an XBOX360 at the same time - no problem....

HTPC doesn't need anything special in it.