Polska

Ok, so I'm in the process of buying parts for a new system.

It will have a 3Ghz dual core 1333 fsb, and a geforce 8800 gts 640mb card.

The thing that is bugging me is picking out an sli ready power supply without going overboard. i read that this card should have a minimum of 400w and 26amps on the 12v rail. Now I'm no wiz when it comes to electricity so would someone care to explain a little bit about the power supply, and what it means when they talk about the amps on the 12v rail (particularly when sometimes there are 2 12v rails and sometimes 1, which I read has to do with hear and manufacturing costs). Is this minimum amperage the sum of the 2 rails, or should each rail meet this requirement?

Power supply recommendations are welcome, I may go sli someday, but it probably wont be till a year or more down the line.

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=Sarc=

SLI will end up costing more in the end. In a year, there will be better single cards than a 8800 GTS SLI setup. You could sell the 8800 GTS for a better single card upgrade.

I'd recommend a 500W PSU minimum. A 600W would be better and give the option for SLI with 8800 GTS's.

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JO Guides & Tutorials
Team Element - It's who you game with.

boudreux

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139001

There really is no better power supply at this price range, along with this guy's big brother. Best reviewed power supply on Newegg.

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Silas Ender

Now, I was about to create a thread asking something similar myself just now, and I saw this. I figure I might as well ask here. Any help is very much appreciated.

Now, I'm just upgrading certain parts of my system myself, and wondering if my 550w will be able to handle it. I'll toss the specs here:

- AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 2.6GHz
- 1x 8800 GTS
- 2 Gigs DDR PC3200LL REV2 RAM
- 1x CD/DVD combo Drive, 1x floppy drive
- 160 Gig HD
- ASUS mobo(Do I really have to spill out all the technical stuff? )
- Audigy 2 ZS
- Monitor, mouse keyboard obviously make some small difference

And that sums it up. I'm vague on the RAM and Sound Card because whether or not I upgrade them depends on my PSU being able to handle it(I'm not made of money! ) , and the exact type is yet to be determined. RAM will likely be upgraded to 2 Gigs of a more recent make, likely DDR2 Corsair stuff. The sound card will be upped to some model of the Creative X-FI line.

Thanks for any help.

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Life in Bogota is a lot like a big box of Colombian chocolates. You never know when you'll get blown up by the FARC.

JAMerica

A high quality 550W should handle it fine. If you paid less than $100 bucks for it (although this is somewhat brand dependant) I would be looking for another power supply.

I have similar specs (Intel Core2Duo & X-Fi instead) with absolutely no troubles on a 550W Antec TruePower-Trio.

If you are really in doubt, go to this excellent site:

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/p...ulatorlite.jsp (use the lite version of the calc) and enter the specs:

Don't forget to add the reccomended value for capacitor aging at the bottom if you intend to use the PS for more than a year. They have some suggestions at the very bottom of the page. This has a big impact on PS size. Also, when filling this out, I would keep in mind any minor future upgrades..i.e. second hard drive etc..

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Jamerius (Feral Druid)

Silas Ender

Thanks for the help. I've currently got an Antec TruePower 2.0 TP2-550 EPS12V 550W. My memory is a tad hazy, but I believe it was $100 or just over. Any comment on the quality?

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Life in Bogota is a lot like a big box of Colombian chocolates. You never know when you'll get blown up by the FARC.

JAMerica

That's exactly what I have..it will easily power the system. From what I've read, Antec quality has been going downhill lately, and would not be my first choice if I purchased a PS today..but if you have had it for awhile with no problems you are fine.

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Jamerius (Feral Druid)

jonan_

I always use the old Tool Time mantra "More Power har har har!"

Wimpinator

Here is an amusing page that explains watts versus amps and how they are related:

http://www.pumpsonline.com/electrical.htm

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|TG-6th|Wimpinator

ChopStick

I am building something similar to you (E6850, 8800 GTX) and I went with this (New Egg or alternatively NCIX - lower price) power supply by Mushkin. It has solid reviews everywhere I've seen (one included below) as well as having modular cabling (which I like) and a three year warranty. It is also SLI certified as well as having the required cables to power 2 x 8800 GTS in SLI (but not two 8800 GTX) if you decide to go that route later.

Here are some reviews of ~$100 power supplies (including the Mushkin). You don't need to pay over $100 for a quality power supply.

Side Topic: I'm curious to hear your reasons for going with the 640 MB 8800 GTS. For $100 more you can get a much better card (GTX). Also, 640 MB GTS doesn't have huge performance gains over its 320 MB brother (from what I've read, example: Tom's Hardware Chart) and costs $100 more.

Polska

I ended up finding a case/psu combo I liked. It was a 700w modular psu which seemed to surpass all the "requirements". New rig is up and running, time for a weekend of testing .

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Switch

As far as my psu handling it questions -- sound cards and ram are a non-point. Your PSU will not notice whether they're there or not whether you use a 200w or 1200w psu.

Don't worry about any peripherals unless you have a load of them.
No one will buy a PSU below 430w anymore, so HD's and DVDroms are really not a concern. You can have two of each and not have a second though. Now, if you get 4 HDs for a raid array AND 4 optical drives for some reason... and then you decide to defrag all 4 drives while burning 4 separate cds, you might see some kind of dip in PSU capacity, if you're only at 400w.

In general, just make sure you meet (or exceed by a tad) your video cards requirements.

www.tomshardware.com Everything you need to know about everything computery. If you cant seem to find an article on what you're asking about, just check the forums.

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|TG|Switch

Better known as:
That noob who crashed the chopper.
That noob who ran over the mine.
That noob who TK'd me with a sniper rifle.
That noob who hit that APC at 300m with light AT! Our APC...

msdz

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...488&CatId=1079 That was a PSU I had picked up almost a year ago and I tell you I will be buying another Ultra PS for any new builds I do. Loved the fact I could chose what cables to install for a clean look in the case and of course they now have the X3 version out from 600W to 1600W. LOOK!!! a 1600W!!! More power...har har har. http://www.ultraproducts.com/product...&productID=632 I had a combo with a Ultra case and the X2 for $99 and happy with both items. Ultra has been slowly coming up and not to be overlooked when considering a PSU or any of their other items they manufacture such as cases and memory. I personally have not tried the memory but a friend of mine claims they are as good as any other company out there for that too.
I just don't understand why newegg doesn't sell Ultra PSU's?? At least I didn't see any.

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