Should I go for the 620 or is 520 ok?

[basso4735]

I'm building a new system with:
q6600
8800gt
2 80gb seagates

I havent decided on a Thermaltake Armor or Antec 900 for a case yet.

I plan on either buying the Corsair 520HX or the 620HX. My motherboard doesnt support sli, nor would I ever want to sli, so I was curious if the 520 would be good enough, or should I go for the 620. Money is an issue, so that's why I'm asking.

[Giz]

I cooked my 550w psu running the rig below in my sig. You could hear it sizzle! It was a cheap brand, so not surprising really.
Now i've got a Zalman 1000 watt psu. Probably overkill, yeh, but you never know what you'll need it for in the future. So i'd say go with a good named brand and buy the highest wattage you can afford. Sure, the lower watt one will probably do for browsing and media stuff, but if your a gamer like me, the 8800gt takes some power to keep it happy.

[jaymz9350]

the 520 will be fine. I run it with an oc'd q6600 and 8800gt as well with 2 hdds. Never had even a hiccup from it. If you can afford it the 620 will probably be a better choice ( I kinda wish I would have gotten it) but the 520 will handle it without a problem.

[tester3000]

buy the highest wattage you can afford.
I have to disagree. Put most of the money into the gfx card. The 520 Watt should be fine if you are not going to do SLi.

[petteyg359]

Giz, note yours being a cheap brand :) Corsair PSUs are made by Seasonic, and can easily stand up to a full load at their advertised power.

[grumperfish]

I would personally go with the 620 if the price difference isn't too much since it'll give you room for adding drives and other components later on. My system in sig only needs about 350W or so (need to check with a kill-a-watt and DMM before I hit up a 4870) leaving plenty to spare on the Silverstone unit, so while either of the Corsairs would be fine it wouldn't be a bad idea to go a bit overkill at least to avoid needing a bigger PSU in the future and to get better efficiency/less internal PSU heat in the meantime.


If the price difference is high enough to justify buying the 520 over the 620 then stick with it and you should be fine though.



To Giz: buying a super-high wattage unit can actually be counter-productive if you don't have a system to justify it with. With lower system load you'll usually see lower efficiency than with a lower-rated but high build-quality PSU. A decent Seasonic/Silverstone/PC&P/etc built unit can take a lot of components without a struggle without needing to be massive due to higher-quality heatsinks, wiring, and internal components. That said, I've also blown up* (note: set on fire) a cheap "500W" power supply before.

[basso4735]

Well, to sort of meet in the middle, I think I'll get the corsair 550vx. Sound good?

[petteyg359]

The HX series has a better 12V amperage than the VX series. I'd suggest you stick to the HX520.

[basso4735]

The hx is 20 bucks more expensive though.

Anyone else have any more recommendations for a psu? I'm not set on those 2.

basically, I'm allowing my budget <$120 psu, because I'm sure that's do-able, so what is the best one going to be for my system.

I can get the 520hx for 94 bucks shipped too.

[Giz]

The main reason i went for a 1000w psu is i don't know what rig it will be powering in a year or so's time and i want it to last me. Also, cause it's overpowered, it's silent, not screaming away trying to get rid of heat. If you don't plan on buying a higher spec PSU each time you upgrade your rig, makes sense to get the highest one you can afford at the time.
The AMD site has a good PSU calculator that adds up your wattage needs for everything, including fans. It says i need a 750 watt minimum cause the Phenom and 8800gt cards sup the juice, especially when clocked.

Tester3000 says:
I have to disagree. Put most of the money into the gfx card. He's already got his card.


petteyg359 says:
Giz, note yours being a cheap brand Corsair PSUs are made by Seasonic, and can easily stand up to a full load at their advertised power. Yep, spot on. Mine was some obscure brand, Corsair should make good PSU's.

Basso, it's your cash at the end of the day. Read any reviews you can find on PSU's around 500/600 watt and see what rigs they were used in. I recomend using the free calculator though. Surprising how those watts all add up! :)

[WonderingSoul]

Please refer to this thread (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=568082). You have somewhat the same inquiry as the OP.


To be short, I will recommend the OCZ EvoStream (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341005), again, Based off the 3Y build. The price on this unit right now is too good to pass up, if you can tolerate the sounds @ full load.

[basso4735]

Please refer to this thread (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=568082). You have somewhat the same inquiry as the OP.


To be short, I will recommend the OCZ EvoStream (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341005), again, Based off the 3Y build. The price on this unit right now is too good to pass up, if you can tolerate the sounds @ full load.

Great response, thanks! I think I might hop on that deal right now at newegg. I assume it's pretty good quality? :)

[WonderingSoul]

Great response, thanks! I think I might hop on that deal right now at newegg. I assume it's pretty good quality? :)

It is a 3Y server platform unit. Very strong reliable unit, somewhat mediocre efficiency though. Here (http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=26) is an excellent review of the 600W flavor of the EvoStream from the man himself, Jonny Guru.

[basso4735]

He says that it's pretty loud, anyone have any personal experience with how loud it really is?

Ill probably decide on the Corsair 650TX, most seem to recommend it. I'm worried about how loud the ocz actually is.

[WonderingSoul]

He says that it's pretty loud, anyone have any personal experience with how loud it really is?

Ill probably decide on the Corsair 650TX, most seem to recommend it. I'm worried about how loud the ocz actually is.

At a full load I saw it rated at a 55dBa.

[Wayward_Son]

The 520HX is more than enough for the hardware you posted. The 620HX would be good if you added a few more drives and a second GPU in SLI, but the 520HX is plenty for what you're asking and a 1000w PSU is outrageous overkill.

[Rich'[ard]]

why not get the 620 as it's only a few dollars more than the 520. there's no disadvantages getting the 620 over the 520. advatnages you get are more headroom for future upgrades.

[basso4735]

;5696194"]why not get the 620 as it's only a few dollars more than the 520. there's no disadvantages getting the 620 over the 520. advatnages you get are more headroom for future upgrades.

It's 45 more dollars, which is a lot to people on a budget.

edit: found a pretty good deal on the 650tx so I ordered it.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[SAnusha]

go with the 620

[Giz]

basso4735 edit: found a pretty good deal on the 650tx so I ordered it.
Nice one.


Rich'[ard] advantages you get are more headroom for future upgrades.

Rgr to that. I'm getting burned here for getting a 1000w! :mad:
I bet everyone started off here like me with a 300w or less, thinking a bigger one just wouldn't be needed later on. Then i got a 450w with a case i bought. That's still running in a spare pc. Then i upgraded from the 300 to a 550w thinking it would last me for a good few years. Wrong. i blew it up:(

So the thinking with the 1000w is it's a good make -Zalman, rated the quietest tested by various reviews (skip to the conclusion at the end..) - http://www.silentpcreview.com/article834-page5.html

and it's got masses of headroom for any upgrades i could possibly want in the future. Also the price difference between the 800/900/1000 isn't all that much. So, not wanting to replace the psu on every new build i do, this ones hopefully going to last me for at least the next 3 or 4 years.

[grumperfish]

^^^^
Sorta like this for me. Used the one that came with my old Compaq case (OEM P4 machine) until adding another hard drive and a DVD-RW made it freak out.

Bought a Thermaltake Smart Power (I know, I know) 350W to replace it, and it worked fine through a system upgrade until I decided in gross error to use the "500W" supply that came with my case until I could afford a better one. I found out the Smart Power was actually better after that one nuked itself one day. Blue flames should not come out of a case. Luckily nothing was damaged and I bought an ATNG-built Rosewill RP500 (original version) to replace that one. It actually worked pretty well. I kept it until I built a Pentium-D/1950pro PCI-E system and moved on to the current unit. For what I need, even with the upgrade to a 3870 and C2Q, it's still pretty overkill, but it was only $110bux when I bought it so I can't really complain. I think everyone (hopeless morons -myself included- anyhow) needs at least one lesson either through fire or system instability to learn never to skimp out on the important parts. After the included Turbolink died a horrific death I started spending more on decent components in general so I guess it stuck in my case.


That first Hipro PSU is still chugging along with a GF4 and an 80gig hdd in my htpc, although I'm going to replace it with an FSP supply and a 6800XT when I figure out how to switch out the (loud) modded fans in the PSU. The Thermaltake has had good cooling all its life and still survives running my fileserver (and still gives right at 12.03V on the 12V rail).



Hopefully with good cooling your PSU will last you quite awhile for sure. My take on PSU's is that eventually you end up needing more connectors, new power connectors (SATA/PCI-E/8-pin), more efficiency or amperage, so you'll eventually want to upgrade anyways. I agree that spending a bit more and planning ahead will save alot of time and money down the road though.