Enough juice?

With the 930 right around the corner, I'm making the last minute plans on my new system and wanted to get some feedback on the PSU I would need. For a rough idea, I used one of those online calcs but wanted some real world opinions.

Here's a rundown of what I'll have in my rig to start:

- Abit AW8-Max
- Pentium 930 (OC up to 4.5GHz)
- DDR2 667MHz 1GB x 2 (OC up to 800MHz+)
- Seagate 300GB SATA x 4
- 3.5" floppy
- NEC 3540 DVD burner
- Pioneer 105 DVD burner
- Thermaltake Media LAB
- 120mm fan x 6 - 2 w/ LEDs (that includes the CPU fan)
- SB Audigy 2 PCI w/ the 5.25" addon bay
- PCI-e 16x X800 or X850
- Linksys USB Wireless Network adapter
- Canon USB Printer x 1
- HP LaserJet connected via parallel/USB adapter

I used to stick with Enermax but I've seen in my reading that Enermax seems to have some serious QC problems lately so I think I'll steer clear of them for now.

I was recommended the OCZ PowerStream Power Supply (SLI Ready)
which runs 520W: +3.3V(28A), +5V(40A), +12V(33A). In addition to safely and reliably powering what I've got, I want to make sure I've got some room for expansion also should I decide down the road to add a HDD or 2, a PCI card, more/faster RAM, etc. Anyone agree or disagree and if you disagree, have another recommendation?

It will be enough.

Other recommendations would include the Zippy Gaming 550, Silverstone ST56ZF.

I swapped the vid card for an x850 or x850XT, added 1x fan and used a potential OC of 4.5GHz (overly optomistic perhaps but for the sake of argument). I used the calc to get an estimate but I had to use the 830 as the CPU as the 930 isn't on there yet. That put me at 540W - the power savings of having a 930 over an 830. This is all w/o upping the RAM voltage or OC'ing the vid card.

hmmm ... :x

Unfortunately, much higher and it seems you must go to dual +12 as they don't seem to offer much in single +12 as the watts climbs. This one looks decent though: (a) I'm not sure what the 930 will use if heavily OC'd, (b) I don't know if this is one of those QC problem Enermax PSUs (there were a few), and (c) the fan location poses a bit of a problem.

The Powerstream 520w will do just fine. If you want more juice, look at the Zippy gaming 550/600w. 40A of +12v will easily power your system. There is also a 700w Zippy with 45A of +12v.

Thanks! I haven't totally ruled out the OCZ 520W - I just don't want to limit future upgrades and OC by going that route. The Zippy DPSM-6600F seems sweet - 50A max on the +12. wow. I didn't see the 550W on their site under gaming, might have missed it. It's nice to see they have single-rails above that also but I don't need that much + higher than that and the actual size of the PSU gets out of control.

The Zippy doesn't add much power over the OCZ. Basically it looks like it takes it from the +5 and puts it on the +12 - which is where it's primarily needed with the 930 I suppose. I'm really going to have to put some thought into this and see if I can find some pricing on the one I mentioned.

DsN said:

Thanks! I haven't totally ruled out the OCZ 520W - I just don't want to limit future upgrades and OC by going that route. The Zippy DPSM-6600F seems sweet - 50A max on the +12. wow. I didn't see the 550W on their site under gaming, might have missed it. It's nice to see they have single-rails above that also but I don't need that much + higher than that and the actual size of the PSU gets out of control.

The Zippy doesn't add much power over the OCZ. Basically it looks like it takes it from the +5 and puts it on the +12 - which is where it's primarily needed with the 930 I suppose. I'm really going to have to put some thought into this and see if I can find some pricing on the one I mentioned.

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That Zippy is a 48V DC input unit - you won't be able to use it.

You don't need anywhere near 50A @ 12v to power that rig - the OCZ PS520 will power it easily. In the Zippy units, The PSL-6701P is the strongest single 12v PSU out there that isn't an odd form factor, and it's still massive overkill. In the gaming units, even the 460W will work.

Though these don't offer a whole lot more rated capacity than the OCZ 520W, in terms of build quality Zippy is well above Topower/OCZ.

Some other units you might consider are the Sparkle FSP550-60PLG (or FSP550PLG-SLI), PC P&C 510W, Delta DPS-550BB (may need to buy it direct from them), or the Silverstone Zeus 560W/Etasis EPAP-560.

DsN said:

Unfortunately, much higher and it seems you must go to dual +12 as they don't seem to offer much in single +12 as the watts climbs.

Click to expand...

Which kind of points to the fact that total wattage means virtually nothing.

DsN said:

(a) I'm not sure what the 930 will use if heavily OC'd

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Ross already hit the limits of his OCZ600's CPU rail in his initial 930 experience. The OCZ 520 is indeed the more capable supply, even though the "520" on the side is not quite as large as the numbers affixed to some competing units. OKW and I have both been consistantly recommending big single rail supplies for heavily OC'ed Intel rigs for quite some time, and the latest batch of CPUs is making the rationale for those recommendations exceedingly clear. The PS520 in addition to the PCP&C 510 and FSP550-60PLG have already been proven more capable than the best dual-line alternatives, and it stands to reason that any supply that is truly able to exceed 30A on the rail that drives the CPU is preferable to current dual-line units when you ask it to power rigs that exceed 4GHz by substantial amounts.

At what point does anyone recommend the higher wattage then? I can see everyone is focusing solely on the CPU but what about all the other hardware? At the moment I'm running a 2.8GHz Northwood at stock speeds on a 480W Enermax and if I connect everything I have here, I run short on power and end up in a reset.

I trust the words of the people here -I'm just not sure anyone is paying attention since only the CPU is being mentioned. :/ i.e. Know Nuttin has a 500W listed in his sig with less tha half of the hardware that I will have loaded onto this rig. Does that mean yours is really overkill?

It's not really the total wattage that is important, it is a combination of the components that will be used and the rails with which they draw power from.

The reason your CPU is being focused on, is because it is the single component which draws the most from your setup. Most times, it is either the CPU or the video cards (SLI) which cause the most concern and stress for the PSU.

As larva has pointed out, a fellow member with a 930 already has hit the limits of his 600w OCZ with his overclock.

DsN said:

I trust the words of the people here -I'm just not sure anyone is paying attention since only the CPU is being mentioned.

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Aside from the CPU, you only have about 10A of 12v current draw at most in that setup. Assuming the CPU will need 20A of power (and it probably won't quite go that high), that's about 30A total. 5v and 3.3v capacity will be very low - perhaps less than 5A on each one. The OCZ 520W will handle that.

If you want something like the Zippy 700W and its 45A 12v rail, by all means grab it. There are a few people with them on the forums. But you don't actually need it unless you want to go SLI too and decide to grab another half dozen hard drives to go with it.

ok, ok .. I'm convinced. hehe Thanks for the replies all. I guess I'm just paranoid because of my experience with my current PSU - unstable when fully loaded with goodies but rock solid when I yank a few components.

I'll take your words and pick one up. Thanks again.