[LiveBrianD]

waldojim, on 26 January 2012 - 05:46 PM, said:

coastie65, on 25 January 2012 - 06:10 PM, said:

380w? That is puny. You want some headroom for future endeavors.

Like what Coastie? Do you somehow envision everyone dropping in $500 video cards, or overclocking the way we do?

I think you're still cutting it a little close with a 560ti and a 380W PSU, considering rail balancing and such. Certainly, it'll probably work, but I would go for a little more power just to be on the safe side. Also, don't PSUs designed for more wattage generally run cooler?

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 26 January 2012 - 06:03 PM, said:

waldojim, on 26 January 2012 - 05:46 PM, said:

coastie65, on 25 January 2012 - 06:10 PM, said:

380w? That is puny. You want some headroom for future endeavors.

Like what Coastie? Do you somehow envision everyone dropping in $500 video cards, or overclocking the way we do?

I think you're still cutting it a little close with a 560ti and a 380W PSU, considering rail balancing and such. Certainly, it'll probably work, but I would go for a little more power just to be on the safe side. Also, don't PSUs designed for more wattage generally run cooler?

You are talking about a sub 300 watt load, on a 380 watt PSU. This not only fits into the power range, but will also run at peak efficiency.

[SnyperTodd]

waldojim, on 26 January 2012 - 07:29 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 26 January 2012 - 06:03 PM, said:

I think you're still cutting it a little close with a 560ti and a 380W PSU, considering rail balancing and such. Certainly, it'll probably work, but I would go for a little more power just to be on the safe side. Also, don't PSUs designed for more wattage generally run cooler?

You are talking about a sub 300 watt load, on a 380 watt PSU. This not only fits into the power range, but will also run at peak efficiency.

Not to mention most power supplies are single rail now and 99% of those that claim to be multi-rail really have single rails, so there is no rail balancing needed until you get into very high wattage, high end supplies.

[LiveBrianD]

SnyperTodd, on 26 January 2012 - 07:51 PM, said:

waldojim, on 26 January 2012 - 07:29 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 26 January 2012 - 06:03 PM, said:

I think you're still cutting it a little close with a 560ti and a 380W PSU, considering rail balancing and such. Certainly, it'll probably work, but I would go for a little more power just to be on the safe side. Also, don't PSUs designed for more wattage generally run cooler?

You are talking about a sub 300 watt load, on a 380 watt PSU. This not only fits into the power range, but will also run at peak efficiency.

Not to mention most power supplies are single rail now and 99% of those that claim to be multi-rail really have single rails, so there is no rail balancing needed until you get into very high wattage, high end supplies.

Well, I guess that might work. Tell you what - tomorrow, I'll plug my PC into my watts up thing and see what the power usage is while running OCCT, just to get some idea of how accurate those PSU calculators are (550ti @ stock, 116W, i5 750 with minor OC, 95W). Come to think of it, I I forgot that his CPU has a 35W TDP, a i5 2390T that is, so there's more PSU headroom than I originally estimated.

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 26 January 2012 - 08:10 PM

[OVERSOUL]

ok so 380 watt then...

[coastie65]

waldojim, on 26 January 2012 - 05:46 PM, said:

coastie65, on 25 January 2012 - 06:10 PM, said:

380w? That is puny. You want some headroom for future endeavors.

Like what Coastie? Do you somehow envision everyone dropping in $500 video cards, or overclocking the way we do?

Can never tell what someone may decide to do down the road. You have to think beyond the immediate and give yourself that flexibility. I would rather pay a little more now and have an open upgrade path when and if I decided to do so. If you have an sli / crossfire ready MOBO, you may as well provide a PSU to handle it even if you are not planning on going that way with it. If I want to run sli ( or Crossfire ), I can, using any cards I choose as everything is in place to do so.

[SnyperTodd]

coastie65, on 27 January 2012 - 05:04 AM, said:

Can never tell what someone may decide to do down the road. You have to think beyond the immediate and give yourself that flexibility. I would rather pay a little more now and have an open upgrade path when and if I decided to do so. If you have an sli / crossfire ready MOBO, you may as well provide a PSU to handle it even if you are not planning on going that way with it. If I want to run sli ( or Crossfire ), I can, using any cards I choose as everything is in place to do so.

I think most people know whether they're ever going to experiment with SLI or Crossfire pretty early on. While there's nothing wrong with leaving yourself some headroom if you think you might run multiple video cards, it's got to be in the budget. It's absolutely asinine to sacrifice immediate performance by taking money that could have gone to a better processor/motherboard/RAM/etc and wasting it on an outrageously oversized PSU. The budget should first be arranged to assure a high quality, properly sized PSU can be purchased, and IF there's money left over AFTER choosing the best core components for the build, THEN that extra can be reallocated to a bigger-than-currently-necessary PSU.

[LiveBrianD]

LiveBrianD, on 26 January 2012 - 08:08 PM, said:

Well, I guess that might work. Tell you what - tomorrow, I'll plug my PC into my watts up thing and see what the power usage is while running OCCT, just to get some idea of how accurate those PSU calculators are (550ti @ stock, 116W, i5 750 with minor OC, 95W). Come to think of it, I I forgot that his CPU has a 35W TDP, a i5 2390T that is, so there's more PSU headroom than I originally estimated.

I'm running OCCT's gpu thing and Prime95 right now. Both the GPU and CPU are pegged at 99% usage. My watts up meter is showing 303W from the wall. Assuming 85% efficiency (which this PSU is rated for at 50% load), that means 258W from the components. The outervision psu calc said 353W recommended, 303W minimum. (note: I put in two optical drives and two hard drives, and told the psu calc that, but I wasn't doing anything with them while torturing the GPU and CPU) So ok, I guess you can run a geforce 560 off a 380W PSU.

[LiveBrianD]

coastie65, on 27 January 2012 - 05:04 AM, said:

waldojim, on 26 January 2012 - 05:46 PM, said:

coastie65, on 25 January 2012 - 06:10 PM, said:

380w? That is puny. You want some headroom for future endeavors.

Like what Coastie? Do you somehow envision everyone dropping in $500 video cards, or overclocking the way we do?

Can never tell what someone may decide to do down the road. You have to think beyond the immediate and give yourself that flexibility. I would rather pay a little more now and have an open upgrade path when and if I decided to do so. If you have an sli / crossfire ready MOBO, you may as well provide a PSU to handle it even if you are not planning on going that way with it. If I want to run sli ( or Crossfire ), I can, using any cards I choose as everything is in place to do so.

Remember that the OP's motherboard does NOT support sli or crossfire, and I doubt the case can handle the heat produced by such a configuration anyway.

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 27 January 2012 - 03:31 PM, said:

coastie65, on 27 January 2012 - 05:04 AM, said:

waldojim, on 26 January 2012 - 05:46 PM, said:

coastie65, on 25 January 2012 - 06:10 PM, said:

380w? That is puny. You want some headroom for future endeavors.

Like what Coastie? Do you somehow envision everyone dropping in $500 video cards, or overclocking the way we do?

Can never tell what someone may decide to do down the road. You have to think beyond the immediate and give yourself that flexibility. I would rather pay a little more now and have an open upgrade path when and if I decided to do so. If you have an sli / crossfire ready MOBO, you may as well provide a PSU to handle it even if you are not planning on going that way with it. If I want to run sli ( or Crossfire ), I can, using any cards I choose as everything is in place to do so.

Remember that the OP's motherboard does NOT support sli or crossfire, and I doubt the case can handle the heat produced by such a configuration anyway.

I was speaking in generalities in the post and not specifically to the poster. Yeah, it has a single PCIe x16 slot. A good 450w - 500w should be fine as long as it has enough on the rails and not just enough ( preferably 25a and above ). A for the heat, it would probably be a problem with multiple GPUs for sure, but a single GPU ( the case is bigger than my emachines ).

[waldojim]

The point is that in this case, there is absolutely no need to recommend a power supply more powerful than needed. With no X-Fire support, no CPU overclocking options, and there being a 100+ watt headroom with a 380W Antec, there is absolutely no reason to recommend they go bigger. Even if they OC the living piss out of that video card, they won't hit the limits of the Antec 380.

Correction - nearly 200 watt overhead considering the 35watt chip. How much extra overhead do we really need here?!

This post has been edited by waldojim: 27 January 2012 - 05:47 PM

[OVERSOUL]

I'm only going to use the 560 and i dont think ill be doing any future upgrades on this computer, so ill get the antec 380

This post has been edited by OVERSOUL: 27 January 2012 - 06:56 PM

[OVERSOUL]

OVERSOUL, on 27 January 2012 - 06:50 PM, said:

I'm only going to use the 560 and i dont think ill be doing any future upgrades on this computer, so ill get the antec 380

edit: so wait if i have up to 200 watts overhead with the 380, is it neccesary to buy a new psu at all? or could i get a smaller one?

This post has been edited by OVERSOUL: 27 January 2012 - 07:05 PM

[LiveBrianD]

OVERSOUL, on 27 January 2012 - 06:50 PM, said:

I'm only going to use the 560 and i dont think ill be doing any future upgrades on this computer, so ill get the antec 380

Sounds good.

[waldojim]

OVERSOUL, on 27 January 2012 - 06:50 PM, said:

I'm only going to use the 560 and i dont think ill be doing any future upgrades on this computer, so ill get the antec 380

edit: so wait if i have up to 200 watts overhead with the 380, is it neccesary to buy a new psu at all? or could i get a smaller one?

Here is the problem. MOST generic and or bundled power supplies that come with store bought machines, are NOT actually designed to spec. In fact, there was a test done on Toms Hardware recently that showed MOST generic 500watt power supplies could not even handle a 300 watt load. If you toss that card in there on your current power supply, you could experience any number of unusual effects, or even kill the power supply in there. The power supply is also the only part in your computer that can take other things with it when it dies. We advise people to get quality power supplies to help protect their investment. No one wants to spend hours troubleshooting a machine because of power problems, and I know I certainly don't like replacing new parts because of a power supply that killed my brand new gear.

The Antec Earth Watts 380, is the smallest quality power supply I know of that can be trusted with the load you are asking. In fact, I ran a GTX 260 and a 125Watt CPU off of my personal EW380, so I know from experience it is up to the task. I currently have two of those in service for personal machines, and have others floating around with various family members. They are the smallest, cheapest power supply that I know I can rely on.

[coastie65]

waldojim, on 28 January 2012 - 01:43 AM, said:

OVERSOUL, on 27 January 2012 - 06:50 PM, said:

I'm only going to use the 560 and i dont think ill be doing any future upgrades on this computer, so ill get the antec 380

edit: so wait if i have up to 200 watts overhead with the 380, is it neccesary to buy a new psu at all? or could i get a smaller one?

Here is the problem. MOST generic and or bundled power supplies that come with store bought machines, are NOT actually designed to spec. In fact, there was a test done on Toms Hardware recently that showed MOST generic 500watt power supplies could not even handle a 300 watt load. If you toss that card in there on your current power supply, you could experience any number of unusual effects, or even kill the power supply in there. The power supply is also the only part in your computer that can take other things with it when it dies. We advise people to get quality power supplies to help protect their investment. No one wants to spend hours troubleshooting a machine because of power problems, and I know I certainly don't like replacing new parts because of a power supply that killed my brand new gear.

The Antec Earth Watts 380, is the smallest quality power supply I know of that can be trusted with the load you are asking. In fact, I ran a GTX 260 and a 125Watt CPU off of my personal EW380, so I know from experience it is up to the task. I currently have two of those in service for personal machines, and have others floating around with various family members. They are the smallest, cheapest power supply that I know I can rely on.

How true. I remember with the emachines, I put the 9800GT card in there and had an Antec Basiq 500w PSU in it. I thought all was well and good. It was until things got a bit intense and that is when I realized that the PSU was a bit short, although it WAS 500w. At 18a on the +12v rail, it met the minimum requirements for the card. Point is, not all things are as they may look on paper. Probably one of the reasons I tend to lean to the overkill side. At least I am not over taxing my PSU.

[waldojim]

coastie65, on 28 January 2012 - 05:31 AM, said:

How true. I remember with the emachines, I put the 9800GT card in there and had an Antec Basiq 500w PSU in it. I thought all was well and good. It was until things got a bit intense and that is when I realized that the PSU was a bit short, although it WAS 500w. At 18a on the +12v rail, it met the minimum requirements for the card. Point is, not all things are as they may look on paper. Probably one of the reasons I tend to lean to the overkill side. At least I am not over taxing my PSU.

No doubts there Coastie. The sad part here, is that the EarthWatts 380 is actually providing 28A on the 12V rail. MUCH more than the "500 watt" Basiq. I understand the desire to run overkill, but in this case - even the 380 is overkill for the most part. It is surprising to think of 380 as being overkill, but there it is.

[SnyperTodd]

If you're ready to buy before the end of this month, another great option is the Corsair CX430. It's $44.99 at Newegg with an $8 promo code and a $20 MIR, bringing the total price to $16.99. It's a fantastic supply for that price, and gives the same usable power as the Antec 380. The Antec will be a little more efficient, but the cost is considerably higher and most of the cables aren't sleeved. In the end it's your choice, I just wanted to throw another viable option out there for you.

I have several of these and the earlier Corsair CX400 supplies out there in machines I've built, and I use them in a couple of my lower-power machines. Unfortunately, Corsair cheaped out on the CX430 compared to the older CX400, but it's still a great PSU with great voltage regulation and very low ripple and noise.

This post has been edited by SnyperTodd: 28 January 2012 - 08:10 AM
Reason for edit: added link...again...

[OVERSOUL]

cool, I am ready to buy and as long as the component is quality then the cheaper the better! sweet, thanks!

[LiveBrianD]

waldojim, on 28 January 2012 - 01:43 AM, said:

Here is the problem. MOST generic and or bundled power supplies that come with store bought machines, are NOT actually designed to spec. In fact, there was a test done on Toms Hardware recently that showed MOST generic 500watt power supplies could not even handle a 300 watt load. If you toss that card in there on your current power supply, you could experience any number of unusual effects, or even kill the power supply in there. The power supply is also the only part in your computer that can take other things with it when it dies. We advise people to get quality power supplies to help protect their investment. No one wants to spend hours troubleshooting a machine because of power problems, and I know I certainly don't like replacing new parts because of a power supply that killed my brand new gear.

The Antec Earth Watts 380, is the smallest quality power supply I know of that can be trusted with the load you are asking. In fact, I ran a GTX 260 and a 125Watt CPU off of my personal EW380, so I know from experience it is up to the task. I currently have two of those in service for personal machines, and have others floating around with various family members. They are the smallest, cheapest power supply that I know I can rely on.

You're talking about this, right? http://www.tomshardw...upply,2862.html I imagine most PSUs provided by OEMs aren't that bad (maybe on the quality level of a Raidmax), but they still aren't the best.