Help
I am aiming to build a new rig soon...
Quad 6600, nVidia 9800 GTX, 4 gigs of ram. I have an Antec 500W power supply and I am wondering if it will do the job. I've looked up the numbers for the peak draws of the card and proc, there's room...but how much room should there be? No SLI and I will only have one or two HD's; just a few case fans, nothing unusual.
Thanks...
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Power Supplies
#1
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Posted 27 January 2009 - 11:22 AM
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking." - Albert Einstein
"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." - Thomas Paine
"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands." - Douglas Adams
"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." - Thomas Paine
"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands." - Douglas Adams
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#2
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Posted 27 January 2009 - 12:20 PM
Nvidia suggests a minimum 480W PSU for that graphics card, if you should decide to go SLI you will need a minimum 750W PSU. That 500W will be cutting it close.
http://www.rage3d.com/previews/video/nv9800gtx/
http://www.rage3d.com/previews/video/nv9800gtx/
This post has been edited by dc3: 27 January 2009 - 01:46 PM
#3
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Posted 27 January 2009 - 01:33 PM
Going by my Kill-A-Watt, my system (E6750 at 3.6, 4gigs RAM, 2 HDs, 4 DVD drives, ATI 4870) fully loaded (Furmark and Super Pi running at the same time, GPU+CPU at 100%), shows to pull 380 watts at the plug, or 320 actual Watts figuring 84% PSU efficiency at that load. Besides illustrating my ability to construct run-on sentences, it illustrates that the power requirements from the manufacturers, as well as the "power calculators" online are overly cautious, which is better than being caught short.
A Q6600 is rated at 95watts, figure up to 140 watts if overclocked/overvolted. That 9800 GTX pulls ,from what I can find, about 155watts loaded. Hard drives as far as I can tell, may use 2 watts each, at least mine do when using HD tach or defragging. Worst case, you might be looking at 320 watts at full load with everything pegged. The question, is your 12V rail of your current power supply enough to run everything? If you have a weak 12V rail that will be running nearly pegged all the time, you are asking for trouble. I dont feel comfortable running a PSU, even a good one, at >80% rated output for an extended period.
A Q6600 is rated at 95watts, figure up to 140 watts if overclocked/overvolted. That 9800 GTX pulls ,from what I can find, about 155watts loaded. Hard drives as far as I can tell, may use 2 watts each, at least mine do when using HD tach or defragging. Worst case, you might be looking at 320 watts at full load with everything pegged. The question, is your 12V rail of your current power supply enough to run everything? If you have a weak 12V rail that will be running nearly pegged all the time, you are asking for trouble. I dont feel comfortable running a PSU, even a good one, at >80% rated output for an extended period.
I am a retired Ford tech. Next to Fords, any computer is a piece of cake. (The cake, its not a lie)
#4
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Posted 27 January 2009 - 06:27 PM
Thanks for the responses, folks.
How would you know what the stress on the 12 v rail is, other than total wattage on the system?
I used Antec's calculator and got some interesting results. System load on the test is 90% so I assume these conditions are when the machine is at full tilt:
Likely Configuration of new system
System Type:Single Processor
Motherboard:Regular - Desktop
CPU:Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 2400 MHz Kentsfield
CPU Utilization (TDP):85% TDP
RAM:2 Sticks DDR2 SDRAM
Video Card:NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX
Video Type:Single Card
IDE HDD 7200 rpm:3 HDDs
DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive:1 Drive
Fans LED: 3 Fans 80mm;
Keyboard and mouse:Yes
System Load:90 %
Recommended Wattage:303 Watts
Roughly what you guessed. I am planning to go with on-board sound and NIC...I imagine they will add draw as well so the number should be right where you guessed it. But here is where it gets interesting. For kicks I threw in my current specs:
Current system
System Type:Single Processor
Motherboard:Regular - Desktop
CPU:Intel Pentium 4 B 2800 MHz Northwood
CPU Utilization (TDP):85% TDP
RAM:4 Sticks DDR SDRAM
Video Card:ATI Radeon X800 XT
Video Type:Single Card
IDE HDD 7200 rpm:3 HDDs
DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive:1 Drive
PCI Network Interface Card:Yes
Sound Blaster - All Models:Yes
Additional PCI Card (avg):1 Card
Fans LED: 3 Fans 80mm;
Keyboard and mouse:Yes
System Load:90 %
Recommended Wattage:283 Watts
Apparently the new system won't draw a heck of a lot more power! Which I find kinda amazing.
How would you know what the stress on the 12 v rail is, other than total wattage on the system?
I used Antec's calculator and got some interesting results. System load on the test is 90% so I assume these conditions are when the machine is at full tilt:
Likely Configuration of new system
System Type:Single Processor
Motherboard:Regular - Desktop
CPU:Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 2400 MHz Kentsfield
CPU Utilization (TDP):85% TDP
RAM:2 Sticks DDR2 SDRAM
Video Card:NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX
Video Type:Single Card
IDE HDD 7200 rpm:3 HDDs
DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive:1 Drive
Fans LED: 3 Fans 80mm;
Keyboard and mouse:Yes
System Load:90 %
Recommended Wattage:303 Watts
Roughly what you guessed. I am planning to go with on-board sound and NIC...I imagine they will add draw as well so the number should be right where you guessed it. But here is where it gets interesting. For kicks I threw in my current specs:
Current system
System Type:Single Processor
Motherboard:Regular - Desktop
CPU:Intel Pentium 4 B 2800 MHz Northwood
CPU Utilization (TDP):85% TDP
RAM:4 Sticks DDR SDRAM
Video Card:ATI Radeon X800 XT
Video Type:Single Card
IDE HDD 7200 rpm:3 HDDs
DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive:1 Drive
PCI Network Interface Card:Yes
Sound Blaster - All Models:Yes
Additional PCI Card (avg):1 Card
Fans LED: 3 Fans 80mm;
Keyboard and mouse:Yes
System Load:90 %
Recommended Wattage:283 Watts
Apparently the new system won't draw a heck of a lot more power! Which I find kinda amazing.
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking." - Albert Einstein
"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." - Thomas Paine
"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands." - Douglas Adams
"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." - Thomas Paine
"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands." - Douglas Adams
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