My New Gaming Rig

Pint0 Xtreme · Post by **Pint0 Xtreme** » 2006-08-11 04:14pm

Arrow wrote:And the 12v rails look weak to me. You'd be better off with a single 12v rail at that wattage.

Sorry for my ignorance on power supplies but why are single rails superior to dual rails?

Post by **Beowulf** » 2006-08-11 04:42pm

Pint0 Xtreme wrote:
Arrow wrote:And the 12v rails look weak to me. You'd be better off with a single 12v rail at that wattage.

Sorry for my ignorance on power supplies but why are single rails superior to dual rails?

You can't fuck up and accidently overload one rail, while having one rail with plenty of juice left.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2006-08-11 05:18pm

Beowulf wrote:
Pint0 Xtreme wrote:
Arrow wrote:And the 12v rails look weak to me. You'd be better off with a single 12v rail at that wattage.

Sorry for my ignorance on power supplies but why are single rails superior to dual rails?
You can't fuck up and accidently overload one rail, while having one rail with plenty of juice left.

Exactly. Unless you like having random BSODs and hard locks.

Pint0 Xtreme · Post by **Pint0 Xtreme** » 2006-08-11 10:34pm

Well, there's this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817163111

Single rail with SLI support. Is 560Watts going to be enough?

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2006-08-11 11:11pm

Powerwise that should be plently. I don't know about Silverstone's PSU quality (but if their cases are anything to judge by, it should be very good). Just check some reviews before you buy.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2006-08-11 11:15pm

Looking at your RAM, pqi is not a brand I'm familar with. I'd suggest this Corsair kit instead, and its got a $40 rebate, so in the end its cheaper. Corsair XMS memory has never given me any issues.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-08-12 12:02am

Pint0 Xtreme wrote:Well, there's this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817163111

Single rail with SLI support. Is 560Watts going to be enough?

You should be more concerned about whether it's providing enough amperage on the 12V line.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2006-08-12 12:04am

Uraniun235 wrote:
Pint0 Xtreme wrote:Well, there's this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817163111

Single rail with SLI support. Is 560Watts going to be enough?
You should be more concerned about whether it's providing enough amperage on the 12V line.

Very true. Amperage is far more important than overall wattage.

Also seconding the Corsair XMS series ram; I have 2 1 gig sticks in my computer and its given me absolutely no problems.

Pint0 Xtreme · Post by **Pint0 Xtreme** » 2006-08-12 12:04am

Great. I'm almost done. Last couple things to take care of:

1.) Where can I find a good quality 24" monitor for a good price?

2.) I assume the Core 2 Duo will come with adequate cooling? Or would it be smarter to invest in some extra cooling devices?

Pint0 Xtreme · Post by **Pint0 Xtreme** » 2006-08-12 12:18am

Uraniun235 wrote:You should be more concerned about whether it's providing enough amperage on the 12V line.

Fuck. A little assistance in deciphering Output : +3.3@38A,+5V@40A,+12@38A,-12V@1A, would be helpful.

Captain tycho wrote:Also seconding the Corsair XMS series ram; I have 2 1 gig sticks in my computer and its given me absolutely no problems.

I've used them before as well and they do work great. I must not have spotted them.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-08-12 12:28am

Pint0 Xtreme wrote:
Uraniun235 wrote:You should be more concerned about whether it's providing enough amperage on the 12V line.
Fuck. A little assistance in deciphering Output : +3.3@38A,+5V@40A,+12@38A,-12V@1A, would be helpful.

+12@38A is what you're interested in and indicates how many amps the power supply can deliver at 12V - specifically, 38A for this PSU.

The optical/hard drive and motherboard amperages I picked up from an (admittedly aging) FAQ on power supplies, the rest came from reviews at xbitlabs.com... generally they'll give power consumption in watts, you can divide this value by 12 in order to get amps used at 12V. Note that not all power is drawn from the 12V line, but it's generally just easiest and safest to assume it's all coming from the 12V line as that'll give you some headroom to play with.

In all but very specific cases (like high-power servers... I think someone came around here asking about PSUs that could deliver insane amounts of 3.3V amperage for some server they had) you don't need to worry about anything but the 12V line because the 12V line is almost always the limiting factor of a power supply - in fact a lot of cheapo bullshit power supplies get away with claiming 500, 600W because they loaded up the 3.3 and 5 volt lines with tons of amperage while delivering the same amount of amps at 12V that a quality 300W supply might deliver.

Below I posted my previous posts in the thread detailing 12V amperages for your system.

Uraniun235 wrote:In any event, the most important value is not total wattage, but how much current you're drawing on the 12V line.

We can typically assume about 1A for fans and motherboard.
1A per optical drive.
2A per hard drive.
6.75A for the vid card (per xbitlabs)
4.33A for the CPU (per xbitlabs)

Roughly 15.1 amps on the 12V line. Best practice is to allow minimum of 10% breathing room, so about 16.1 amps total is the very minimum you'd want your prospective power supply to be able to deliver on the 12V line.

...

Recomputing for the increased power draw of the 7950GX2, I get a rough minimum of 22A on the 12V for any prospective power supply. Hell, Tagan makes a 380W power supply that would meet that, although for a mere $60 you can get an Enermax PSU at 420W which will meet your needs and then some (giving room for expansion) link

Pint0 Xtreme · Post by **Pint0 Xtreme** » 2006-08-12 12:38am

Okay, it seems the amperage provided at 12V is more than enough. Are there any other specific details I should be concerned about?

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-08-12 12:43am

Be careful with your PSU choice. There are lots of little ways to claim great numbers for what's actually a shit unit. For instance:

1. Outright lying.

2. Posting the capabilities at lower than 50 deg. Celsius. A PSU typically operates at 45-50 deg., so a shady manufacturer might post 600 W at 20 deg, which is actually only 250 in practice.

3. Posting peak power instead of continuous.

4. The one U235 mentioned.

There are others as well. Just stick to Enermax, Seasonic, Fortron, Antec, and PC Power&Cooling and you'll do fine. Get other brands at your own peril. My personal recommendation would be the 470 W Silencer model from PC Power&Cooling. That should power just about anything, last forever and a day, and the price isn't bad either.

Pint0 Xtreme · Post by **Pint0 Xtreme** » 2006-08-12 12:54am

Hell, if I want to be safe: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817703001

PC Power & Cooling 510 SLI-PFC ATX12V 510W Power Supply 90 - 264V UL/ ULC/ TUV/ CE - Retail

Single Rail, SLI support, 34A/38A at 12V, manufactured from PC Power & Cooling and an overall rating of 5 out of 5 from 317 voters so you can't go wrong but fuck, another hundred bucks.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2006-08-12 01:04am

Didn't you mention a $3000 budget?

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-08-12 01:04am

I'd save the hundred and go with the one I mentioned (Newegg doesn't have it, though. Have to get it direct from them for $100), but it's your call.

Pint0 Xtreme · Post by **Pint0 Xtreme** » 2006-08-12 01:12am

Beowulf wrote:Didn't you mention a $3000 budget?

That doesn't mean I'm going to spend all 3000 USD if I don't have to.

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:I'd save the hundred and go with the one I mentioned (Newegg doesn't have it, though. Have to get it direct from them for $100), but it's your call.

Hell, even their ULTRA-QUIET PSU: SILENCER® 610 EPS12V is almost a hundred bucks cheaper. Probably a little overkill with 49A at 12V.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2006-08-12 08:41am

Pint0 Xtreme wrote:Hell, even their ULTRA-QUIET PSU: SILENCER® 610 EPS12V is almost a hundred bucks cheaper. Probably a little overkill with 49A at 12V.

You just found a winner. Get it.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-08-12 10:49am

This is a Really bad time to post these benchs, isn't it?

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-08-12 11:24am

Any time is a bad time for those total bullshit benches. The only performance difference between the X1900 XTX and X1950 XTX is higher bandwidth memory. So riddle me this, is it possible for a 25% increase in memory bandwidth to result in 50% or more increase in performance? Even if the X1900 was starved for memory bandwidth (and it begs the question of what kind of idiot designed it if true), the maximum difference you could possibly see is 25%. The only way you could see those results is if they disabled one of the 7950's two GPU's.