I need a new PSU

I just bought a Corsair Graphite 780T case to replace my old Coolermaster elite case.

My computer is dated but still functional.

8GB DDR2
Asus P5N-D
Intel Core 2 Quad q9650 cooled by a Coolermaster V8 GTS
2 x nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Three SATA2 7200RPM drives and one LG SATA2 Blu-Ray drive

The old power supply was 650 watts which was just barely enough power after I upgraded from my original graphic cards to the ones in it now.

I would like one with a little more headroom because I plan to swap out the internals over the next six months for a more modern setup.

The primary requirement though is I need it to be fully modular and the cables need to be long enough to be routed in the case and reach their destination while not looking sloppy.

Are there any recommendations for me? Thank you everyone.

Edit:
Attached is a photo of the install so far.

I honestly think a 650W is plenty for your system. The 560ti power draw is 170w (ish) and that CPU is 95W (a bit more power than what is used in today's current Intel CPUs).

So ultimately that takes you to approximately 450-500w for your entire system at 100% full draw (which would be difficult to accomplish).

My recommendation would be based on if/when you do upgrade will you buy two graphics cards again or stick with a single one? If a single one, the largest power draw [at stock] is approximately 250W, most are much less. If you wanted to be overkill you could buy a 750W evga g2 PSU but it would be a bit unnecessary for most systems.

Thank you very much Janus67.

I drive 4 1080P monitors. I need two graphics cards. I would like to expand to six monitors so I can have a full 3x2 array of screens. I'm thinking three nVidia GTX 980 cards should do the trick.

I'm torn on what processor I want. I do some video editing and a lot of encoding but I also game. The current top of the line core i7 extreme I have heard is great for video editing but not so great for gaming. I think I'm leaning towards the 4GHz quad core i7.

On the motherboard I would like to have more then 4 sata ports next time. That way I can add in a 1TB ssd for the main drive and have my blu-Ray drive and 6 x 4TB 7200RPM drives in the machine.

My existing power supply doesn't have long enough cables for the little 12Vpower connector to reach the top of the motherboard where it goes. The power supply is also 7 years old so I figured it might be better to buy a new PSU then buy extension cables for the existing unit.

Current GPUs will run four monitors off one card.

That is good to know. So then I would only need two nvidia GTX 980 cards for my use. I don't know if it is worth buying the third only to use it as a PhysX card.

Now what about power supply efficiency and noise based on load? If I buy something that can handle more then what I intend to use it for will the fans truly run less and only draw the amount of power I am using?

I don't know f it is worth buying the third only to use it as a PhysX car

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Its not. There is plenty horsepower to run games and PhysX if you need to.

PSUs only draw the amount you are using anyway. The efficiency comes in at the wall socket. Meaning if your PC is actually drawling 500W and the PSU is 90% efficient (platinum) it will draw 550W from the wall.

If you are getting 2 980's, a 750W PSU would be plenty. I suggest the EVGA Supernova G2 or the B2 (bronze) if you don't want to pay the premium for a high end PSU. If 2 980ti's then I would go 850W because you want it quiet. That said, I would run either off the 750W and be happy.

I'm ok with spending roughly three to four hundred dollars as long as the power supply is quality.

The SuperNova G2 is one of, if not, the best on the market.
Get a 750W and you're overkill for a system with two 980s

ATMINSIDE said:

The SuperNova G2 is one of, if not, the best on the market.
Get a 750W and you're overkill for a system with two 980s

Click to expand...

Yep. To give you an idea, I run my G2 in eco mode, and the only time the fan spins up is when I'm benching. Other than that, the fan remains off.

I was looking at the Best Buy website and saw that BestBuy has the G2 and the Corsair AX1200i in stock over by me. I found this on the AX1200i.

The G2 is a 80 Plus Gold but the AX1200i is 80 Plus Platinum. Realistically would paying the extra money for the AX1200i be recouped in power bill savings compared to the G2? I did some reading that was discussing how some power supplies that have the 80 Plus rating are not efficient if they drop under a certain load so buying a big power supply is not necessarily going to save money. However if the efficiency to load curve is correct on the linked page the AX1200i is 90% + efficient from 15 to 95% load peaking at what looks like 92% at ~45% load. If that is the case that would be 540 Watts which is roughly where my machine would draw at peak usage.

Which is crazy considering my old power supply was probably 60% efficient which means at peak it was drawing 756 Watts to power my machine. So the AX1200i would draw 583.2 Watts to power the same machine. Now is this a measurement in hours? Where if the machine was running at peak load for a hour it would draw the above amount of power? Unless I'm missing something, and it is possible I am I think I want the AX1200i.

The extra hundred dollars is not a concern. I'm going to take my time and upgrade this machine part by part until I have it just the way I want it. This is just the start.

To give an idea of what I am planning on. I intend to upgrade my machine around a motherboard like this.

You would never make up that difference, no. You would have to run the thing at load 24/7 for quite a while (years) to get there I believe.

I would look at all options, not just finding what mobo is at the highest price range. Price does not (not always anyway) determine what is better.

Have you looked here http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/751523-FS-2x-Seasonic-X-Series-850W-Full-Modular ? Or if you just have to redefine 'overkill' , here http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/760099-FS-EVGA-P2-1600W

Sorry guys. I'm didn't mean I am buying that exact one. Just that I want a lot of connectivity. That was just a cursory search for how many PCIe slots I could get on a Intel based motherboard.

With Intel having released PCIe card based SSD cards I can still get one PCIe SSD on it even with two graphics cards that take up two slots and have the slot after them empty. It depends on the measurements but if the board doesn't reach the bottom and would not have the graphics card right up next to the top of the PSU I can start from the bottom I might even be able to get two on the top PCIe slots which would be amazing if I could have them setup in a RAID0.

Thank you guys for the motherboard links. I have to run now to get to work but I'll check them out at lunch.

I was reading this link http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2381151

And it seems like Corsair has some reliability issues and other technical issues. Since that is the case and the EVGA G2 is almost as efficient and seems like it is very reliable, quite and costs less too I am going to go with that one when I get off today. Thankfully Best Buy has it listed as available so I can walk in and buy one and install it in my computer tonight and get it back up and running.

Thank you everyone.

OC-NightHawk said:

I was reading this link http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2381151

And it seems like Corsair has some reliability issues and other technical issues. Since that is the case and the EVGA G2 is almost as efficient and seems like it is very reliable, quite and costs less too I am going to go with that one when I get off today. Thankfully Best Buy has it listed as available so I can walk in and buy one and install it in my computer tonight and get it back up and running.

Thank you everyone.

Click to expand...

And this is why I made this post:

ATMINSIDE said:

The SuperNova G2 is one of, if not, the best on the market.
Get a 750W and you're overkill for a system with two 980s

Click to expand...

Glad you're well on your way to the new parts though!